>>Gerald Slavet: Hi, everybody.
I'm Jerry Slavet.
I am the founder and co-CEO of From the Top.
It's a pleasure to be here.
And From the Top is a nonprofit organization that celebrates the power of music in the
hands of incredible young musicians.
You have been listening to some of these incredible young players all through today, and you'll
be hearing from them again tomorrow.
But before I tell you anything about the organization, I'd like to begin simply by telling you why
do I do this.
Every thriving civil society values its arts and the role and voices of its artists.
And as leaders in society, it's our obligation to support the arts, to advocate for the importance
of arts education for our kids.
About 15 years ago I was doing some volunteer work for my daughter's youth orchestra and
I realized that the majority of the kids in that orchestra didn't even want any of their
friends to know that they played classical music.
So I noticed that a 12- or a 14-year-old kid may go off to an international piano or cello
competition competing against 20-year-olds and bring home first prize and no one at the
school would ever know what had happened.
Some kid at the school made it to the all-state football team.
That kid was treated as a superhero.
Now, there's nothing wrong with celebrating our young athletes, but I thought it's about
time we celebrate our young artists in the same way and give them a national platform.
[ Applause ] >>Gerald Slavet: And that's what we do at
From the Top.
We have a national tour of live events of we have a weekly NPR radio show.
We did two seasons of public television where we won two Emmys.
We have a very robust scholarship program for low-income kids and we have an extensive
outreach and education program, going into community centers and schools.
We have learned, and we capitalize on the power of these young musicians as role models.
Now, almost every one of the kids that appear on the show and that you have been hearing
today and will hear tomorrow have a long list of achievements, honors, competitions they've
won.
But just as we do every week on our show, I'd like to tell you a little bit about the
personal side of these kids.
I'm going to start off with Adai Williams (phonetic), the young violinist whom you saw
and heard, beautiful young woman.
And at the age of 15 she won one of our $10,000 scholarships, and now at the ripe old age
of 16 she has this incredible positive driving personality of sharing and that has propelled
her to some incredible opportunities, winning competitions, playing with symphony orchestras
all around the country.
But what impresses me the most about Adai is that she is driven with passion to raise
money to help end homelessness in Chicago where I am told there are more than 18,000
homeless kids in the Chicago school system.
That's what impresses me about Adai.
Kadar Kwan (phonetic), our pianist.
Hard for me to believe that he is already 15.
He is an honor student at his public school, president of his class.
In addition to last year winning first prize in the International Chopin Competition, he
did over a hundred concerts in the United States and China, including the Boston Pops,
but I love his story about how when he was 13, he designed an iPhone app for his math
teacher in middle school and for her math class.
Very impressive, in his spare time.
It's really amazing to watch these kids grow up.
Nathan Chan.
My God.
My memory of Nathan goes back -- First of all, right now Nathan is in the five-year
program at Columbia and Juilliard, but when Nathan was 14 he first applied to be on From
the Top, and back then it was very rare, I don't know of any other kid who sent in a
video with their application.
And there was Nathan sitting I think in his bedroom, staring into the camera in his computer
telling jokes and telling us how he could cross his eyes while he played the cello.
It was just an omen of things to come and here he is with a YouTube video hitting 3
million.
So that was the first of many.
Roberto Granados, the guitar player.
We first met Roberto when he have was 9, already an extraordinary classical guitarist.
Now he is 14.
He has played for President Obama.
He represented From the Top at the Emmys.
Last year he gave a TedX Talk entitled "Music Heals and Connects."
And it's amazing because he plays every genre of music, although he is extraordinary on
classical guitar.
Tomorrow you will hear 18-year-old mandolin player Gordon Neidinger.
He is in a mandolin orchestra, in three blue grass ensembles, and we pulled him out of
class because he just started his freshman year at the Berkeley School of Music.
I saved for last Lauren Chipman, a young lady you will actually be hearing from later in
this session as she accompanies someone who is performing or presenting.
Lauren exemplifies for us the 21st century musician.
She was one of the first alums to appear on our show.
She plays principal viola in two professional symphony orchestras, she's in an Indie rock
band.
You will often see her on either American Idol or The Voice in the studio band, and
she really helped bring together all the musical performances of the kids.
These kids exemplify what we look for when we book a kid on the show.
Interests beyond their music and exceptional stories to tell.
I hope you'll find them and talk to while we're around.
We're often asked are prodigies.
I don't know.
Are all you successful people out there geniuses?
You may think you are.
But the truth is these kids have learned the principles of discipline, passion and focus.
They have found something they love and they work their butts off, and we all know that's
what creates success.
So before I conclude, I really would simply like to leave here with a plea.
Here we are.
We're spending a couple of days exploring ideas like imagination, inspiration, a sense
of wonder.
The arts are the roots of these ideals.
The arts feed the creation of great things in all fields.
Find an arts organization that you love somewhere in your community and support them.
There are many ways you can help the arts community.
We all struggle and need your support to keep our arts and culture moving on.
We hope these musical interludes have inspired you.
We hope you learn more about us in the next day or two and I just want to tell you what
a privilege it is to be here and share with you.
Thank you very much.
[ Applause ]