From the Top

Guest Host Molly Yeh is a young chef with her own show on the Food Channel called "Girl Meets Farm," but before she developed an interest in food, she was an extraordinary classical percussionist who appeared on From the Top over a decade ago when she was just 15-years-old. This week, she returns to introduce us to an impressive lineup of young musicians including a flutist who performs music inspired by the great Maya Angelou and a 14-year-old cellist who gives a dazzling performance of the music Tchaikovsky.

Guest host Orli Shaham's complete break piece recorded during From the Top Episode 361, Brunswick, ME.

Concert pianist Orli Shaham guest hosts this week's From the Top from Brunswick, Maine! We'll hear her talk shop with a superb teenage pianist who performs the music of Brahms, meet a violinist from Maine who happens to do serious biomedical research when he's not in the practice room, and a very young, very fun brother-sister guitar duo plays contemporary music from Brazil. *PERFORMERS* 16-year-old cellist Jiaxun "Caroline" Yao from Flushing, NY performing: I. Prologue: Lent, sostenuto e molto risoluto from the Sonata for Cello and Piano by Claude Debussy with Orli Shaham, piano || Davisson Guitar Duo: Elle Davisson, 10, and Jack Davisson,13, from Palo Alto, CA performing: "Jongo" by Paulo Bellinati || 17-year-old bassoonist Aaron Brown from Shapleigh, ME performing: I. Vivace from the Sonata for Bassoon and Piano by William Hurlstone, with Orli Shaham, piano. || 17-year-old pianist Avery Gagliano from Philadelphia, PA performing: I. Intermezzo in A minor and III. Ballade in G minor from 6 Klavierstücke, Op.118 by Johannes Brahms || 17-year-old violinist Brandon Aponte from Blue Hill, ME performing: "Méditation" from Thaïs by Jules Massenet, with Orli Shaham, piano || Finale: All performers with Orli Shaham perform VI. Le Pas Espagnol from Dolly Suite, Op.56 by Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924), arr. by Simon Frisch

Pulitzer Prize winning composer, Zhou Long is interviewed by host Christopher O'Riley

From East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, this week's From the Top features more than 100 young musicians from across Mainland China in their first ever public performance as the National Youth Orchestra of China under the direction of Maestro Ludovic Morlot. We hear the full ensemble perform "Rhyme of Taigu" by Pulitzer-Prize-winning composer Zhou Long, a young clarinetist shares how he fell in love with the clarinet's sound at his first concert, and five members of the ensemble perform the energetic first movement of Francis Poulenc's Sextet for Piano and Wind Quintet with Christopher O'Riley.