Show 187 | Boston, Massachusetts

On this week's episode, young musicians perform the music of one of America's most original and celebrated composers, William Bolcom. Highlights include a 17-year-old violinist playing his lovely Graceful Ghost Rag, a 14-year-old soprano singing one of his funny cabaret songs, and a teenage ensemble playing a string quartet written when the composer was a boy.

Melanie Sierra from Delray Beach, Florida first performed on From the Top when she was ten years old. Then, a miniature dynamo with a powerful singing voice and the acting chops to match, she performed "They Say It's Wonderful," from Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun. Four years later, now she's back to perform "Amor" from Bolcom's Cabaret Songs, with the composer himself at the piano.

Melanie knew she wanted to be a singer by the time she was three. "I loved watching Judy Garland films, especially the Wizard of Oz," she recalls. "Hearing Judy Garland sing was amazing to me. I became obsessed."

Melanie says years ago her grandmother was also obsessed with singing, but never pursued a career. "In her time it wasn't right for a society girl to perform onstage," explains Melanie, whose sister, Nadine, is an opera singer. "Not only do my sister and I sing for ourselves, but we sing for her too. We are also exploring her dream."

11-year-old Brian Ge from New York City demanded he be allowed to take piano lessons before he had even turned three.

"My older brother played the piano and I liked to sing along," he says. "I couldn't wait to play piano myself." These days, Brian attends the Juilliard School Pre-College Division where he studies piano with renowned teacher Veda Kaplinsky.

In addition to his musical pursuits, Brian is a competitive swimmer, and he also enjoys going to concerts, playing with friends, and picking fights with his older brother.

He performs V (...la belle rouquine), VI (...Pegasus), VII (...this endernight), VIII (...recess in hell), and IX (...Circus Galop) from William Bolcom's Nine Bagatelles.

17-year-old Karen Cueva's earliest memory is of holding a violin at her very first music lesson when she was a toddler, and the experience made such an impact on her that she's been hooked on violin ever since.

A recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award, Karen studies violin at the Walnut Hill, a prestigious arts school just outside of Boston, and she also performs regularly with New England Conservatory's Youth Philharmonic Orchestra. She hails from Burke, Virginia.

Karen performs William Bolcom's Graceful Ghost Rag: Concert Variation for violin and piano, accompanied by Christopher O'Riley.

The Bolcom Bros are 16-year-old violinists Ryan Shannon and Brendan O'Donnell, 17-year-old violist William Neri, and 16-year-old cellist Quinn Kalmansson, all students at the Walnut Hill School in Massachusetts.

The four teens got together to perform a piece William Bolcom wrote when he was just 12 years old -- the Scherzo from his String Quartet No. 2.

This posed a special challenge for the Bros. The music was entirely handwritten and sometimes tricky to decipher, and there were no recordings available for them to reference.

"It was the first time any of us had ever played a piece without listening to a recording to help us figure out an approach to take," says Brendan. "It was a really different experience."

And how did it feel for William Bolcom when he heard his composition played for the first time in over 50 years? In a word: "weird!"

To conclude the show, host Christopher O'Riley joins the Bolcom Bros, playing movements three and four from Bolcom's Piano Quintet.

William Bolcom felt a sense of satisfaction after hearing his works come to life in the hands of these young musicians.

"These kids are phenomenal," he said. "They are among the very best musicians I've ever dealt with!"

Special guest William Bolcom is a composer of cabaret songs, concertos, sonatas, chamber music, operas and symphonies. He was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America, and was honored with multiple Grammy Awards for his ground-breaking setting of William Blake's "Songs of Innocence and of Experience." In 1988 Bolcom was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Twelve New Etudes for piano, and in 2006 he received the National Arts Award. In 2008 James Levine led the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the premiere of Bolcom's Eighth Symphony.