Our local public radio station, ever ready to curtail music programs for
more talk shows has apparently cancelled the BBC's "My Music", a 30-minute
program and given us an hour show w/ which listeners in other areas may
already be familiar, and I think that for once we gained on the exchange.
The program is called "From the Top" and features classical musicians 18
years old and under from all over the country.  With all we read about the
decline in classical music and in younger people's interest in same, I find
this program, which I've now heard for the second time, a morale booster.

I was particularly impressed, nay overwhelmed, by a 13-year old violinist
named Lydia Hong, from Northbrook, IL, who performed, what I believe was
her own arrangement of Bizet's "Carmen Fantasy" put together from the
Sarasate version and another version from a composer whose name escapes me
at the moment.  I was transfixed on hearing her first notes, amazed at her
control, her precision, her clarity, and the feeling she projected.  I hope
I'm not gainsaid by too many of the more knowledgeable listeners reading
this, but my suspicion, and indeed my hope, is that we shall be hearing
more from this young violinist as she grows older.

An interesting addition to the program was a "Master Class on Accompanying"
by the show's host, Christopher O'Riley, accompanying Ms Hong and
demonstrating, w/out advance notice, what an accompanist can do wrong,
several times causing the violinist to declare that this was sounding
"awful", to the point where she at one time simply broke off in
mid-performance, to everyone's amusement.

Some programs, but not this one, can be heard off www.fromthetop.com

Walter Meyer