"Top" Kids Tops

“Once again, from the top,” might have been the introduction to Tuesday night’s taping of the popular NPR talent show at Music Hall.
   On its prior visit to the Queen City in 2003, “From the Top,” the weekly showcase young classical musicians hosted by pianist Christopher O’Riley, drew the largest audience for a live recording in the show’s history.
   A large crowd was on hand once again for O’Riley, roving reporter Caeli Veronica Smith, announcer Joanne Robinson and their latest crop of musical talent.
   This time all of the performers were from the Cincinnati area: pianist Kevin Bao, 10, of Mason the Fresh Winds Trio of West Chester (saxophonists Thomas Kraynak, 18, Morgan Ferris, 17, and Tom Turner, 18) the 60-voice May Festival Youth Chorus, directed by James Bagwell violinist Sophie Pariot, 14, of Loveland and cellist Christoph Sassmannshaus, 17, of Clifton.

Kevin Bao

The Fresh Winds Trio

   It was Allegro con brio start to finish, from WGUC-FM announcer Naomi Lewin’s cheerleader-like introduction to the chorus’ joyful finale, “Saints Bound for Heaven.”

Sophie Pariot

Christoph Sassmannshaus

   The Music Hall stage held a nine-foot Steinway grand piano, risers for the chorus backed by Music Hall’s handsome ivory acoustical towers, stations for O’Riley and Robinson on opposite sides of the stage, and to remind the listeners of what was happening, the show’s logo and a white-lit “On the Air” sign prominently displayed on an easel to the right.
   The towers were bathed in shades of indigo, pink and gold, giving the hall a warm, inviting look.
   Tour producer David Balsom, producer Tom Voegeli and Robinson began with some “audience training” and a warm-up, including a cautionary cacophony of cell phone ringtones (a no-no), a ritual cough and an exhortation to “laugh, really,” aided by a character in a fluffy chicken costume.
   Pianist O’Riley followed with the show’s theme song and complimented Music Hall’s “perfect melding of music and architecture.”
   O’Riley then introduced, interviewed and bantered in his charmingly deadpan way with each of the young musicians (interviews for FTT are prepared by NPR staffers who make one-hour phone calls to the participants, Balsom said).
   Violinist Pariot and roving reporter Smith (just 14 and a violinist herself) led off by demonstrating some of the “exercises we hate” to practice and how to blow off steam afterwards with “Laffy Taffy” (corny jokes). Her showpiece was Kreisler’s gypsy-flavored “La Gitana.”
   Lakota High Schoolers the Fresh Winds shared their episode with a fellow Lakota saxophonist, who presented a mock protest at the “dilettante” (i.e. classical) trio’s pre-emption of the sax spotlight with such “vapid repertoire” as Philip Buttall’s “William Tell” Overture pastiche, “The Lone Ar-ranger Goes Sax Mad.” “I counted 23 tunes,” said O’Riley.
   Bao explained how his teacher, Northern Kentucky University professor Sergei Polusmiak, advised him to “play with a warm heart and a cool brain,” then demonstrated just that in Ukrainian composer Isak Berkovich’s “Variations on a Theme of Paganini.”
   O’Riley himself encored with a selection from his new CD of Nick Drake arrangements (he is known for his arrangements of Radiohead and other popular artists).
   Sassmannshaus performed a touching Bloch “Prayer” (with O’Riley on piano), then followed up with a few licks of bluesy harmonica. The chorus filed in silently as Sassmannshaus shared his experience mentoring an autistic child, including a taped excerpt from a special needs classroom.
   Bagwell led his charges in two songs by Virgil Thomson (to verses of Thomas Campion), then joined choristers Kara Cover, Alice Flanders and Alex Muetzel in interchanges with O’Riley about classical music (“not boring,” said Cover) and how not to sing in the chorus, which Bagwell demonstrated with a choice Bo Bice (“American Idol”) imitation.
   The singers re-joined the chorus for Robert Shaw’s arrangement of the lively spiritual, then the crowd filed into the lobby to meet O’Riley and Co. and representatives of the consortium who sponsored the Cincinnati taping, WGUC-FM, the Cincinnati Arts Association, Cincinnati Symphony, Music Teachers National Association, NKU Music Preparatory Department, Starling Project and University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
   The show airs at 9 a.m. April 21 on WGUC-FM and on 250 stations nationwide.
(first published in The Cincinnati Post Feb. 22, 2007)