Gallia performs on Show 399, recorded at the Colburn School of Music in Los Angeles, California. As a teenager, she appeared on Show 272 and on Show 277 with Quartet Lumière, both recorded in 2013.

Gallia Kastner has been the concertmaster of the American Youth Symphony since 2016 and has won numerous local, national, and international competitions, both as a soloist and a chamber musician. She is a winner of the Pasadena Showcase Competition, the Cooper International Violin Competition, the Blount Slawson National Concerto Competition in Montgomery, Alabama, the Triennial Johansen International Competition in Washington DC, and most recently the American Youth Symphony Concerto Competition, which includes an opportunity to solo with the orchestra in the Fall of 2019. An avid chamber musician, Gallia was a member of the Lumiére String Quartet that won first place at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and she was also the violinist of Trio Solaris, which collaborated with the Trey McIntyre Project at Jacob’s Pillow. Some of Gallia’s performances with orchestras include The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, The Gettysburg Chamber Orchestra in Pennsylvania, and The Montgomery Symphony. Gallia performs on an 1843 Giovanni Francesco Pressenda Violin on generous loan from the Mandell Collection of Southern California.

Program Bio from Show 272:

Gallia Kastner (violin), 16, is from Arlington Heights, Illinois, where she attends the Music Institute of Chicago and studies under Almita and Roland Vamos. She is a recipient of From the TopÕs Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award. This year, she won Montgomery Symphony OrchestraÕs Blount-Slawson Young Artist Competition. Outside of music, Gallia is very involved in her church youth group.

Nathaniel performs on Show 399, recorded at The Colburn School in Los Angeles, California.

Nathaniel Yue (cello), 14 is from San Marino, California and in the eighth grade at Huntington Middle School. He studies cello with Vardan Gasparyan at the Colburn Community School, and piano with Nobuyo Nishizaka. He is part of the Honors Chamber Music Scholarship Program and is the Regional Co-Director of Back to Bach project in Greater Pasadena/San Gabriel Valley. Nathaniel has performed in Moscow, Carnegie Hall, and Musikverein in Vienna. In 2020, Nathaniel won first place in the 2020 Bellflower Symphony Concerto Competition for Young Artists and was also accepted to the 2020 Piatigorsky International Cello Festival Young Cellist Workshop, but unfortunately the performances connected to these events were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Outside of music, Nathaniel enjoys video games, learning to code, math club, skiing, biking, and eating with family and friends.

Peter was named Host of From the Top in January 2020.

Peter Dugan’s position is sponsored by Susan and Gerald Slavet.

Peter first appeared on From the Top Show 158, recorded in April 2007, at age 18.

Prizing versatility as the key to the future of classical music, pianist Peter Dugan is equally at home in classical, jazz, and pop idioms.

He is heard nationwide as the  host of NPR’s beloved program From the Top.  He has appeared as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician across North America and abroad. 

In 2020, Mr Dugan performed with Joshua Bell on a PBS Broadcast “At Home with Music” and appeared on  the album of the same name on Sony Classical. He was also featured on PBS Great Performances with mezzo-soprano Kara Dugan for the series “Now Hear This”.

A sought-after multi-genre artist, Mr. Dugan has performed in duos and trios with artists ranging from Itzhak Perlman and Renee Fleming to Jesse Colin Young and Glenn Close. Mr Dugan’s debut performances with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony were described by the Los Angeles Times as “stunning” and by the SF Chronicle as “fearlessly athletic.” The Wall Street Journal described Mr. Dugan’s collaboration with violinist Charles Yang as a “classical-meets-rockstar duo.” Mr. Dugan has been presented in chamber music recitals by Carnegie Hall, Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, Music at Menlo, Moab Music Festival, and recently in recital with Joshua Bell at the Minnesota Beethoven Festival.  He was the 2019 featured recitalist for the California Association of Professional Music Teachers, and has soloed with the San Francisco Symphony, Houston Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, New World Symphony, and Mid-Texas Symphony.

His album with baritone John Brancy –  A Silent Night: A WWI Memorial in Song – pays homage to composers who lived through, fought in, and died in the Great War. Brancy and Dugan toured this program across North America in commemoration of the centennial of WWI, including performances at The Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, Stanford University, the United States Naval Academy, and the Smithsonian Institute.  Together Brancy and Dugan won first prize at the 2018 Montreal International Music Competition and second prize at the 2017 Wigmore Hall International Song Competition. He can also be heard as the piano soloist on a recording of Ives’ Fourth Symphony from Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, a recording which the New York Times named one of the top classical albums of 2019. 

Mr. Dugan advocates the importance of music in the community and at all levels of society.  As a founding creator of Operation Superpower, a superhero opera for children, he has traveled to dozens of schools in the greater New York area, performing for students and encouraging them to use their talents – their superpowers – for good.

Mr. Dugan holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where he studied under Matti Raekallio. He was a recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s Young Scholar, College Scholar, and Graduate Scholar awards.

He resides in New York City with his wife, mezzo-soprano Kara Dugan, and serves on the piano faculty at the Juilliard School Evening Division. Mr. Dugan is a Yamaha Artist.