MACON – Keitaro Harada, Mercer graduate and former conductor of the Mercer/Macon Symphony Youth Orchestra, will be a featured guest on National Public Radio’s “From The Top” on Thursday, June 17, 11 p.m. – 12 a.m., as well as Sunday, June 20, 1 p.m. – 2 p.m. on Macon public radio station WMUM-FM 89.7. “From the Top” is the hit NPR radio program featuring America’s best young classical musicians and hosted by acclaimed pianist Christopher O’Riley.
Now celebrating its 10th anniversary season, “From the Top” is heard on nearly 250 stations nationwide and taped before live audiences around the country. Broadcast from Ames, IA, the show airs nationally the week of June 14 and on participating stations and on www.FromtheTop.org. The episode was taped before a live audience at the Fisher Theatre on Tuesday, May 18. On the broadcast Harada performs Adios Nonino by Astor Piazzolla, accompanied by Christopher O’Riley on piano.
Harada, who earned a Bachelor of Music in Performance degree from Mercer in 2007 and a Master of Music in Conducting in 2008, was first featured on the radio show in 2003 when he was a student at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. The 24-year-old conductor is currently the inaugural recipient of the James E. Rogers Institute for Orchestral and Opera Conducting Fellowship at the University of Arizona. His appointments include working with Arizona Opera, Tucson Symphony, Arizona Symphony and University Philharmonic Orchestras. He recently served three seasons as Assistant Conductor of the Macon Symphony Orchestra and was the conductor and founder of the Mercer/Macon Symphony Youth Orchestra. This summer, Harada was invited to be a Conducting Fellow at the Boston Symphony Orchestra Tanglewood Music Center at the invitation of James Levine.
About Mercer University:
Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University enrolls more than 8,000 students in 11 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing and continuing and professional studies – on major campuses in Macon, Atlanta and Savannah and at three regional academic centers across the state. Mercer is affiliated with two teaching hospitals — Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah and the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, and has educational partnerships with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta. The University operates an academic press and a performing arts center in Macon and an engineering research center in Warner Robins. Mercer is the only private university in Georgia to field an NCAA Division I athletic program. For more information, visit www.mercer.edu.
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