http://www.cleveland.com/musicdance/index.ssf/2010/02/leaving_football_behind_cellis.html

Matthew also appears on the CD From the Top at the Pops recorded with the Cincinnati Pops last year.

DoSomething.org and the VH1 Save The Music Foundation want YOU to lead the fight to keep music education in schools. School budgets are being slashed nationwide. Music and arts programs are often the first to go. Join the biggest Battle Of The Bands in history!
Here’s how:

• Starting March 1st, create a video of your garage band, glee club, freestyle, orchestra, or any other musical performance.
• Include a testimonial about why music education matters to you.
• Upload it and share it with as many people as you can!
• Get your friends to login and vote for your video.
• By April 16, submit your results.

Learn more at www.dosomething.org/bands

Now then… on to the show! Last night’s taping celebrated music making in the great Midwest. First up was Allan Steele, a Chicago-based cellist who was on our program fairly recently as a member of the Aurelia Quartet. This time, he was playing solo Shostakovich, and he played it brilliantly. Next up was Iowa native Thomas Burrill, a talented pianist who played a beautiful Chopin piece. Flutist Meekyoung Lee of Michigan provided one of my favorite moments from last night. Our producers surprised her by having a “person from her past” phone in during the taping, and her reaction (shocked, thrilled, and perhaps a tad mortified) was completely genuine and sweet. Fourth up was the Iowa-based duo of harpist Katherine Siochi and cellist Andrew Altmaier, who played an original piece by composer Jeremiah Siochi. Closing the show, the Bone Rangers from Chicago’s Merit School of Music brought down the house with a piece by Simon Wells that one of the members described as “going to a carnival that starts out fun but turns out to be evil.” I thought that described the atmosphere of the piece perfectly!

I have a flipcam preview for you below. Pretty much all of it was taken during dress rehearsal except for the part at the end where you see my startled face turn around and blow a kiss. That was taken during the actual taping by one sneaky performer who nabbed the flipcam and snuck behind the curtain during the show! Excellent work, my friend.

The late Ellen Masaki conducts a five-piano ten-pianist arrangement of "Aragonaise" from Georges Bizet's Carmen on From the Top's show #170 in Maui. Mrs. Masaki passed away in the fall and is remembered on this week's broadcast.

On this week’s broadcast of From the Top, we honor Honolulu piano teaching legend Ellen Masaki and Honokaa High School Jazz Band (Hawaii) Director Gary Washburn. Tell us about a music teacher that has made a difference in your life. We’ll feature some of our favorite entries  right here on our Green Room blog. Send an email to enewlsetter@fromthetop.org with subject line “music teacher”.

“We feel very fortunate to have Jeffrey’s leadership. His expertise will guide us as we enter a new decade full of opportunities and promise,” says From the Top co-CEO Gerald Slavet.

“It has been a privilege and a pleasure to serve on From the Top’s board and to oversee its extraordinary growth over the past decade. As Chairman, I look forward with excitement and humility to building on the foundation that was laid by our Founding Chairman, Francis Hunnewell, and to helping propel this amazingly entrepreneurial and creative organization into a future of multiple venues, channels, and media. I know we will aim to inspire ever-deeper levels of engagement with kids, communities, and audiences as we showcase both the talent and the personalities of our remarkable young musicians, “ says Rayport.

Presiding over From the Top’s February 11 Board of Directors meeting, Rayport welcomed four new members to the Board. Richard Davis, a seasoned professional with more than 30 years of executive experience, has been appointed as Director. Cynthia Curme, musician and Trustee of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Eran Egozy, co-Founder and CTO of Harmonix (inventors of Guitar Hero); and media entrepreneur Robert Williams have been appointed as Overseers.

ABOUT JEFFREY F. RAYPORT

Rayport brings more than 20 years of experience in digital and mainstream media, marketing, and information services to his new role as From the Top Chairman. Prior to joining the private equity firm Castanea Partners in September, he was Founder and Chairman of Marketspace LLC, a division of the global management consulting and merchant banking firm Monitor Group. Marketspace advises market-leading companies on customer experience and multi-channel strategy in the networked economy.

As one of the most popular faculty members at Harvard Business School for nearly a decade, Rayport’s expertise lies in increasing the impact of new media technologies on companies’ service and marketing strategies. At HBS, he developed the nation’s first MBA-level e-commerce course, and coined the term “viral marketing.” His writing has appeared in a variety of print and online publications, including Business Week, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, The Los Angeles Times, and McKinsey Quarterly, among others, and he frequently appears as a business commentator on television and radio.

Rayport serves as a director of several public and private companies, including GSI Commerce, i-Crossing, International Data Group, ValueClick, and Andrews McMeel Universal. He is a Trustee of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA. Rayport earned a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College; a Masters of Philosophy in International Relations from the University of Cambridge (U.K.); and a Master of Arts in the History of American Civilization and a Ph.D. in Business History, both from Harvard University.  He and his wife Hillary and son, Abraham, live in Boston, MA.

Daniel Tekunoff, 17, Guitar
I. Allegretto from Sonatina by Lennox Berkeley

The “Allegro” is a great piece of music that reminds me of the “Jurassic Park” theme. In fact, when I play this piece, sometimes I try to envision an orchestra playing it, and then transfer that idea into my playing…I find that the diverse techniques Berkeley used in this piece are a great representation of what I do as a classical guitarist.

Alexander Hersh, 16, Cello
III. Rasch und mit Feuer from Fantasy Pieces for Cello & Piano by Robert Schumann

I think the piece is great and captures the beauty of Schumann’s music. I love the almost schizophrenic nature of the piece. It mixes beauty and fire.

I’ve played it quite a bit and it was a piece, when I originally learned it, I had to ask if I could play it and I remember my teacher made me finish Brahms e minor first so this piece was I guess, a goal for me. The hardest thing about it is making it sound decent.

Hailey Markman, 17, Soprano
“Monica’s Waltz” from The Medium by Gian Carlo Menotti
Learn more about The Medium
See Monica’s Waltz staged
Lyrics

This piece, Monica’s Waltz, is definitely my favorite one to perform. The aria is very dramatic, and the mood changes drastically at the drop of a hat. In my opinion, the best part of performing is the interpretation of a song, and this piece allows me to really immerse myself in so many different emotions and make the audience feel those emotions.

The most important thing to get across to the audience is to make the transition from each motion clear. This piece shifts emotionally from light and happy to angry to desperate, to name a few, so making the audience feel and understand each emotion is difficult, but very rewarding when they respond at the close of the piece.

Hannah Cho, 15, Violin
Sonatensatz in C minor, Scherzo, Op. posth. by Johannes Brahms

It is such a virtuosic piece and the first time I heard it, I was blown away by how much energy the performer gives off to the audience. Before I play the piece, I think about how young Brahms composed the piece with a lot of passion and ambition. The piece itself has a story behind it, as the Scherzo is part of a Sonata written for Joseph Joachim by Brahms, Schumann, and Schumann’s student Albert Dietrich. The Sonata is called the “FAE” sonata for Joachim’s personal motto “frei aber einsam” – free but lonely. After the first performance of the sonata, the composition was almost forgotten until Schumann took his two movements and wrote his third violin sonata. The first movement, written by Brahms, was so favored by Joachim that he decided to publish the Scherzo separately as a Sonatensatz! My favorite part of the piece would be the trio in the middle section since the beauty comes from the tension underneath the lyrical melodies.

When people hear the word “scherzo,” they think of a lively piece that is like a fun and light dance, but the unique aspect of the Brahms Scherzo is that it has a heavier and darker theme. The hard thing to nail is having to convey to the audience the feeling of moving forward and almost pushing ahead, while one is actually holding back and staying in strict rhythm.

Parker Quartet

American Public Media’s Performance Today has partnered with the world-renowned Parker Quartet (featuring several From the Top alums) to offer an exciting national competition opportunity for young aspiring classical string quartets.

Performance Today will award the winning quartet a Master Class with the Parker Quartet in APM’s state-of-the-art Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Music Studio in St. Paul, Minnesota. The prize includes a CD recording of the class, as well as airfare and hotel accommodations.

All contestants must be 14 years of age and older and be attending high school or an undergraduate college program.

Learn more on how to enter.

Aaron Pinsky

We are extremely saddened to learn of the passing of alum Aaron Pinsky after a battle with brain cancer. Aaron, 25, was a dedicated French Horn player who studied at New England Conservatory’s Prep School in Boston and performed twice in the Massachusetts All State Orchestra. He continued to perform as part of the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra while attending Williams College, where he was also sports editor of the college’s newspaper. After graduation, Aaron worked as a Market Research Consultant for Marketing and Planning Systems in Waltham.

Aaron appeared on From the Top’s 49th show back in 2001 with his wind octet from NEC. On the episode Christopher O’Riley praised Aaron’s commanding ‘radio voice’ and played a clip of Aaron’s radio show “Any Given Wednesday” at Concord-Carlisle High School. Honor Aaron with us today and listen to his performance on our web site (he comes in at about 35 minutes in). We know he was very proud to have performed on From the Top. His wind octet was truly one of the best we’ve heard in our ten years on the air.

Our thoughts are with Aaron’s family and fiancee. You can read more about his life here.

He had already accomplished great things musically. He played practically every woodwind instrument, was an award-winning pianist, and at 16 had been featured on From the Top’s radio program while attending Interlochen Arts Camp. But he also excelled academically.

Ultimately, LaMont chose to attend Harvard University, where he graduated with high honors in biochemistry. Though he focused on science, he kept up with music, serving as Associate Principal Bassoon of the New England Philharmonic, performing regularly with other ensembles in the Boston area, and winning a campus-wide concerto competition. Today, LaMont, 26, is completing his studies at Columbia University’s Medical School and continuing to play bassoon and piano as much as he can. Read more about LaMont’s story.

What difficult choices have you made? If you studied music and have chosen a different career path, how have you stay involved in music? What does music mean for you now?

Flynn Center for the Performing Arts. Photo by Jim Westphalen.

Hi all! This weekend we taped a radio show in Burlington, Vermont at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, a beautifully restored vaudeville house right in the center of town.

I was so excited for the taping because one of my favorite performers was invited back as a 10th Anniversary guest – soprano Nadine Sierra, who was originally on our show six years ago when she was 15. Back then I remember being astonished by how rich and beautiful her voice was, and I was really looking forward to hearing her sing again.

Nadine Sierra. Photo by: New York Times.

This time around the now 21-year-old Nadine sang a gorgeous aria from Charles Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet. Surveying the audience from my perch onstage, I could tell that they were as thrilled by her performance as I was. She also spoke about her surprise at winning the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions last year (that’s kind of like the American Idol of the classical world). It’s the kind of competition that launches major careers, so I can’t wait to see what’s in store for Nadine in the future!

As usual, the taping also featured a diverse array of outstanding kid musicians – and this show featured a whole flock of them. There was Leland Ko, a precocious 11-year-old who wowed everyone with his cello skills; JeeHae Ahn, 18, who gorgeously played Liszt on piano; and a quartet of teenage bassoonists who performed a new piece of music written by 17-year-old Timothy Woos (who has been honored by ASCAP as a composer).

The show closed with the 93-member Vermont Youth Orchestra playing a movement from Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra by Joseph Schwantner. The piece featured a cadenza section improvised by teenage percussionist Nick Bonaccio. You couldn’t see him too well from the audience as he was placed in the back of the orchestra, so I snuck in with my handy flip cam during dress rehearsal to give you a peek at his mad skills. Check out the video below – and don’t forget to tune in when this show airs the week of May 10th!