NPR: From the Top Podcast

The members of Trio Vita — violinist Ryan Murphy, cellist Stanley Moore, and pianist Brian Chang — all study at Midwest Young Artists in Chicago. The three make no bones about their pet peeves with the each other. "Stanley is very vocal, which is fine," says Ryan of the group's cellist, "but he describes his ideas through impossible to understand metaphors!" According to Stanley, Ryan is the annoying one. "I'll be in the middle of a very interesting metaphor, and Ryan will interrupt ...more

The grand finale of From the Top's radio show #176 featured an amazing array of talent. All of the musicians who performed on the program returned to the stage to perform the final two scenes of Engelbert Humperdinck's H?nsel and Gretel. Young singers from the Houston Grand Opera High School Voice Studio and Children's Chorus joined 17-year-old clarinetist Qiudi Zhang, 17-year-old violinist Autumn Chadonowski, 18-year-old violist Rebekah Rudy, 15-year-old violinist Ryan Murphy, 16-year-old celli...more

Performed by: Pamina: Rebekah Camm, soprano (third-year artist with the Houston Grand Opera Studio) 1st spirit: Elizabeth Kaufman, soprano, age 18 from Houston, TX (member of the Houston Grand Opera High School Voice Studio) 2nd spirit: Joan Scheirman, soprano, age 15 from Houston, TX (member of the Houston Grand Opera High School Voice Studio) 3rd spirit: Emily Townsend, soprano, age 17 from Friendswood, TX (member of the Houston Grand Opera High School Voice Studio) — Guest Artist Re...more

Congratulations to Qiudi Zhang, recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award. Qiudi will receive an award of $10,000 to help her continue her music studies and assist her with music-related needs.= When Qiudi Zhang first moved to the U.S. from China, she noticed that many of the kids in her elementary school played instruments so she wanted to play one too. Qiudi asked her grandma, who used to work at an instrument shop, to suggest an instrument for her, and her grandma suggested clarine...more

13-year-old Jonah Ellsworth says he has two personalities. "I have one personality with my friends at school, and another with the people I play with at New England Conservatory on the weekends," he says. "I guess you could say I'm more humble and controlled with my musician friends." As for his friends at school, they know Jonah plays music, but they have never heard him play. His life at school mostly centers around athletics. "I love volleyball and am the captain of the volleyball team," he ...more

The Maggiore Trio -- 12-year-old violinist JiEun "Anna" Lee, 13-year-old cellist Taeguk Mun, and 11-year-old pianist Alice Burla -- are all students at the Juilliard School's Prep Division. Taeguk is brand new to the U.S. having moved from Korea just five months ago to study music here. Playing chamber music is fairly new to all three of them. "It can be harder than playing solo," says Anna, "because when you're a soloist everyone has to follow you. When you play chamber music you need...more

Featuring his compositions I. Le Printemps (3:00) and II. Le Vent et Les Vagues (2:20) from "Five Vignettes for Piano Trio", performed by The Maggiore Trio (see below) Matthew Woodward loves the process of composing music. "When I compose, I sit down at the piano and write everything out by hand," he says. "It's not the most economical process, but I feel a connection to my music. I enjoy thinking up the music and getting it all together in my head before setting it on paper." Only after ...more

Daquise Montgomery started playing flute in the seventh grade after hearing his teacher, Ms. Richardson, perform in a faculty talent show. "Afterwards, I had a dream that she and I were playing a flute duet," he recalls. "I just knew I wanted to play." Daquise started taking flute lessons with Ms. Richardson, but paying for lessons soon took a financial toll on his family. "Ms. Richardson said she'd drop the price because of my situation, but it was still steep for us," recalls Daquise. Th...more

At the age of 15, Kerensa Gimre is already a full-time college student. She's been taking classes at Pacific University in Oregon since the age of 11. "I was home-schooled at the time, and we reached a point when my mom wanted to teach me science, but we weren't allowed to purchase any science equipment," she explains. Her mom started looking for other options, and before long Kerensa was enrolled in classes at the university. One thing led to another, and these days she is enrolled as...more

Composer Stephen Feigenbaum has great respect for all kinds of music and wishes there were less of a divide between popular and classical styles. "I think pop music is a legitimate expression of music and that classical music needs to be better integrated into the mainstream," he explains. "In order to do that, both sides need to agree that they're both good ways of expressing music." Stephen enjoys exposing his friends to modern classical music they wouldn't necessarily hear otherwis...more