Blog/News

This spring has been a whirlwind for everyone at From the Top! In the past two months alone we’ve taped radio shows in Georgia, Iowa, California, New York, Maryland, Indiana, and this week we are in Virginia. Here’s a quick snapshot of the fun we’ve had: We were honored to have special guest and internationally […]

Hi everyone! We’re back from Carmel, Indiana, where we taped a show with a very special guest – singer and interpreter of the Great American Songbook Michael Feinstein. He was warm and wonderful with our young performers, and they were all excited to work with him. The show opened with 16-year-old cellist Matthew Liversedge who […]

16-year-old cellist Taeguk Mun wanted to support the efforts of his church, Hyo Shin Bible Presbyterian Church of New York, NY, in their missions abroad. He organized a recital to benefit a charity program supporting children in Bangladesh, and managed to raise just under $1,000 for the cause! With the help of his church, his […]

Violist and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Marcus Rose is a 17-year-old musician from Louisiana with a warm and easy-going personality. To hear him play (and attendees of our November show in Baton Rouge did), it would be easy to believe his musical accomplishments have come without challenges. In reality, without the help of three […]

12-year-old guitarist Roberto Granados and 16-year-old pianist Rieko Tsuchida are both performing at the California Symphony season finale this Sunday, May 1 at 4pm. Roberto will play “Concierto de Aranjuez” and Rieko will perform the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1. The program also features Shostakovich Symphony No.5 in D minor. Robert has appeared on two […]

This week From the Top traveled to Carmel, IN to tape a radio show at The Palladium – the gorgeous concert hall of The Center for the Performing Arts. The show featured seven extraordinary young artists, as well as a guest appearance by singer and pianist Michael Feinstein! The morning after, our performers joined us […]

To help sustain awareness of the recent devastation in Japan and raise money for relief efforts, From the Top alum and violist Lauren Chipman and her band The Rentals have teamed up with the Red Cross Los Angeles Region and Ernest Jenning Record Co. to release ‘Resilience,’ an album featuring 18 orchestral compositions that will […]

15-year-old violinist and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Michael Ferri appeared on Show #220 in Davenport, IA this past October. Not long after, Michael visited two schools in his hometown of Cleveland, and performed for a wide range of students. He first visited the Marion-Sterling Elementary School, then traveled to the E-Prep School with Cleveland […]

Weeks ago we posted about how From the Top alum and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Umi Garrett was planning a benefit concert for Japan. The event was a great success and raised $3,400, all of which was donated to the Red Cross! Below are pictures from the concert and the repertoire list. Yoshie Akimoto, […]

For the past few months, From the Top has been hard at work launching our Center for the Development of Arts Leaders (CDAL)! This blog is the third in a series written by Linda Gerstle, Director of Education and Community Partnerships, chronicling the pilot year of this program. You can read the first post here […]

We had a wonderful taping this past weekend in College Park, Maryland with a talented and diverse group of teenage musicians. First up was 16-year-old pianist Kimberly Hou, who did something never before accomplished during a From the Top rehearsal – she played so passionately she broke a piano string! We were very lucky because […]

We just got wind of a new opportunity from Carnegie Hall for young composers! The Carmina Burana Choral Project features 200 high school singers and 50 middle school singers from all over New York City with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s conducted by David Robertson. Carnegie is looking for three high school-aged composers to write […]

12-year old pianist and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Sherry Tang appeared on Show #220 in Davenport, IA this past October. A resident of Monterey Park, CA, Sherry wanted to share her music with the residents of her neighborhood’s retirement facility: the Beverly Hills Carmel Retirement Hotel. “I want to share music with the elderly […]

This past weekend, From the Top visited the University of Maryland in College Park to tape a radio show. Ranging in genre from baroque to contemporary, our seven young artists gave a fantastic performance! The next sunny morning, six of the performers joined us for the Arts Leadership Orientation, where we explored the many ways […]

Flutist Emi Ferguson (Show 121 in New York City), has won a very prestigious scholarship from The Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. Paul and Daisy Soros are Hungarian immigrants and American philanthropists. They established their fellowship program for New Americans in 1997, to “give back” to the country that had afforded them […]

Hi everyone! We just got back into Boston after a whirlwind couple of days that found us taping radio shows in Monterey, California and New York City as well as performing a family concert at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall. The California taping took place at the EG Conference, an amazing meeting of innovators in media, […]

For the past few months, From the Top has been hard at work launching our Center for the Development of Arts Leaders (CDAL)! This blog is the second in a series written by Linda Gerstle, Director of Education and Community Partnerships, chronicling the pilot year of this program. Read the first post here. When Kate […]

This week’s broadcast was taped in the Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, IA on Tuesday April 5, 2011. We asked our performers to tell us about the music they performed on the show: Andrew Altmaier, 17, cello II. Allegro from Sonata in D minor Op. 40 […]

17-year-old violist and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Marcus Rose appeared on Show #222 in Baton Rouge, LA this past October. In February 2011, Marcus was inspired to explore his love for teaching, and reached out to the Claiborne Fundamental Magnet School in his hometown of Shreveport, LA. He gave three 45-minute presentations, titled “Music […]

From the Top alum and oboist Yuga Cohler (Show 142, Granville) from Lexington, Massachusetts, is about to finish his senior year at Harvard University! Yuga has been serving as Music Director of the Harvard Bach Society, and has been accepted into the the Master of Music program in Conducting at Juilliard. He starts this fall, […]