FROM THE TOP - Key Persons
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- Production Operations Coordinator
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- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Member of the Board of Advisors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Advisors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Charles Yang, recipient of the 2018 Leonard Bernstein Award has been described by the Boston Globe as one who "plays classical violin with the charisma of a rock star." A graduate from the Juilliard School, Mr. Yang began his violin studies with his mother in Austin, Texas, and has since studied with world-renowned pedagogues Kurt Sassmanshaus, Paul Kantor, Brian Lewis and Glenn Dicterow. He first appeared on From the Top as a 14 year-old and has been featured on radio, PBS' "From the Top at Carnegie Hall" and numerous other From the Top projects ever since. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras and in recitals in the United States, Europe, Brazil, Russia, China, and Taiwan, and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. On June 9th of 2005, the Mayor of Austin presented Mr. Yang with his own "Charles Yang Day." He joined the genre-defying trio, Time for Three in 2016. Visit his website at charlesyangmusic.com.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Director of Individual Giving
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- Chairman of the Board of Advisors
- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Chairman of the Board of Directors
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- Director of Marketing & Communications
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- Scholarship & Recruitment Manager
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- Development Database Manager
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Advisors
Executive Director Gretchen Nielsen joined the national non-profit From the Top in March, 2018 with more than 20 years of experience leading national and international arts initiatives, most notably as the LA Phil's Vice President of Educational Initiatives where she partnered with Music Director Gustavo Dudamel to establish and build YOLA, a youth music and social change project inspired by Venezuela's El Sistema.
Gretchen's focus at From the Top has been to reimagine the organization's business model in an ever-evolving 21 st century media and educational landscape while maintaining its commitment to its popular NPR's From the Top radio broadcast which reaches half a million listeners weekly. Under Gretchen's tenure, From the Top has successfully transitioned from a 19-year host of the radio program to a host who is a dynamic alum of the program and a diverse team of Co-Hosts and Creatives. She has championed and expanded From the Top's digital footprint, with a growing emphasis on DIY youth driven and created media. She has also deepened the organization's investment in arts leadership training, community engagement experiences, and career development. Gretchen's passion: supporting young artists in utilizing their artistry as a humanitarian tool to connect to people, fueling an exchange that transforms both artist and audience in a community setting, a concert hall, or through media.
Job Titles:
- Marketing Operations Specialist
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- Admissions and Scholarship Coordinator
Joanne Robinson has a broad arts and communications background. She has performed with several children's theater companies and worked on production teams of two children's television programs. A long-standing member of the From the Top team, when Joanne is not on tour with the radio show, she can be found in From the Top's Marketing & Communications department, where she oversees the visual identity of From the Top. Joanne studied theater arts and anthropology at Brandeis University and graphic design at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Audio Technology and Engineering
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- Member of the Board of Directors
- Treasurer
- Vice Chair
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Advisors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Kara Sainz (mezzo-soprano) first appeared on From the Top as a soloist in 2010. Originally from Temecula, California, she is a rising fourth year undergraduate student at The Juilliard School, where she is a recipient of the Jerome L. Greene Fellowship and a student of Edith Bers. Kara was awarded the ASCAP foundation's 2010 Lieber and Stoller Scholarship as well as a Grand-Prize Finalist Award in the coveted Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Awards in 2008, for which she performed in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. This summer Ms. Sainz will return to Aspen Summer Music Festival to perform the role of La Ciesca in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi.
Kara is a Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist.
Last week we posted a great Arts Leadership project that was created and executed by alum Kara Sainz (soprano). We just got word that Kara has won a …
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Advisors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Advisors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Alex Laing's work represents a modern take on orchestral practice. Principal clarinet of The Phoenix Symphony, he is active as a performing and teaching artist, passionate and curious about design and learning, and actively exploring the push and pull between a legacy art form and its unfixed future.
In addition to his work with The Phoenix Symphony, recent seasons have found him contributing his sound in a range of other projects including: as a soloist with the Sphinx Virtuosi at Carnegie Hall, with Lawrence Brownlee (in both the world premiere and visual recording of Tyshawn Sorey's Cycle of My Being), with the Re-Collective Orchestra (in the 2019 soundtrack recording of Disney's The Lion King) and as a member of Gateways Festival Orchestra.
Alex is frequently sought for his thought leadership and has been an invited speaker to the annual conferences of both the Association of British Orchestras and the League of American Orchestras where, in 2019 he was a keynote speaker. Shaped around his belief that ‘music isn't just sound; it is sounds, and words, and people', his practice has been honored, most recently with a 2018 Sphinx Medal of Excellence and in 2017 named one of Musical America's Professionals of the Year.
As a teacher he has been a frequent collaborator with the Los Angeles Philharmonic's YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles) program, and a faculty member for both the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA) and the League of American Orchestras' ‘Essentials of Orchestra Management Seminar'. He's currently lead faculty for the YOLA National Institute and serves on the board of directors for Gateways Music Festival and Arizona School for the Arts.
Molly Yeh is the star of Food Network's new series Girl Meets Farm. She rose to national prominence with the debut of her memoir, Molly On The Range: Recipes and Stories from an Unlikely Life on a Farm. Her cookbook was selected by the New York Times as one of the fall's top releases of 2016 and was the winner of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), "Judge's Award." The book was also selected by NPR as one of their "Great Reads of 2016." In March 2018, Molly followed the release with Yogurt by Short Stack Editions, featuring recipes dedicated to an ingredient she calls "the duct tape of food."
She is also the creator of the lifestyle food blog, www.mynameisyeh.com, which has been recognized by Saveur and Yahoo as "Food Blog of the Year." Molly has been featured by the New York Times, Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, and New York Magazine, and has contributed to Vanity Fair, Saveur, Condé Nast Traveler, Food52, and The Jewish Daily Forward. She was named to Forbes' 30 under 30 list for 2017 and Apartment Therapy's 10 under 40 list.
Outside the kitchen, Molly is a Juilliard-trained percussionist and has performed with orchestras around the world, in off-Broadway theatre, and as the glockenspielist for the pop-band San Fermin. She lives on a farm on the North Dakota-Minnesota border with her fifth-generation farmer husband and their little flock of chickens.
Job Titles:
- Director of Production Operations & Programming
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Advisors
Molly Yeh is the star of Food Network's new series Girl Meets Farm. She rose to national prominence with the debut of her memoir, Molly On The Range: Recipes and Stories from an Unlikely Life on a Farm. Her cookbook was selected by the New York Times as one of the fall's top releases of 2016 and was the winner of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), "Judge's Award." The book was also selected by NPR as one of their "Great Reads of 2016." In March 2018, Molly followed the release with Yogurt by Short Stack Editions, featuring recipes dedicated to an ingredient she calls "the duct tape of food."
She is also the creator of the lifestyle food blog, www.mynameisyeh.com, which has been recognized by Saveur and Yahoo as "Food Blog of the Year." Molly has been featured by the New York Times, Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, and New York Magazine, and has contributed to Vanity Fair, Saveur, Condé Nast Traveler, Food52, and The Jewish Daily Forward. She was named to Forbes' 30 under 30 list for 2017 and Apartment Therapy's 10 under 40 list.
Outside the kitchen, Molly is a Juilliard-trained percussionist and has performed with orchestras around the world, in off-Broadway theatre, and as the glockenspielist for the pop-band San Fermin. She lives on a farm on the North Dakota-Minnesota border with her fifth-generation farmer husband and their little flock of chickens.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Advisors
This week on From the Top's podcast, we have a special performance of Peter Dugan's own arrangement of Holst's "Jupiter: The …
Our host Peter Dugan catches up with WRTI's Susan Lewis about being host of From the Top, balancing a diverse career, and life since Covid-19 in this …
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Advisors
Job Titles:
- Audio Engineer and Associate Producer / Development & Marketing / Communications
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Advisors