Elena Urioste first appeared on From the Top in 2001 on Show 60 and on Show 88 in 2003. In 2008, she was featured on  “Where Are They Now” highlight episode 13. Most recently, she co-hosted Show 381 with pianist Peter Dugan.

Violinist Elena Urioste, hailed by The Washington Post as “a drop-dead beauty who plays with equal parts passion, sensuality, brains and humor,” is a first prize winner in the Sphinx and Sion International Violin competitions and was recently selected as a BBC New Generation Artist. In addition to recital and chamber music appearances at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, and the Marlboro, Moab, and Sarasota music festivals, she has performed with such major U.S. orchestras as the Boston Pops, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, and American Composers Orchestra; the New York, Los Angeles, and Buffalo philharmonics; and the Chicago, San Francisco, National, Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, and Pittsburgh symphonies. Ms. Urioste has appeared in the U.K. with the Hallé Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony, and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, among others, and in France and Hungary with the Orchestre National de Lille, Orchestra Dohnányi Budafok, and MAV Orchestra. She has performed extensively in recital with pianists Michael Brown and Tom Poster; with the latter she recorded her most recent album, Estrellita, released in 2018 on the BIS label. Her 2019-20 season includes engagements with the Atlantic Classical Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and the Rogue Valley, San Diego, and Virginia symphonies. Ms. Urioste is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and completed graduate studies at The Juilliard School.

Claire appeared on Show 381 in Key West, FL.

Claire Druffner (cello), 17, from Dallas, Texas, is a junior at Coram Deo Academy. She studies with Norman Fischer at the Shepherd School of Music. Formerly, Claire played in the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra as co-principal. She has attended summer programs at Meadowmount School of Music and Heifetz International Music Institute where she especially enjoyed making music with friends. Claire has performed concertos with the Plano Symphony Orchestra, Meadows Symphony Orchestra, and Houston Civic Symphony. Outside of the practice room, Claire enjoys fashion, rhetoric, and building connections with others through music and understanding.

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.