Blog/News

Radio alum 12-year-old Maxim Lando (Show 283 recorded in Boston – listen here) and Lang Lang rehearsing Fazil Say’s jazz arrangement of Mozart Rondo Alla Turca before a WQXR broadcast.

From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley first aired in the year 1999. We love to go back to those early days of the show to see what our very first alumni are up to now that they’ve truly reached adulthood. In the case of composer Eric Nathan, age 30 (Show 56, October 2001), his […]

REPEAT BROADCAST: Show 290, recorded in May 2014. From Norfolk, Virginia, at the Virginia Arts Festival, this episode features a steel drum band from the local community, and a violin-cello duo made up of two wonderfully talented brothers. Their unusually generous and easygoing humor with each other is not only charming, but it also makes […]

REPEAT BROADCAST: Show 289, recorded in April 2014. From Seattle, Washington, this program features a local teenage violinist delivering an emotional performance of the music of Ernest Bloch, teenagers from Chicago perform a thrilling, wild, and fun work for sax quartet, and we’ll enjoy the broadcast premiere of a new composition written by an 18-year-old from […]

Show 298, recorded in Greenville, South Carolina, in November 2014. This week’s episode features one of the strongest youth choirs in the “Palmetto State” performing a moving new work by a local South Carolina composer. We’ll also meet a euphonium player who performs with the speed and dexterity of a flutist, and we’ll enjoy Bach […]

Some of our recent radio show performers have a special message for you: From the Top is an independent non-profit organization. Though our radio show is distributed by NPR, we are not a public radio organization, and receive less than 8% of our revenues from radio carriage fees. Thanks to generous individual, corporate, and foundation […]

Growing up in Denver, Colorado, Trey Pernell was a student with many talents. Despite some significant challenges in his home life, Trey decided that he would not let that hardship keep him from achieving his goals. For him, “not achieving was not an option.” Beyond his academic pursuits, Trey has very diverse interests that include but also go beyond […]

Published on Feb 18, 2014 Recorded at the Tivoli Theatre and nearby schools Chattanooga, Tennessee Visit our YouTube channel and subscribe today to get great kids and great music in your inbox!

REPEAT BROADCAST: Show 288, recorded in Tacoma, Washington in April 2014. This episode features Prokofiev’s Toccata performed with a level of energy that can only be described as diabolically teenage (the performer is a totally brilliant, risk-taking 15-year-old), we’ll hear a young violinist perform a lush and lyrical piece written for her by her father, […]

We’re proud to share the first From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley show recorded in the great state of South Carolina! Recorded at the Peace Center for the Performing Arts in Greenville, SC on November 6, 2014. Listen to the show and meet the young musicians here! Check your local public radio station for air times.

Music is often referred to as the “universal language.” 17-year-old violinist Chelsea Kim knows this is true. Having moved several times throughout her childhood, Chelsea performed in retirement centers, hospitals, and churches in every new community. This gave her a sense of music’s power to connect people, a theme that would become very important to her life’s […]

This post is Part 2 of a three-part series about From the Top’s Fall 2014 residency at the Conservatory Lab Charter School (CLCS), an elementary school in Boston with a music-intensive curriculum. Read Part 1 here.  On a windy fall afternoon, From the Top’s arts leaders arrived for the second day of their chamber music residency at […]

Pianist Phuong-Nghi Pham, from Dorchester, MA, was 14 years old when she wrote a letter to Dr. Carol R. Johnson, Superintendent of the Boston Public Schools District, appealing for a spending increase on the city’s musical education programs for the following school-year budget. The letter was part of Phuong-Nghi’s Arts Leadership project, associated with her […]

Backstage at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium, 8-year-old pianist Oscar Paz-Suaznabar has his head bent over a cell phone, launching angry birds at stubborn pigs, and From the Top alum Clifton Williams reaches over to show him a trick. Clifton has recently graduated college and moved to Los Angeles to build a career composing and […]

Sometimes, music can express what nothing else can. 17-year-old mezzo soprano Olivia Cosio, who appeared on Show 278 in Boston’s Jordan Hall, understands music’s power to transcend. Growing up in San Francisco’s notoriously dangerous Tenderloin neighborhood, Olivia turned to music for the creativity and expression she needed to overcome adversity. In addition to singing on …

This post is Part 1 of a three-part series about From the Top’s Fall 2014 residency at the Conservatory Lab Charter School (CLCS), an elementary school in Boston with a music-intensive curriculum. Each year, From the Top’s Center for the Development of Arts Leaders partners with organizations around Boston, making way for extraordinary young musicians to take their […]

19-year-old David von Behren appeared on Show 273 in El Paso, Texas. In addition to being an organist, he is also an accomplished violinist, and played trumpet in his high school band. He was even voted Homecoming King in his hometown of Falls City, Nebraska. Each of these traits led From the Top to give him the […]

13-year-old cellist Sebastian Stöger from New York City appeared on Show 261 back in 2012. In conjunction with his performance on From the Top, Sebastian also received the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award, a $10,000 scholarship given to extraordinary young musicians with financial need. Each recipient of the award is required to complete an arts leadership project, an outreach activity […]

Under the lights of Calderwood Hall in Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for Show 285, one audience member sat gazing intently at each performer while moving a pencil over a page in her sketch book. At the end of the performance, we tracked her down to find out who she was and take a peek inside her […]

There’s no better way to start off our new season than with news of From the Top alumni sweeping the global competition scene. Back in July, pianist Hilda Huang, who appeared on Show 180, took first prize at the International Bach Competition in Leipzig, Germany. Across Europe in Hungary, cellist Taeguk Mun, who first appeared on Show 174, […]