Tag: newsfeed

Phuong-Nghi Pham, a 14-year-old pianist from Dorchester, MA and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award recipient, wrote a letter to Dr. Carol R. Johnson, Superintendent of the Boston Public Schools District, appealing for a spending increase on the city’s musical education programs for the following school-year budget. Phuong-Nghi shares her letter to Dr. Johnson below: Dear […]

Simon Estes is a perfect example of a true Arts Leader. This Iowa native and world-renowned opera singer has established not only a school in South Africa for some of the continent’s poorest children, but also the Simon Estes Iowa Educational Foundation, “a multiracial, nonprofit organization that provides positive minority role model programs and scholarships […]

This is the second installment of our Parents’ Perspective blog series, which is meant to share information, hints, and knowledge about raising musical kids. You can read the first blog about musical beginnings here. Today’s topic: Your kid wants to study an instrument – now what? Our parent panel gives some tips on finding music […]

Because From the Top tapes radio shows across the country, we often fly in young musicians from different states to appear on broadcast tapings. If you’re a musician, you know traveling with your instrument can sometimes be tricky. The American Federation of Musician recently launched this petition to make air travel more friendly for musicians. […]

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 you know, From the Top showcases the best young musical talent from across the country. But what about the support behind these amazing kids – the parents? We’ve set out to tap into the rich knowledge base of From the Top performer parents in an effort to share information, stories, and encouragement on raising […]

Although From the Top doesn’t tape many radio shows during the summer, our staff keep busy during these hot months with an important and exciting task – holding live auditions for our NPR radio show. Live auditions are an opportunity for us to hear young musicians in a different and fun capacity; most of our auditions come […]

In May, we posted the inspiring ambitions of harpist Anna DeLoi, who has spent the summer traveling and performing with her ensemble Heartstrings to raise funds for CureSearch, a children’s cancer research foundation. The group has achieved a great deal these past two months. Anna joined forces with two musician friends, Nash Ryder and Keith […]

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, […]

If you reside in Boston, make sure to mark your calendars for December 5, 2010 – From the Top alum and violinist Caroline Goulding will be appearing at 1:30pm at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum as part of their Sunday concert series. She’ll perform a few different pieces and will be accompanied by Shuai Wang […]

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 […]

On Friday, July 30 pianist George Li, who performed on From the Top’s 2006 show in Boston and appeared on the PBS show From the Top at Carnegie Hall, won first place at Oberlin College’s Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition. He won with Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11, with Jahja […]

Great news from Roberto Granados, a From the Top alum from our Lubbock, Texas show.  He was recently contacted by the California Symphony, who requested he join them on May 1, 2011 to perform three movements from Joaquin Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez.”  He has commissioned a local luthier to have a special classical guitar made for […]

Violinist Stephen Waarts, who appeared on our 2009 show in Stanford, California, has been busy this summer! After winning second place in the Menuhin Competition earlier this year, Stephen performed with two symphonies in California – on May 23rd he played Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4 with the Prometheus Symphony and on June 6 he performed Brahms Violin Concerto […]

We just got word that 14-year-old violinist Stephen Kim, who appeared on our radio show in Mobile, Alabama in January 2009, recently won two musical awards. He received the Gold Medal in the 11th California International Young Artists Violin Competition in San Diego on June 13, which he shared with a 24 year old violinist. […]

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 […]

After every radio taping, the performers come together for the Arts Leadership Orientation to explore how they can use their talent and passion to make a difference in their communities and the world. The performers on the St. Paul show named themselves the “Louisasota Zirths” – a play on the two states represented (10 performers […]

I can’t believe we’re already kicking off our 11th season of radio shows, and what better way than a fantabulous piano extravaganza! We taped the first show of the season earlier this week at the Young Artist World Piano Festival on the beautiful campus of Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was an exciting […]