4/2 From the Top celebrates National Disabilities Awareness Month. Peter Dugan hosts with co-host Julia LaGrand, a teen violinist and Disability Advocate, and special guest Itzhak Perlman. This episode will feature four talented young musicians, ages 14-26, who are disabled and/or neurodivergent. Performers include Joshua Thrush, a 15-year-old double bassist from Vienna, VA, who began studying music when spina bifida made it difficult to keep up with youth sports leagues; Tristen Chen, a 14-year-old pianist from San Jose, CA, who uses Braille scores to learn his repertoire; Adam Mandela Walden, a 26-year-old cellist from Los Angeles, CA, who believes his musical skills are sharpened by his autism; Grace Novacheck, a 16-year-old pianist from Westlake, TX, who shares her journey with music and Escobar Syndrome with more than 105k TikTok followers.
4/9 We’ll hear pianist Brandon Hwang perform Chopin; bassoonist Nathan Shepherd plays Saint-Saëns; oboist Spencer Rubin plays Bach with guest co-host Tessa Lark; violinist Bobby Boogyeom Park performs Bartók and gets some tips from Lark; and guitarist Daniela Santiago Martinez plays an arrangement for guitar of music by Giuliani.
4/16 Pianist Nathaniel Zhang performs Chopin; violinist Kei Obata plays Grasse; Carrera Stamile plays Bach on mandolin; cellist Danielle Yoon plays Beethoven; flutist Julin Cheung plays Barber; and pianist William Gannon performs music by Franz Schubert.
![Stars Aligned Siblings is a family quartet comprised of Dustin (14/violin), Starla (13/cello), Valery (11/violin), and Colin (8/viola) Breshears.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/85008a0/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1280x720+0+0/resize/880x495!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F74%2F6b%2Fe7344c284553b13f2bd585d5bdd1%2Fstars-aligned-siblings.jpg)
4/23 A late Beethoven piano sonata is performed by a pianist Tyler Kim; the string quartet “The Stars Aligned Siblings” performs music by Florence Price; violinist Hannah Park plays a Polonaise by Wieniawski; flutist Rodrigo Rodriguez plays Patiño; and cellist Christy Choi shares a moving performance of Rachmaninoff.
4/30 This week we hear violinist Dexter Doris perform music by George Enescu; pianist Jordan Manasse plays Prokofiev; violist Iris Hur performs Hindemith; and we hear a work by young composer Yuri Lee.