Category: Arts Leadership

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 […]

Performing and serving with organizations like From the Top help us recognize that identity and community extend beyond sticky labels of race, gender, nationality, or economic status – these experiences reveal that we are part of a community bound by the sacrifice and diligence required to develop and maintain mastery of our art. Whether in […]

Keitaro Harada first appeared on Show 91, recorded at the Interlochen Arts Academy in 2003, at the age of 18. Then, he came back for From the Top’s 10th Anniversary celebration on Show 216 in 2010 at age 25. Recently, From the Top’s Admissions & Alumni Relations Assistant Janet Fagan caught up with him. Here’s what he’s up to now! […]

Fall has just begun, and we already have lots to catch up on! We’ve produced four shows over the past few weeks, and it’s been quite the whirlwind of activity. We started out in Atlanta, Georgia, where we recorded a show at Emory University’s Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. The Schwartz Center is home […]

Mai Nguyen is a member of our 2015-2016 Center for the Development of Arts Leaders. She recently performed at Goddard House Assisted Living in Brookline, Massachusetts, and sent Shea Mavros, our Education Program Manager, this great note:    Dear Shea, This is probably kind of unexpected, but I really wanted to let you know how […]

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 […]

Flute player Ramakrishnan Kumaran was 16 when he appeared on Show 281 of NPR’s From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley, recorded in Costa Mesa, California in January of 2014. He is entering his sophomore year at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. He wrote this personal essay about his tumultuous first year at the University to […]

Chad Lilley is From the Top’s first Beth Klarman Fellow, spending a summer interning with our marketing and program teams, and has appeared on NPR’s From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley. This is part three of his blog series of seeing the other side of From the Top. You can read parts 1 and […]

We’re back from our week-long trip to Colorado which was packed to the brim with all sorts of events. Colorado is home to two of the best summer music festivals in America, and we were lucky enough to be invited to participate in both. We started out in Vail, as part of the Bravo! Vail […]

We have heavy and grateful hearts here at From the Top today as we remember Gunther Schuller, who passed away over the weekend. Mr. Schuller appeared twice on From the Top; the first early in our history (Show 48) and then in 2011 on a very special “highlight show”, during which he and Christopher O’Riley discussed some of his favorite pieces from […]

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 […]

This outreach event took place during the weekend of Show 305 in Miami, Florida. A shy boy with a mop of dark hair sits quietly on the side of the classroom at Pine Villa Elementary School in Miami, Florida. When Antonio Urrutia, one of the performers on From the Top’s recent residency in the area, […]

“When I was four, I took [my father’s] trumpet when he was taking a break, and I got a good sound.” Elmer Churampi told Christopher O’Riley on Show 268. “On that day, he told me that I was going to be a trumpet player.” And that he would. From the moment Elmer picked up the trumpet, […]

“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 […]

On Friday, February 20th, From the Top’s Education team lead its group of young musicians through the snow-banked streets of Boston. This particular Friday evening would be a bit different than others, and not just because of the weather. Amid the winding, bustling halls of the Boston Children’s Museum, there is a special, large space designed specifically for […]

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 […]

Growing up in Denver, Colorado, Trey Pernell was a student with many talents. Despite some significant challenges in his home life, Trey decided that he would not let that hardship keep him from achieving his goals. For him, “not achieving was not an option.” Beyond his academic pursuits, Trey has very diverse interests that include but also go beyond […]

Music is often referred to as the “universal language.” 17-year-old violinist Chelsea Kim knows this is true. Having moved several times throughout her childhood, Chelsea performed in retirement centers, hospitals, and churches in every new community. This gave her a sense of music’s power to connect people, a theme that would become very important to her life’s […]

Pianist Phuong-Nghi Pham, from Dorchester, MA, was 14 years old when she 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. The letter was part of Phuong-Nghi’s Arts Leadership project, associated with her […]