Sasha performs on Show 433.

Alexandra (Sasha) Tarassenko (flute), 17, hails from Norcross, Georgia. She is a flutist in the Emory Symphony Youth Orchestra, Atlanta Youth Symphony Orchestra, and Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony. In addition to winning this year’s Emory Youth Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, she has also won Atlanta Youth Symphony Orchestra’s 2023 Concerto Competition and will be performing with them next season. In 2022, Sasha received first place in the Atlanta Flute Club Competition High School Division.

This past summer, Sasha attended the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artist Orchestra Program and the Flute Workshop. At BUTI in Lenox, Massachusetts, she performed as principal flute in the Young Artist Orchestra in Prokofiev’s 5th Symphony and Hindemith’s Metamorphosis. She also attended Eastern Music Festival in the summer of 2021. At EMF in Greensboro, North Carolina, she performed Griffes’ Poem for Flute and Piano, was principal
flute in the Orchestra for Dvorak’s 7th Symphony, and piccolo in the Orchestra for Hindemith’s Metamorphosis and Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony.

Sasha has had the opportunity to play in masterclasses for Cynthia Meyers, Linda Toote, Keith Underwood, Carol Wincenc, and Mimi Stillman. As a Russian-American, Sasha participates in the Atlanta Balalaika Society Orchestra, an Eastern-European, community folk ensemble that regularly performs in local venues.

Sasha is currently a senior at Paul Duke STEM High School, where she founded her Tri-M Music Honors Society, and studies with Christina Smith, the principal flute of the Atlanta Symphony. In her spare time, Sasha researches inequality in classical music ensembles, attends Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concerts with her

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.