From the Top, the non-profit known for its hit radio and television broadcasts featuring the nation’s best young classical musicians and hosted by acclaimed concert pianist Christopher O’Riley, returns to the Aspen Music Festival and School for a live concert recording in Harris Concert Hall on Sunday, August 10 at 8 p.m. This episode is slated to broadcast nationally the week of November 17, 2008.
This special concert will feature young musicians from around the world who have come to study this summer at Aspen. Those scheduled to appear include:
Colton Peltier, a 13-year-old pianist from Hastings, MN, 18-year-old soprano Julia Metzler from Glendale, CA, 16-year-old violinist Ga-Yeon Lee from Ridgewood, NJ and 18-year-old flutist Douglas DeVries from Stevenson Ranch, CA. Rounding out the program is an oboe quartet coached by Aspen Music Festival and School Faculty member Darrett Adkins; the quartet features 17-year-old oboist Beverly Wang from Toronto, Canada, 16-year-old violinist Mikaela Holland from Bellevue, WA, 16-year-old violist Meredith Treaster, and 17-year-old cellist Emma Bobbs from Pepper Pike, OH. Ga-Yeon and Douglas are both recipients of From the Top’s $10,000 Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award. As on every live From the Top radio and television taping, the Aspen taping will highlight these performers’ musicianship as well as their lives outside of music through interviews with O’Riley.
From the Top is heard on more than 200 other radio stations coast-to-coast and the PBS television program From the Top at Carnegie Hall, a 13-part series taped at Carnegie Hall and hosted by O’Riley, debuts on Rocky Mountain PBS on Sunday, July 6 at 10:30pm. Several of the more than 40 pre-college aged soloists featured on the television series are participants at Aspen Music Festival and School this summer. Performer bios, streaming episodes and podcasts are available at pbs.org/fromthetop.
Tickets for From the Top at Harris Concert Hall are $30 and are available at the Harris Concert Hall and Wheeler Opera House box offices, online at aspenmusicfestival.com or by calling (970) 925-9042.