Category: Radio/podcast

From the Top Invites Musicians from Rural/Small Town Backgrounds to Share a Musical Postcard! To build community among young artists from rural and small town backgrounds, From the Top invites musicians of all genres to share a musical postcard from their favorite hometown spot to their social media profile. Videos tagged @fromthetopfans and #WhereMusicLives will be […]

From the Top Announces Three-Week Broadcast Festival WHERE MUSIC LIVES Airing nationwide April 22 – May 6, 2024 with special guests Victor Wooten, Tessa Lark, and Jamie Barton BOSTON, MA – March 19, 2024 – NPR Music raves that From the Top is “proof that classical music in America is alive and kicking…a potent antidote […]

“Tune in to From the Top and give yourself a dose of music and hope.” –Los Angeles Times From the Top Musicians with Disabilities Special Initiative National Performance Broadcast featuring Itzhak Perlman and Young Disabled/Neurodivergent Musicians Airing March 27 – April 2, 2023 Youth-Led Virtual Forums Co-Hosted with Kennedy Center VSA April 3-4, 2023 Plus: […]

Meet the people behind From the Top’s weekly NPR radio show! Megan Swan, Director of Production Operations and Programming, joined From the Top as Music Director in 2019. Megan has enjoyed tenure as a creative producer, artistic programmer, educator, and musician having held positions in Strategic Initiatives, Artistic Programming, and Operations with the LA Phil/Hollywood […]

A colorful imagination can definitely inspire a great classical music performance. It certainly inspired 14-year-old harpist Anna DeLoi in 2010. Anna shared a chilling tale and a riveting performance of Performis Valse by Arnold Bax, a piece Anna nicknamed the “demented doll dance”. Check out this spooky performance and humorous moment on this week’s installment […]

In 2002, then 18-year-old guitarist Gohar Vardanyan appeared on From the Top while studying at the Interlochen Arts Academy (Show 75). She treated our audiences to an inspired performance of Regino Sainz de la Massa’s “Andaluza.” She also regaled us with a funny story about how her dad may have tricked her into practicing. Today, […]

This week on From the Top’s new podcast series highlighting moments from our archives, we hear the work of an incredible 12-year-old composer who has gone on to a very successful career in music. In June 2000, composer and pianist Sebastian Chang, from Trebuco Canyon, CA, appeared on From the Top’s 25th show in Boston. […]

This week marks the launch of From the Top’s new short form podcast series featuring brief but beautiful moments pulled from our archive.  Our first episode highlights the Norman North High School Chorale‘s powerful performance of Eric Whitacre’s “Water Night”, recorded in their home state at Oklahoma City University in 2011. Choir members also […]

NEW EPISODE CELEBRATES YOUNG BLACK MUSICIANS AND WORKS BY BLACK COMPOSERS Three-time Grammy® Award-winning artist Kevin Olusola joins Host/Pianist Peter Dugan and young Black musicians from across the country for a special Juneteenth-themed episode of the From the Top. Black teenage classical musicians share stories and performances, reflect on Juneteenth, what it means to them, […]

THE POPULAR SHOWCASE FOR YOUNG CLASSICAL MUSICIANS PREMIERES ON WHRB 95.3 FM – Sunday, March 7 at 5:00 PM — [February 22, 2021] – WHRB-Harvard Radio announces plans to air From the Top, the acclaimed hour-long showcase of America’s talented young classical musicians distributed by NPR. Hosted by pianist Peter Dugan, From the Top will […]

On this week’s broadcast of From the Top, the victorious finale from Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite is performed by a teenage pianist from Chicago. He’s joined by a teenage violinist using YouTube to provoke political dialogue, a talented 14-year-old pianist performing Beethoven, a young violinist whose musical roots spans two continents, and a 16-year-old saxophonist who […]

On this week’s From the Top, one of the strongest teenage piano trios in the country performs Beethoven with passion and precision. They are joined by a young vocalist performing Shakespeare, an 18-year-old cellist with a special relationship with his grandfather, a hard-working flutist with a unique sense of style, and a 15-year-old violinist who […]

The charismatic violinist Charles Yang, member of the genre bending trio “Time for Three”, returns to From the Top this week to join Host Peter Dugan in collaborating with our young performers. He performs the music of Shostakovich with a teenager from Philadelphia and leaps into a quartet to perform the composition of an imaginative […]

This week, guest host Orli Shaham returns for another new episode, enjoying the moving experience of performing live chamber music for the first time during the pandemic. The program, recorded partly on stage at Merkin Hall at the Kaufman Music Center in New York, features a wonderful group of young people, like a young violist, […]

This week’s episode of From the Top marks the kick-off to our 2020-2021 radio season. It’s not easy producing radio with kids from across the country during a pandemic, but our faithful producers have found a way! This week’s amazing young musicians join guest host Orli Shaham for a unique show – some recorded virtually […]

This week on From the Top’s podcast, we have a special performance of Peter Dugan’s own arrangement of Holst’s “Jupiter: The Bringer of Jollity” from The Planets, recorded at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s Calderwood Hall on February 6, 2020. From the Top · BONUS TRACK: Host Peter Dugan performs his arrangement of “Jupiter” If […]

What connects skateboarding and Paganini Violin Caprices? For Phillip Hammond, 17 year-old violinist from Bloomington, Indiana and a recipient of From the Top’s Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award, it’s all about taking risks. Being able to pull off these techniques, whether on a skateboard or on a violin, requires him to be committed and […]

This week’s show is the re-broadcast of Show 364 taped in Beaver Creek, Colorado last January 2019. We asked the show performers for their favorite memories of recording with co-hosts Charles Yang and Peter Dugan at the beautiful Vilar Performing Arts Center. Flutist Scott Quirk from Los Angeles kicks things off with his reflections and […]

Helen Bryant was one of the performers on this week’s show, recorded at the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta, GA. Recently, she reflected on the powerful experience she had connected with this show and shared a recording of one her favorite works – the fifth movement of Robert Schumann’s Fantasiestücke, Op.12, “In der […]

13-year-old Harpist Olivia Lee is one of the outstanding young artists featured on this week’s From the Top episode from Boston, Massachusetts. All of the performers on this show participated in a four-day residency where they used their artistry to connect with the community. Here, Olivia reflects on that powerful experience: A few years ago […]