Tag: cooke

This spring, 17 year-old composer/bassoonist Tim Woos, a Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist, held composition workshops at two different schools in Vermont – the Integrated Arts Academy in Burlington and the North Branch School in Ripton. For each school, he created  a “composing game”: a program that engaged the students as composers using visual aids and noisemakers. […]

As a Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist, 17 year-old vocalist Kara Sainz, along with three peers from the Murrieta Valley High School choir, organized an interactive program demonstrating classical music for a group of nearly 75 elementary school children at the Ysabel Barnett Elementary School in Temecula, CA. The program was titled the “Joy of Opera” […]

We recently received an amazing email from alum and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Bella Markham, who you may remember had a fantastic Arts Leadership project we profiled a few weeks ago.  We share her thoughts below on how the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award has changed her life. When I received the Jack […]

17 year-old violinist and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Yurie Mitsuhashi (Show #205) explored the relationship between music and dance with second through sixth grade students at two elementary schools in her hometown of Fort Lee, NJ this spring. She shared a wide range of music, portraying dances from many different cultures and time periods, […]

After appearing on From the Top, 16 year-old slack-key guitarist and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Sean Robbins of Pahoa, HI organized a series of interactive performances at the Hilo Union Elementary School. He gave three 45-minute performances for fourth graders at the school, with about twenty students per group. Sean hoped to inspire these children to […]

We love when From the Top performers take Arts Leadership to the next level – 14 year-old violist Isabella Markham, a Jack Kent Cook Young Artist, has done just that by organizing a small concert series for a retirement center with the help of her brother and seven friends.  She titled the performance “Bella Palooza” […]

Earlier this year, 16-year-old John Ringor (Show #202 and #206 ) and 17-year-old Joshua Jones (TV Episode 201, Show #171 and  #206), both Chicago percussionists and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award recipients, gave a performance and demonstration for children and their families at the Chicago Symphony Center. They were joined by eight of their colleagues […]

Pianist and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Clifton Williams has had an extraordinary year. After performing on From the Top in March 2009, he was profiled in the Washington Post and attended summer programs at Indiana University, Berklee College of Music, and Princeton University. This winter, Clifton experienced another set of amazing opportunities. He was […]

Four From the Top alumni were recently named U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts. From what we have heard, the high school seniors were the only four students in the nation to receive this honor in the music category. The scholars include baritone Sean Plumb from Los Angeles, CA; cellist Bobby Chen from Newton, MA; […]

Irineo Cabreros has been described as hard to peg. Featured on From the Top’s Mobile, AL taping last winter, the phenomenal 18-year-old musician says it best when he describes himself as “a dreadlocked, birkenstocked, teenage flutist who loves to play soccer and beat-box.” Currently enrolled in the Harvard University and New England Conservatory (NEC) dual […]

From the Top’s radio broadcast this week, taped at the El Paso Summer Music Festival this past June, celebrates our partnership with the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and more than $1 million in scholarships awarded. The radio episode features five new Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award recipients and offers updates from past Young Artists […]

Sixteen-year-old pianist and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award recipient Jingxuan Zhang feels strongly about advocating for elementary music education. Jing is featured on From the Top’s broadcast from El Paso this week and recently wrote a letter to his governor in Indiana to address his feelings about the importance of arts education. “I want […]

This past spring Allen Yu, seventeen-year-old pianist from Cohoes, NY and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award recipient, performed for all of the fourth grade students in his school district! Even more exciting, he enlisted the help of his From the Top friends from his radio taping in Northfield, MA! With the help of seventeen-year-old […]

17-year-old cellist, Khari Joyner, from Atlanta, GA, is passionate about music’s power to heal. During his interview on From the Top’s live taping in El Paso, TX (airing the week of October 19), Khari spoke about his experience overcoming lymphoma cancer last year and how music and the power of positive thinking helped get him […]

Last year 17-year-old flutist Chaz Salazar performed on From the Top’s Mesa, AZ taping in November as a Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award recipient. These days, Chaz is involved in several projects, including leading flute sectionals and giving private lessons to a few students at his old elementary school in Phoenix, AZ. As a […]

Our live radio taping in El Paso, TX last month marked the fantastic milestone of more than $1,000,000 in scholarships awarded through our Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award program. To those not familiar with the program, every year the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award is given to twenty-five promising young artists from around […]

Below is the second edition of a new series of “Audition Stories”, a fistful of firsthand reports on what it takes to get on From the Top. We’ll cover details from the toughest application question to the fateful phone call and everything in between. Of course, the best way to find out what auditioning is […]

15-year-old harpist Sage Po is a recipient of From the Top’s Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award and recently performed at our El Paso taping on June 13 (airing nationally the week of October 19.) Below, Sage reports on her summer studies at the American Harp Society’s Summer Institute, made possible through her $10,000 Young […]

Greetings from El Paso, Texas! I can see why El Paso is nicknamed the Sun City – it was 92 degrees today. Quite a treat after the unseasonably cold weather in Boston. It’s beautiful here. Picture a southwestern city with open vistas, big skies, and mountains in the distance. The Plaza Theatre, where we taped […]

This Saturday, From the Top’s taping at the El Paso Summer Music Festival will celebrate our partnership with the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, which has supported $1 million in scholarships to young musicians with financial need. The broadcast taping will feature five new Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award recipients, and will include updates from […]