Show 159 | Columbus, Ohio

From the Southern Theatre in Columbus, Ohio, this week's line-up of outstanding young musicians includes a 17-year-old violinist from Columbus playing the famous Khachaturian Sabre Dance and a 14-year-old cellist from Cincinnati playing Chopin's Polonaise Brillante. Also, the last quarter of From the Top is pre-empted by a new game show -- Quartet Feud!

Every Saturday, 17-year-old Siwoo Kim wakes before the crack of dawn to make a seven-hour drive from his home in Westerville, Ohio to the Music Institute of Chicago. There, he studies with acclaimed violin teacher Almita Vamos. "I gain something new in every lesson," he says. 

Siwoo performs "Sabre Dance" by Aram Khachaturian, arranged by Jascha Heifetz.

18-year-old Stephanie Chan from Houston, Texas, realized she wanted to play piano at the age of 5, when her mom took her to an orchestra concert. "

I was fast asleep during most of the concert, but I woke up when a pianist began playing the Tchaikovsky 1st Piano Concerto," she recalls. "It was at that moment that I fell in love with music." 

Stephanie is passionate about teaching piano and dreams of one day opening her own studio. She plays music from the Piano Sonata No. 6, by Sergei Prokofiev.

Coleman Itzkoff, 14, from Cincinnati, Ohio, feels he was destined to become a musician. "My dad is a violinist in the Cincinnati Symphony and my mom is principal violist of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra," he says. "Even most of the people in my extended family play music. It's in my blood." 

Coleman especially enjoys listening to chamber music when he's pursuing his other passion -- skateboarding. "My favorite piece to skate to is the Shostakovich Octet," he says. "It's extremely crazy and gets me really hyped up."

Coleman plays the Polonaise Brillante by Frederic Chopin.

The quartet Seraphina hails from the Philadelphia area and is comprised of two sets of string-playing sisters: Caeli and Madeline Smith and Genevieve and Sabrina Tabby. Violinist Caeli Smith says that having siblings in the group makes communication easier. "In our group, if somebody's getting out of line, her sister can just yell at her!"

Seraphina plays the fourth movement of Beethoven's String Quartet No.9 in C major, Op. 59, No. 3, as well as "Don't Step on My Toes" by Gwyneth Walker.

Opus is a quartet of string-playing friends from the Columbus area who have been together since the fall of 2003. When they're not tackling string quartets by Beethoven and others, members of the group especially love to tease each other about their individual quirks. One is a know-it-all, another is argumentative, and yet another has moments of confusion.

The group, comprised of 18-year-old violinists Jeffrey Myers and James Rubino, 17-year-old violist Reuben Payne, and 18-year-old Matthew Kufchak (who is a recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award), performs the fourth movement of Beethoven's String Quartet No.9 in C major, Op. 59, No. 3. 

Both Seraphina and Opus can also be seen performing on From the Top: Live from Carnegie Hall.