Category: Behind the Scenes

Aloha from one of the most magical places on earth – Hawaii’s Big Island, where we just completed two tapings of the radio show, plus a week of educational visits in local schools with our partner Hawaii Public Radio. The Big Island is such a fascinating place. I’ve been told there are eleven different climate […]

On January 3, 2010 From the Top taped a special program dedicated to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston, MA. Here is what the performers had to say about the music they played on the show, which airs this week. Boston Children’s Chorus Kasar […]

This week’s broadcast was taped November 13, 2009 at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas, TX. Learn more about what the performers had to say about the music they played on the show: Sahun Hong, 15, piano Hungarian Rhapsody No. 11 in A minor by Franz Liszt Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 11 shows a […]

On this week’s broadcast, Atlanta audience member Zhanna Arshanskaya dedicates a piece to Christopher O’Riley, whom she calls “the ambassador of music  for young people.” But it’s Zhanna’s story that we find truly moving. A holocaust survivor, Zhanna endured through her ability to play music. Following the war, she eventually went on to attend the […]

Hi all! I just returned home from Silicon Valley and the beautiful campus of Stanford University, where we taped a great show this weekend. We had the pleasure of being joined via phone by a very special guest –puzzle master extraordinaire Will Shortz! As a huge fan of the New York Times Sunday Crossword, I […]

This week on From the Top, we feature a broadcast taped at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. Learn more about what the performers feel about the music they are performing: Melissa White, alum, violin IV. Presto agitato from Sonata No. 3 in D minor by Johannes Brahms This […]

This week’s episode of From the Top was taped on October 9, 2009 at the Libby Gardner Concert Hall at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City with Utah Chamber Artists and KBYU-FM. Here’s what the performers had to say about the music they played on the show: Jossalyn Jensen, 17, viola Rhapsody by […]

Our monster two-week tour has finally come to an end, and from Atlanta to Granville to Waco to Dallas, it’s been a great one! On Friday night we taped at the exceptionally beautiful AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Winspear Opera House in Dallas. Two From the Top alums, percussionists Joshua Jones and John Ringor from Chicago, […]

Howdy from the Lone Star State! Do you know we’ve done more tapings in Texas than anywhere else in the country? We just drove to Dallas, where we have a taping tomorrow, from Waco, where we had a show at Baylor University’s Jones Concert Hall last night (thanks to the folks at KWBU). It was […]

From the Top’s broadcast for this week was taped at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall in Boston on October 4, 2009. We asked our performers to tell us about the music they performed on the show: Adria Ye, 11, piano (right) Restlessness, Op. 19, No. 5; The Spinning Song, Op. 67, No. 4 from Songs […]

I’m coming to you today from several thousand feet off the ground on my flight back to Boston, and I’m still on a high (no pun intended) from yesterday’s taping at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. It was an all-alumni show featuring some incredible performers from past seasons. I had such a blast reconnecting with […]

Greetings from beautiful Atlanta, Georgia, where it is a sunny 64 degrees (my poor colleagues back in Boston are dealing with much chillier temperatures)! We had a great taping last night at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts at Emory University. It was really fun reconnecting with this show’s 10th Anniversary Alumni guest Melissa White, […]

This week’s broadcast was taped at the Plaza Theatre in El Paso, TX on June 13, 2009. Here is what the performers had to say about the music they played: Sage Po, 15, harp III. Sarabande and IV. Courante from Classical Suite for Harp Alone by Lynne Wainwright Palmer “This is a piece I like […]

In early October, From the Top traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah to tape a radio broadcast at Libby Gardner Hall with Utah Chamber Artists. While we were there, From the Top had the opportunity to visit the Waterford School in Sandy, Utah and introduce students to 16-year-old violinist Will Hagen, a From the Top […]

Hi everybody! I just got back from Salt Lake City, Utah, where we had a blast taping an episode of the radio show. As usual, the show featured an amazing array of talent. One of the standouts for me was ten-year-old trumpet player Natalie Dungey. She is by far the youngest trumpet player we’ve ever […]

From the Top’s broadcast this week was taped at the Heifitz International Music Institute in Wolfeboro, NH in July 2009. We asked our performers to tell us about the music they performed on the show: Ben Fried, 17, cello Variations on a Theme of Paganini by Gregor Piatigorsky “This piece was written as a satire […]

This week’s From the Top episode, taped at the Holland Performing Arts Center in Omaha, Nebraska, features a variety of instruments and repertoire- from a trombone solo to a marimba quartet. Read what the performers have to say about the music. Sangbin “Bihn” Park, 12, cello I. Adagio and III Allegro di molto from Divertimento […]

-Kathryn J Bacasmot Living on the East Coast for the past five years has given me plenty of practice in verbally defending my home state, Nebraska. I have honestly grown to relish the laundry list of questions, the looks of disbelief, and the subsequent thinly veiled attempts to recover and come off sounding politely intrigued: […]

Johann Sebastian Bach’s biggest fan is quite possibly a thirteen-year-old girl from Palo Alto, CA. But pianist Hilda Huang is way beyond most thirteen-year-olds. For starters, she wowed a national audience with her music, (and her Bach obsession), two years ago on the PBS series From the Top at Carnegie Hall, and did it all […]

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 […]