Category: Behind the Scenes

Hello readers! It’s only been two weeks since I started the Klarman fellowship but I feel like I’ve done so much already! Last week I went on a trip to Michigan where the Interlochen Summer Arts Camp is in session, where I actually spent my summers as a tiny fourth grader skipping around campus singing […]

Hi everyone! My name is Haruno Sato, and I am so excited to be working from behind the scenes at From the Top as the Klarman fellow this summer! For the past year, I have been working here as the resident “listener,” or more formally called the Primary Screener (I will elaborate on that a little […]

If there’s one thing that all From the Top musicians and fans can appreciate, it’s the many… ahem…productive hours spent in practice rooms. How many of these have you experienced? Pianist 11-year-old Michael Karshis (you might remember Michael as a certain Star Wars villain in another recent video) Director Tim Banker Producer Mark Williams Director […]

Sure, there’s lots of practicing, and pacing, and getting ready for a big performance. But there’s also a lot of laughs.

Dear Friends, After 12 years, hundreds of radio shows, and countless other productions including two seasons of Emmy-winning television, our long-time music director Tom Vignieri is officially moving on. Tom, his wife Alison, and their two children have relocated to the English countryside to be closer to family in Devon and to give Tom the […]

Recently, we caught up with From the Top alum George Li while he was in town preparing for our recording of NPR’s From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley at Jordan Hall (airing the week of 11/30/15 nationally). This past summer, George received a silver medal at the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition, making him the highest placing American […]

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 […]

BOSTON, MA — SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 — From the Top today announced that it is a grantee recipient of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Arts Innovation and Management (AIM) program. Through the two-year initiative, Bloomberg Philanthropies is providing $30 million across 262 small and mid-sized nonprofit cultural organizations around the country to help strengthen their operational and programming […]

We’re visiting some really amazing concert halls and venues this season, and we want to see your smiling faces in the audience! Join us at one of our upcoming tour stops near you: Saturday, September 19, 2015: Atlanta, Georgia Schwartz Center for Performing Arts Presented by Emory University Sunday, September 27, 2015: Big Sky, Montana […]

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 four of his blog series of seeing the other side of From the Top. You can read parts one, two, […]

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 […]

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 two of his blog series on seeing the other side of From the Top. You can read parts 1 here. *** […]

Prologue: My name is Chad Lilley, and I’m a classical saxophonist and Washington DC area native. I appeared on NPR’s From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley in the fall of my junior year: October 5, 2013, in the near acoustically (and aesthetically) perfect Jordan Hall at The New England Conservatory. In the summer after […]

Oh Chautauqua, how I miss you already! I’m home in Boston now, but just days ago I was at the Chautauqua Institution in Southwestern New York, where we recorded an episode of our radio show. If you haven’t heard of Chautauqua, let me paint a quick picture for you: imagine a huge, private summer resort completely […]

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, […]

This is a special look into Show 305. To listen, click here. When 14-year-old Matthew Hakkarainen pulled the bow across the strings of his violin and the last note of the Kreisler Praeludium and Allegro rang out through Gusman Concert Hall at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, the audience erupted in applause. […]

This is pianist Anna Boonyanit reflecting on her journey to performing on NPR’s From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley, Show 281. She was 14 years old at the time.  My Home – February 9, 2014 7:19 pm My name had just been announced through my antiquated JVC radio propped on the floor of my bedroom. I had […]

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 […]

Backstage at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium, 8-year-old pianist Oscar Paz-Suaznabar has his head bent over a cell phone, launching angry birds at stubborn pigs, and From the Top alum Clifton Williams reaches over to show him a trick. Clifton has recently graduated college and moved to Los Angeles to build a career composing and […]