\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0By Lawrence Christon<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n For years it\u2019s been routine, whenever possible, for me to make a six-o\u2019clock Sunday night radio stop at National Public Radio\u2019s From the Top<\/em> before moving on to watch 60 Minutes\u2019<\/em> rigorously depressing reports on the endless variety of swindlers, embezzlers, dictatorial murderers, international racketeers and other notable swine whose betrayal of people who trusted them reaches epic numbers.<\/p>\n From the Top<\/em>, which has been on the air since 1999, has been a reliably bracing aperitif for what follows. It consists of musically gifted kids age eight to eighteen performing some of the greatest classical music ever written. The show, with its detoxifying ambience of innocence and hope, airs to an estimated half-million listeners from big and little cities all over the U.S., which nicely breaks the bicoastal hegemony over American culture. It\u2019s awarded more than $2.4 million in scholarships through the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award program and has won two Emmys. And for virtually all of that time Christopher O\u2019Riley has been host.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to come up with a more perfect fit between personality and format. O\u2019Riley himself is an astonishingly gifted classical pianist, with a deep musical intelligence and pellucid touch that effortlessly adapts to the character of whatever piece he\u2019s playing, whether it\u2019s Berlioz or Mozart\u2014or Radiohead. He seems to embody the Bill Evans\u2019 (whom he admires) precept, \u201cTo play well, you have to listen well.\u201d<\/p>\n At 62, he\u2019s still light enough in voice and demeanor to engage the kids on a level that puts them in total comfort. They trust him as an adult and open up to him as a confidant (a lengthy pre-concert audition and interview process, which can take weeks, plus a dress rehearsal, help put them at ease). His manner is fond, gently cajoling, encouraging, interested and respectful\u2014there\u2019s nothing icky or exploitive in the way he gets kids to talk about their lives and music. And they do it in the most charming, funny and touching ways. Where necessary, his role as trusted guide includes sitting down at the piano to accompany his young soloist in fulfilling the show\u2019s unofficial credo: If you didn\u2019t know, you couldn\u2019t tell that a kid is playing this stuff.<\/p>\n Guess what? O\u2019Riley has been fired from the show.<\/p>\n O’Riley with violinist Alice Ivy-Pemberton on From The Top<\/p><\/div>\n Well, not fired exactly. Let\u2019s put it this way: they made him an offer he had to refuse.<\/p>\n (Before we continue, let me hasten to add, in our scandal-plagued era where everyone is presumed innocent until accused in a media headline, the all-purpose phrase \u201chint of impropriety\u201d does not apply, nor has it been suggested by anyone connected with the show.)<\/p>\n What happened? The deadly coils of PR corporate-speak that surround the decision make it almost impossible to pinpoint exactly what caused the fallout, but generally speaking, when a couple of long-term board members stepped down in 2016, the organization announced its desire to broaden FTT\u2019s audience base, expand its media platforms and diversify the kinds of music the kids would play. \u201cTo bring it into the 21st century,\u201d the statement read, as though the 21st century were terra incognita, cut off from anything leading up to it.<\/p>\n A professional arts management firm was hired to appoint a search team to find a new executive director. That turned out to be Gretchen Neilsen, who earned good repute heading the educational component of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and running the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles with the approval of L.A. Phil\u2019s conductor, Gustavo Dudamel.<\/p>\n At first, everyone made the right noises. \u201cThe board is beyond thrilled to have recruited Gretchen as our next leader.\u201d And, \u201cI am thrilled to bring all my learning, experience and passion to an organization I have long admired,\u2019 said Neilsen.\u201d<\/p>\n Even O\u2019Riley was on board: \u201cI look forward to working with Gretchen\u2026and to empower the next generation of great young performers who will define the future.\u201d<\/p>\n What happened between then and July 12 2018, when the realization of irreconcilable differences became unarguable fact, we\u2019ll probably never know. And in truth, too few care. In the endless swirl of entertainment gossip, any item about a pubic radio classical music program short of gunfire in a broadcast booth would scarcely raise an eyebrow.<\/p>\n The deeper story here may concern an anxiety over the general perception of classical music itself, with its presumptions about dead white males, opulent concert halls, ponderous, esoteric music and plutocratic disdain for the average Joe. (In a partial challenge to that that misperception, O\u2019Riley has mentioned how young musicians have to deal with performance anxiety, family troubles, sexual identity and social isolation problems, just like everybody else.)<\/p>\n If classical music in its infinite variety, scope and range of expression is no longer seen as one of the high achievements of civilization and in fact has been used by municipalities to disperse groups of kids hanging out on street corners, then we\u2019ve dropped a notch or two back into barbarism.<\/p>\n From the Top<\/em> \u2019s administration wants to reassure us that its core program will remain intact, and famous musical figures and alumnae will form a permanent rondo of guest hosts.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re about classically trained musicians, but they often branch out into other forms of music,\u201d Neilsen told me.<\/p>\n \u201cAudiences today are media-savvy,\u201d she added. \u201cWe want to reach out into social media, YouTube, virtual reality formats, video games. We want to create a format where youth speaks to youth. This is about everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n The truth is however that FTT doesn\u2019t know exactly what it wants to do or how it\u2019s going to do it. And clearly they don\u2019t know what the art of the interview consists of and what intangibles O\u2019Riley has brought in the tender levity of his conversations with FTT kids, the impeccable musicianship which made him their ideal dance partner, and the unique tone he contributed to help define the show.<\/p>\n From the Top<\/em> will move its headquarters from Boston to L.A. to become, as Neilsen put it, \u201can education center,\u201d which should change its focus. It may indeed become something entirely new and go on to an expanded freshness that will draw new audiences and wider popular enthusiasm (I may be of a minority opinion that it\u2019s a niche show that\u2019s wonderful the way it is).<\/p>\n Or it may degenerate into the banality of over-earnestness that characterizes so much of public television and radio. But in 2020, when O\u2019Riley\u2019s voice leaves the show for the last time, \u201cFrom the Top\u201d will have dispatched its smartly companionable guide, and with him, its identity.<\/p>\n Neilsen implied that she was not happy with this development.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a real loss,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll see in time how critical that loss will be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [contextly_auto_sidebar] Here is the latest piece by CultureCrash’s regular guest columnist, Lawrence Christon. Christopher O’Riley, of course, is best known to some of us for his classical-piano interpretations of Radiohead, Nick Drake and Elliott Smith. EMPTY ROOM AT THE TOP \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0By Lawrence Christon For years it\u2019s been routine, whenever possible, for me to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[39,30,29],"tags":[935,934,807],"class_list":{"0":"post-4063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-creative-class","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"category-west-coast","9":"tag-from-the-top","10":"tag-christopher-oriley","11":"tag-classical-music","12":"entry","13":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4063"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4067,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4063\/revisions\/4067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/From_the_Top_NPR-300x200.jpg\")