Category: Alumni

Last week, From the Top alums Nathan Chan, 16 (Radio show #207) and Simone Porter, 13, (radio show #165 and From the Top at Carnegie Hall‘s Episode 206) performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of 17-year-old conductor Alexander Prior.  The concert was held at the Barbican in London and raised money for […]

Multiple From the Top alumni received awards at the Fifth Annual Mondavi Center Young Artists Competition at the University of California, Davis. The California-based Soleil Trio, comprised of violinist Kenneth Renshaw, 16, cellist Will Chow, 16, and pianist Reiko Tsuchida, 15, won the Chamber Ensemble Award in the Senior Division. The trio performs on an […]

Congratulations to 17-year-old pianist Jingxuan Zhang, who held a solo benefit recital on March 27th to raise money for the Performing Arts Department at his high school in Indiana, which has been hit by recent budget cuts. Around 450 people attended the 50-minute concert, which raised $2,330. Jingxuan, a Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist, is […]

Pianist Hilda Huang placed third in the Seventh International Würzburg J. S. Bach Competition (first and second prizes were not awarded). She played the “Goldberg” Variations in the final round of the contest, held in Bavaria, Germany in March. The competition is open to all musicians under age 36, but Hilda is just 14, and […]

Earlier this season, we featured From the Top alum William Harvey as the first profile in our 10th Anniversary Alumni Spotlight Series. In the fall, William told us he had accepted a position as a music teacher at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music and he would be moving to Kabul this spring. William has […]

15-year-old pianist Sahun “Sam” Hong, who appeared on From the Top last fall, won First Prize in the Lennox International Young Artists Competition on January 9th, playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Sam performed the concerto with the Richardson Symphony Orchestra on March 13th. Sam has also been busy with community outreach concerts. He performed […]

Violinist Dayna Anderson, who will graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music in May, recently became the concertmaster of the Delaware Symphony. At 22, she is the youngest person to hold the position in the orchestra’s 104-year history. Dayna appeared on From the Top in 2000 at the age of 12. Congrats Dayna! Three From […]

Hi everyone! I’m just winding down from a wonderful show we taped in Portland, Maine tonight in the beautiful Merrill Auditorium with Portland Ovations. The whole show was fantastic, but I wanted to share some of my favorite highlights with you. 17-year-old pianist Wil Bristol played a piece that called for him to use his […]

Pianist Patricio Molina, who was featured on From the Top’s TV show and is a recipient of our Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award, will perform in a series of concerts to raise money for the victims of the earthquake in Chile. A native of Chile, Patricio moved to the United States in 2004 to […]

A nice article in Cleveland’s Plain Dealer about From the Top alum cellist Matthew Allen and his past life as a football player. http://www.cleveland.com/musicdance/index.ssf/2010/02/leaving_football_behind_cellis.html Matthew also appears on the CD From the Top at the Pops recorded with the Cincinnati Pops last year.

American Public Media’s Performance Today has partnered with the world-renowned Parker Quartet (featuring several From the Top alums) to offer an exciting national competition opportunity for young aspiring classical string quartets. Performance Today will award the winning quartet a Master Class with the Parker Quartet in APM’s state-of-the-art Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Music Studio in St. […]

We are extremely saddened to learn of the passing of alum Aaron Pinsky after a battle with brain cancer. Aaron, 25, was a dedicated French Horn player who studied at New England Conservatory’s Prep School in Boston and performed twice in the Massachusetts All State Orchestra. He continued to perform as part of the Berkshire […]

As a high school student in South Bend, Indiana, LaMont Barlow had to make a difficult decision. Would he follow his passion for classical music down a path that would lead to conservatory studies and a career in music? Or would he pursue his interest in science at a liberal arts college and ultimately become […]

Seattle-based blogger Janet Peltz has done a two installment feature on From the Top alum (radio #165, TV #206 ) Simone Porter and her mother Deborah. Janet has done a nice job of capturing the intense, and sometimes challenging, commitment the two have made to pursue Simone’s passion in music. Here are the two links: […]

Following our taping at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara on January 27, we gathered all the performers for our arts leadership workshop and asked them to reflect on the power of music. Here are some of the stories they shared both from their own personal experiences and from history: “When Renee Fleming sang in […]

Approximately 70 young string players met in Montgomery, Alabama over the weekend to compete in the Montgomery Symphony’s annual Blount-Slawson Competition for string and percussionists in 7th through 12th grades. For the first time, From the Top’s Music Producer Tom Vignieri was among the panel of 9 judges. Congratulations go out to this year’s winners! […]

Like many, 15-year-old Bay-area pianist Rieko Tsuchida was deeply saddened by the disaster in Haiti and inspired to take action. With just three days of planning, she and friend Jonah Hopton, turned their musical talents into a means of raising money for the American Red Cross. We are so proud of her efforts. In her […]

Alum Lauren Chipman, who recently returned for an episode of From the Top, will be performing in this Friday’s “Hope for Haiti Now” telethon. Lauren, a violist and member of indie rock band The Rentals, will be working with Christina Aguilera and John Legend during the two-hour performance show. “I’m really looking forward to playing […]

Earlier this month NBC’s Brian Williams interviewed From the Top at Carnegie Hall alum Nikki Yanofsky about her exploding career. Watch the segment now. And we just heard from Germany’s ZDF Television that they will be airing a segment on her too! Violinist Lindsay Deutsch, 24, is included in this month’s issue of Symphony as […]

We were honored to receive citations today from the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Senate in honor of From the Top’s tenth anniversary. From the Top alum Yuki Beppu, 12, of Lexington, Massachusetts played Bach and Paganini in the Grand Staircase filling the State House with beautiful music during the lunchtime hour. Yuki also received […]