On the Road with Joanne Robinson: Show #226 Boston, MA

This past weekend, we taped a great show at our home base, New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall in Boston. Directly before the taping started, the audience got to meet the inaugural class of From the Top’s new Center for Arts Leadership – twenty young musicians and four mentors who are about to embark on a year of community service projects in and around Boston.

The show featured an array of teenage talent along with a special adult guest – Eran Egozy, creator of the immensely popular videogames Guitar Hero and Rock Band. What you may not know is that Eran also happens to be an accomplished classical musician. He showed off his clarinet skills performing a Brahms trio with 16-year-old cellist Jonah Ellsworth and Christopher O’Riley.

Another terrific talent was 15-year-old pianist Mackenzie Melemed, who some of you might recognize from his appearance on our TV show a few years ago (though he’s grown up so much I hardly recognized him myself)! This time around he performed Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 28.

Also featured was 17-year-old violinist Samuel Katz who premiered a fantastic piece called “Spring Breeze” written by Edward Kalendar; 18-year-old Samantha Hankey, a mezzo-soprano with a powerful voice, who performed from Charles Gounod’s Romeo et Juliet; and six teenage musicians from the Walnut Hill School in Natick who closed the show with the lively Sextet for Piano and Wind Instruments by Francis Poulenc.

For your viewing pleasure, here’s some flipcam footage I shot during dress rehearsal to give you a taste of what’s in store when the show airs the week of February 21. Make sure to tune in!