Day 12 + 13: From the Top and more

Wednesday was our live taping on From the Top! It was incredible, working with all the From the Top staff. They undergo such a creative process to put on the show, and overall it was so much fun to be a part of:

It's almost as if From the Top staff have an endless supply of jokes to engage everyone and make them laugh.

The From the Top show was essentially NYO-USA's very first performance, which included the world premiere of Samuel Adams' Radial Play. We got all dressed up in our red pants, white shirts, black ties/kerchiefs, and sneakers. But of course, with every uniform comes a few problems:

Square knots are harder than you may think.

The performance went extremely well. Silvio played a beautiful clarinet solo and three NYO-USA members also performed a riveting Fauré Piano Quartet with From the Top host Chris O'Riley. We played our three orchestral pieces, and after the concert, all of us had a good time at an ice cream social set-up by our awesome NYO staff.

The next day was the second component of our From the Top experience: the Arts Leadership Orientation! Here, we talked about all sorts of issues, such as what it meant to be a 20th Century musician, or how we can engage audiences. It was so amazing seeing everyone speak out and voice their opinions. The whole orientation really went so far to show that all of us can not only play great music, but can also communicate our ideas aloud really well, like so:

As seen at one of the leadership orientation tables

(But of course we talked about many other deeper issues other than candy.)