Blog/News

In 2008, pianist Nicholas King was a Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist on From the Top’s radio show. At the time, he was already an impressive example of Arts Leadership: when he was as young as seven years old, he began to raise money for Children’s Hospital in LA. After years of helping and inspiring […]

Now is a great time to be Caroline Goulding. Never mind that Caroline has been on From the Top’s radio show three times and played with Bela Fleck on the PBS TV series From the Top at Carnegie Hall. Or that at 16, she’s already performed with more than nine orchestras. Or that she plays […]

Television host Rachel Maddow was recently at Jacob’s Pillow talking about the importance of the arts in our country. “A country without an expectation of minimal artistic literacy, without a basic structure by which the artists among us can be awakened and given the choice of following their talents and a way to get to […]

The Davidson Institute announced their Fellows yesterday and we spotted From the Top alumni in each division. Congratulations go to: Melody Lindsay, 17, harpist from Honolulu, Hawaii; Sarina Zhang, 13, cellist and pianist from San Diego, CA; and Connie Kim-Sheng, 17 of La Crescenta, CA for receiving scholarships and to Simone Porter,  of Seattle, WA […]

Way back in 2006, pianist Ji-Yong appeared on From the Top’s radio show at the age of 14. But even then, the pressure of a performance on national radio was nothing new to him. Ji-Yong was signed to a major artist management company at a tender 10 years old, and he’s been playing professionally ever […]

From the Top at Carnegie Hall has been awarded a 2009 Gabriel Award in the Television Arts Category. These awards are presented by the CBA (Catholic Broadcasters Association) to “recognize outstanding artistic achievement in a television or radio program or series which entertains and enriches with a true vision of humanity and true vision of […]

  We’ve just heard that the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Cleveland Orchestra will offer a new international competition for young musicians ages 13-18 beginning in summer 2010. Known as the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition, the competition takes an interesting approach by alternating each year between piano and violin entries. First up, is […]

Wicked: Composer Stephen Schwartz (of “Wicked,” “Enchanted,” and “Pippin” fame) is writing an opera, and a spooky  one at that. “Seance on a Wet Afternoon” is about a married couple and the spirit of their dead 11-year-old. It sounds reminiscent of Menotti’s “The Medium” (incidentally, From the Top featured a wonderful …

The federal United We Serve initiative is a new movement to mobilize volunteerism across the country. For those of you who follow this blog regularly, you are well aware of the amazing  contributions that From the Top alumni make in their communities  everyday. A few examples of which are: Griffin Gaffney’s free music lesson program […]

We are always thrilled to hear from past From the Top performers. Here is another round of updates from our accomplished alumni.  To our alumni and parents: keep them coming! 17-year-old cellist Julian Schwartz, who was on From the Top’s radio show in 2007, was profiled in a recent issue of Teen Strings. Matt Sircely’s […]

Check out this great article we found in the New York Times about the booming instrument industry in China. Violin, viola, cello, and bass production in the small town of Donggaocun, just outside Beijing, is actually serving as a serious form of economic development for the area. Read the article here.

New York Crew in New Jersey We just wrapped up another year in our partnership with Young Audiences New Jersey (YANJ) to bring From the Top alums into Newark schools through a grant from the Prudential Foundation. In addition to implementing a Make Your Own Radio Show program in three schools, we started a new […]

Our live radio taping in El Paso, TX last month marked the fantastic milestone of more than $1,000,000 in scholarships awarded through our Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award program. To those not familiar with the program, every year the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award is given to twenty-five promising young artists from around […]

Send in the clowns: it’s a Concerto for Toy Piano. Keith Kirchoff is the soloist in this whimsical piece of music written by Matthew McConnell, which, as it turns out, was recorded right on From the Top‘s home turf: NEC’s Jordan Hall! Keith is a composer as well as a pianist, and has written several […]

I have to admit it. I had no idea there were so many classical concerts to be heard in the Midwest, beyond Interlochen and Ravinia. The good news is, I was wrong. There are dozens of them – and you can get into plenty for under 20 bucks. -Lily Kaiser

Below is the second edition of a new series of “Audition Stories”, a fistful of firsthand reports on what it takes to get on From the Top. We’ll cover details from the toughest application question to the fateful phone call and everything in between. Of course, the best way to find out what auditioning is […]

Hoedown from Rodeo from Eleanor Stewart on Vimeo. Ride ’em, cowgirl: Eleanor Stewart created this stop-motion animation, set to Aaron Copland’s “Hoedown” from the Rodeo Suite, for her final year degree at the Glasgow School of Art. As Miss Mussel from The Omniscient Mussel pointed out, that’s one way to make the score come alive! […]

15-year-old harpist Sage Po is a recipient of From the Top’s Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award and recently performed at our El Paso taping on June 13 (airing nationally the week of October 19.) Below, Sage reports on her summer studies at the American Harp Society’s Summer Institute, made possible through her $10,000 Young […]