Classical Youth of Massachusetts

From the Top, based at the New England Conservatory in Boston, searches for the most dynamic and accomplished young musicians across the country.  For this week's program, though, the search didn't have to go far. 

The Commonwealth has a rich history of stellar music education programs, from public schools to extra-curricular college-based organizations to hundreds of private instructors, and several young people who have come through those programs are featured with host Christopher O'Riley on Saturday at 11am and Sunday at 5pm, including

18-year-old mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey, a Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award winner from Marshfield, who sings Charles Gounod's "Que fais-tu, blanche tourterelle," from Roméo et Juliette.









16-year-old cellist Jonah Ellsworth, a student at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, who performs the fourth movement from Brahms’s Trio in A minor, Op. 114, with special guest clarinetist Eran Egozy, co-founder of Harmonix Music Systems, the company that created the Rock Band and Guitar Hero video games.




15-year-old pianist Mackenzie Melemed from Paxton, who is a sophomore at Bancroft School in Worcester and performs Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 28.











The Walnut Hill Sextet, an ensemble from the Walnut Hill School in Natick made up of  18-year-old flutist Michal Zeleny from Fort Myers, Florida, 17-year-old oboist Samuel Waring from Belmont, Massachusetts, 17-year-old clarinet player Nicholas Davies from Nantucket, Massachusetts, 18-year-old bassoon player David Cornelius from Jacksonville, Florida, 17-year-old French horn player Natasha Ramanujam from Fremont, California, and pianist Hai-Yun Song from China, who perform Poulenc's Sextet for Piano and Winds.

For more on the program, visit From the Top, and tune in on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 11am, and Sunday, Feb. 27 at 5pm.