Tag: Arts Leadership

From the Top would like to share a volunteer opportunity that one of our community partners, Bravo Waukegan, is putting forward for From the Top alumni who are age 20+. If you have an interest in virtually teaching/mentoring a high school music student one-on-one over a 10 – 15 week period, contact us to learn […]

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 […]

On a Wednesday afternoon, eleven From the Top young musicians gathered in Boston to begin a 4-day residency. They arrived as strangers; some having traveled across the country to be there. One goal was clear – the young musicians had to prepare for a performance and recording for NPR’s From the Top radio show. (In fact, the group […]

When we travel to hold auditions, we are as excited to meet new young musicians as we are to catch up with our fast-growing network of alumni in that area. This past July, Executive Director Gretchen Nielsen, Director of Development & External Relations Emily Borababy, and Scholarship and Recruitment Manager Javier Caballero held auditions at […]

On a rainy day in March, six young artists (see bottom) gathered in Boston’s historic Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. It was the day before their performance on NPR’s From the Top and, since they had all met each other the previous evening at an ISGM Third Thursdays event, the reunion was brief but full of […]

NPR’S FROM THE TOP TO CONVENE IN LOS ANGELES FOR THREE-DAY RESIDENCY  Pianist Peter Dugan Guest Hosts Studio Recordings  Producer, Singer and DJ Alex Seaver (MAKO) leads music-making sessions  Leadership and Community Engagement workshops offer firsthand experience in creative career development FEBRUARY 23-25, 2019 From the Top (FTT), the nationwide program distributed by NPR that […]

Guitarist Nicholas Padmanabhan performed on NPR’s From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley in March 2018. You can listen to his performance, airing on stations nationwide the week of May 28, 2018, here. Like all FTT performers, Nicholas went through our Arts Leadership Orientation, where he and his peers explored leadership concepts and planned for a community engagement […]

This article is part of our ongoing series exploring the projects launched by the recipients of our Alumni Leadership Grant. 2017 was the pilot year for From the Top’s Alumni Leadership Grant, which funds leadership initiatives launched by our alumni all across the country. One of those grants supported FTT alum Avik Sarkar as he spearheaded a benefit concert […]

There’s no doubt about it; being on NPR’s From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley is a big deal for our young musicians. They work very hard to perfect their playing, and they even get a chance to rehearse their interviews before stepping up to the microphone. When it’s over, there’s a palpable sense of […]

Friends, Federal support for the arts, humanities, and public broadcasting has been getting a lot of attention these days, and, unfortunately, it’s not because of all the wonderful things we do. If you’re wondering what you can do to help, check out our 3 Actions You Can Take Right Now. (And, Alumni – we need you!) What’s Happening The […]

Welcome to the new CDAL Class of 2016–2017 For the past six years, young musicians in the Greater Boston area have applied to join our Center for the Development of Arts Leaders (CDAL) here in our hometown. CDAL is the only program in Greater Boston focused on leadership training for pre-collegiate and collegiate classically-trained musicians. This […]

Arts Leadership in Action Join us this week as members of our Center for the Development of Arts Leaders (CDAL) work with students at the Conservatory Lab Charter School (CLCS)  in Dorchester, Massachusetts. The CLCS students had to learn an entirely new piece of music, put it together as a group, and perform it at […]

Did you know that there are other ways for young musicians to be part of From the Top beyond being on our radio show? Here in our hometown of Boston, we offer a unique leadership program called the Center for the Development of Arts Leaders (CDAL). More than 50 young musicians joined this past year (meet […]

Pianist Youlan Ji performed on Show 309, recorded in July 2015, at age 15. She was also a recipient of From the Top’s Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award. Everyone who receives this award is required to do an arts leadership outreach project where they take their music beyond the concert hall and out into the community. Here, Youlan describes […]

By Linda Gerstle, Director of Education & Community Partnerships The Friday afternoon school assembly is a time honored tradition in many schools. A chance to connect with friends and teachers outside of class as the week winds down – it’s a moment that many of us recall so many years later. And so it was at […]

This post has been updated to reflect corrections and additions since it was published on Friday 9/18/15. On Sunday, September 20, we welcomed a record-breaking class to the 2015–2016 class of the Center for Development of Arts Leaders (CDAL), our Boston-based leadership and music outreach program! The five-year-old CDAL program is the first center of its kind […]

In March 2015, From the Top alumni Anna DeLoi, Matt Dykeman, Ryan Shannon, and Chad Lilley participated in a week-long From the Top arts leadership residency in southeastern Kentucky where they explored how music can be used as a central tool for leadership and community building. In response to the question “What am I learning about myself as […]

“Jump right in!” a young lady with long brown hair belts out from the stage, her foot tapping as she dances along with the music, “Let the music pull you in, jump right in!” The more than 500 middle and high school students in the audience here in Hazard, Kentucky are very familiar with this […]

This post is Part 3 of a three-part series about From the Top’s Fall 2014 residency at the Conservatory Lab Charter School (CLCS), an elementary school in Boston with a music-intensive curriculum. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.     It was a Friday afternoon at Conservatory Lab Charter School. A large room filled to the brim with elementary […]

To everyone who supported From the Top this past year, we want to express our thanks by sharing some of our favorite moments from 2014. Let’s take it From the Top. 1. In May, violinist Yuki Beppu, who performed most recently on Show 292, appeared on Good Morning America to reenact her viral rendition of a Lady […]