Hannah performs on Show 445.

Hannah Cho (oboe), 16, hails from Tustin, California. She is currently a junior at Pacific Academy and a full scholarship student at Colburn Music Academy. She has been recognized as a National YoungArts 2023 finalist, first place winner in the U.S. Navy Band Young Artist Solo Competition, and the California MTNA (Music Teachers National Association) Senior performance competition, second place winner in the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition, U.S Army Orchestra Young Artist Competition, amongst others. As a chamber musician, soloist, and orchestral musician appearing with the NYO2 2022 Orchestra and Principal of the 2022 NAfME All-National Symphony Orchestra, she has played in various halls across the countries multiple times, including the New World Center, Merkin Hall, Nixon Library, and Carnegie Hall. In addition, she performed the Marcello Oboe concerto in May 2023 with the U.S. Navy Band as a follow-up to her 1st place finish in their Young Artist Solo Competition.

She currently studies with Eugene Izotov at Colburn Music Academy and Pacific Symphony oboist Ted Sugata. She previously studied with Curtis faculty and Baltimore Symphony Principal Katherine Needleman on a scholarship, and Santa Monica Symphony Principal Victoria Lee. She has attended masterclasses with Curtis faculty and Philadelphia Principal Philippe Tondre, Juilliard Faculty, and MET opera Co-Principals Nathan Hughes and Elaine Douvas, amongst others.

Hannah’s love for music and the community inspired her to create Empowering Arts (www.empoweringarts.org), a non-profit organization that brings arts to the community with concerts and art classes at various children’s learning centers and multiple nursing facilities throughout Orange County. She also serves as an oboe teacher and a mentor to two elementary school students at El Sol Academy. In her free time, she enjoys running, hiking, baking, reading Asian-authored lit, watching films, trying new coffee shops, going to museums, traveling, and listening to classical and popular music.

Ariana performs on Show 445.

Ariana Kim (bassoon), 16, hails from Irvine, California and is a junior at Orange County School of the Arts. In 2023, she was selected as a soloist for the OCSA concerto competition, semifinalist for The Music Center’s Spotlight, and honorable mention for the Music Teachers National Association State Competition. Ariana started the bassoon at the age of six at the Tampere Conservatory in Finland, where she was an annual Conservatory winner. In sixth grade she was given full scholarship to the Orange County Music and Dance Studio. She attended multiple music programs as a scholarship student such as the Interlochen Summer Arts Camp in 2021, and Brevard Music Center in 2022. She has participated in all-state and all-southern groups since middle school, most recently playing in the California All-State Symphony Orchestra in 2023. Ariana has held the principal position in the Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra for 2 years, and is a cofounder of Sol Soul Seoul, an organization that supports teenage North Korean refugees through benefit concerts. She has played in masterclasses for Daniel Matsukawa, principal of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Whitney Crocket, principal of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, William Short, principal of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and Eric Stromberg, Professor at Kansas University. She currently studies with Minho Lee.

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.