Santiago performs on Show 430.

Santiago Del Curto (Clarinet), 15, hails from Long Island City, New York. He studies clarinet with Pavel Vinnitsky at the Special Music School in New York City. His former teachers are Katherine Cooke and Liam Burke. He has performed at the Aspen Music Festival, the Festival de Musica dos Capuchos in Portugal, the Stowe Tango Music Festival, Aston Magna Music Festival, the Salida Aspen Concerts, Blue Note, and the National Theater Concert Hall in Taiwan. His solo engagements include concerts with Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Lancaster Symphony Orchestra. Santiago’s recent highlights include a solo performance of Florence Price’s “Adoration” with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Kimmel Center in March 2023, a performance of Mozart Clarinet concerto as a winner of 2022 Kaufman Music Center Concerto Competition, and a performance at Carnegie Hall as a member of NYO2. After hearing Santiago’s kindergarten concert, the latin jazz legend Paquito D’Rivera wrote a piece for him called “Blues for Santi”. Since then, Santiago has performed with Mr. D’Rivera at the Montclair Jazz Festival, at the Martina Arroyo Foundation Gala, and at the Blue Note in New York City. He also was featured on the Vandoren’s Commercial with Mr D’Rivera. Santiago’s live performance from Aspen Music Festival has been aired multiple times throughout the United States on the Peabody Award-winning classical music radio program, Performance Today. He is featured on a recording of Astor Piazzolla’s “Oblivion” on the award-winning album Live at the 2016 Stowe Tango Music Festival. In 2020 and 2021, Santiago participated in the Clarinet Maestro Festival where he studied with Yehuda Gilad, Afendi Yusuf, Eric Abramovitz, and other faculty. He also had masterclasses with Stephen Williamson, Anthony McGill, and Ricardo Morales. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Santiago started composing electronic music under the artist name 27 Diamond. His compositions have thousands of streams on Spotify and other online music streaming platforms. Outside of music, Santiago enjoys building and fixing computers and playing soccer.

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.