NPR’s From the Top:”Blanket Fort” Remote Show / Show 387

About

In response to the COVID-19 crisis and cancellations of live recordings of NPR’s From the Top, the program has taken its show to a remote recording format.

Playfully nicknamed “The Blanket Fort Show,” the recording of this program relied on young performers using sophisticated recording equipment (assembled and sent by From the Top) to record themselves at home, surrounded by pillows and blankets, aka blanket forts, to create the best sound experience for the listener. The young performers had online, video tutelage with From the Top’s engineering staff, producers, and musical director in making their recordings.

Host Peter Dugan synched in their accompaniment and conducted remote interviews with the young performers that overtly reference the national health crisis and its impact on these young people.

Performers include a 14-year-old pianist performing Schumann’s ABEGG Variations and a 17-year-old violinist whose parents are both physicians on Long Island working through the COVID-19 crisis.

Guests

• Host: Peter Dugan
  Pianist Peter Dugan is equally at home in classical, jazz, and pop idioms, and has performed with artists ranging from Itzhak Perlman and Joshua Bell to Jesse Colin Young and Glenn Close.

Performers & Repertoire

• Cellist Cameron Chiu, 18, from Palatine, Illinois

  Bach: Prelude from Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009
• Pianist Clara Wrolstad, 14, from Minneapolis, Minnesota

  Schumann: Variations On The Name “Abegg”, op. 1
• Double Bassist Braden Ellis, 18, from Broomall, Pennsylvania

  Massenet: Meditation from Thaïs
• Violinist Alexandra Woroniecka, 17, from Stony Brook, New York

  Carl Engel/arr. Efrem Zimbalist: Sea-Shell
• Purple Hippopotami Flute Quartet, from the Merit School of Music in Chicago

  Emma Krause, 18, flute from Downers Grove, Illinois
  Katherine Chen, 15, from Chicago, Illinois
  Nina Touboul, 17, from Chicago, Illinois
  Natalia (Natasha) Kozintseva, 17, from Chicago, Illinois
  
  Raga Sept “Single” by Derek Charke (b. 1974)

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Release Dates

• Monday, April 27, 2020
• Monday, November 23, 2020
• Monday, April 5, 2021

Release date is when this show is released to NPR stations, here on our website, and to our podcast. Shows are released on a weekly basis; please check your local NPR station listing for the actual airtime in your market. If you'd like, you can visit NPR's "Find Stations" page to look for your station.

Support Provided By

Jack Kent Cooke Foundation

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