Max performs on Show 456.

Maxwell Brown (violin), 13, hails from Wilmington, Delaware. He is a student at Juilliard’s Pre-College where he studies with Catherine Cho. He additionally studies with Li Lin, and Itzhak Perlman through the Perlman Music Program. His other primary teachers and mentors include Brian Lewis, Timothy Schwarz, and Shelley Beard Santore. Max has been honored to perform as a soloist- with orchestras including the Ambler Symphony, Carolina Philharmonic, Chicago Arts, Delaware Youth Symphony, Midwest Young Artists Conservatory, Old York Road Symphony, Rowan Strings Ensemble, and Warminster Symphony; as part of the Delaware County Symphony Chamber Series; at Carnegie Hall, Juilliard’s Paul Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and the Kimmel Center, and at institutes including Heifetz, the Calidore String Quartet Seminar, Ithaca College’s Preludio Program, Northwestern University’s Bienen Institute, and the Perlman Summer Music School.

Max has been the Overall Winner of the Walgreens National Concerto Competition Junior Open Division, second place winner of the International Lowell Chamber Orchestra Concerto Competition, and a semifinalist for the International Young Artists Concerto Competition. He has won the MTNA junior division for his state, the Ambler Symphony Menges Award, the Old York Road Young Artists Competition, the Warminster Concerto Competition Children’s Division, and the Delaware Youth Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. For his age group, he has won the Delaware Youth Concerto Competition, as well as the Camerata, Irvine Conservatory, and Long Island Conservatory of Music competitions, among many others. He has been honored to twice receive the top Coastal Concerts scholarship and the Frankel and Glotzer awards, and to be the student performer for the 2023 ASTA Board Meeting. He was thrilled to be selected as one of 12 student artists for Juilliard’s 2023 Starling-DeLay Symposium.

An avid fiddler, Max has won numerous youth and adult contests, and is a two-time youth champion of the world’s oldest and largest fiddlers convention at Galax, VA, where also he has placed 2nd in the adult contest. His fiddle teachers have included Andrew Vogts and Bruce Molsky, and he has received masterclass instruction from Darol Anger. Max also has studied guitar with Christopher Braddock and Mark Unruh and was named the 2021 Maryland State Flatpicking Guitar Champion. Max has shared the stage with renowned artists including Del McCoury and David Grisman, Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas, Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, Mark Schatz and Bryan McDowell, The Ragged Edge, The New Ballard’s Branch Bogtrotters, Trout Fishing in America, the Steep Canyon Rangers, and The Beach Boys.

Max is passionate about supporting other young musicians including by volunteering with the MELODY program and coaching his little sister, River. When he’s not making music, Max can be found reading, drawing cartoons, horseback riding, playing soccer, and spending time with his family and friends.

For more about Max, visit www.swellstrings.com and www.youtube.com/@Swellstrings

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.