Programs & Hosts

On Deck with Young Musicians

On Deck with Young Musicians

Saturdays at 5pm PT

On Deck with Young Musicians is an inspirational weekly interview segment that celebrates and showcases the incredibly talented young musicians who live and perform in the Pacific Northwest: the young people who are shaping the future of classical music. Created and hosted by Christa Wessel, select episodes of On Deck are also hosted by Adam Eccleston, Raúl Gómez-Rojas, and Lisa Lipton.  

Tune in Saturdays at 5:00 PM PT, and revisit past interviews using the links below or by following On Deck on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

If you know of a young musician who should be profiled for On Deck, please email Christa Wessel at christa@allclassical.org.  

On Deck with Young Musicians is made possible in part by support from the Metropolitan Youth Symphony.  


June 22, 2024

On Deck with Charles A. Martin

Charles Martin is an 18-year old composer, pianist, actor, entrepreneur and writer.  In this episode of On Deck, Raul Gomez-Rojas talks with Charles about all of his interests, as well as his decision to perhaps skip college and make a living in the music world without a degree. Charles began taking piano lessons when he… More


Anika Gupta

June 15, 2024

On Deck with Anika Gupta

Anika Gupta is one of All Classical’s 2024 Young Artist Ambassadors.  She is currently a sophomore at Sunset High School. She has always loved music and picked up the guitar during middle school. Since then, her passion for guitar has only grown! She currently studies under Travis Johnson and loves to spread music in various… More


Miranda Newman

May 18, 2024

On Deck with Miranda Newman

Adam Eccleston introduces us to violinist Miranda Newman, a third-year political science major and music minor at Reed College. Her first year of college she received the Kaufman Fellowship for violin performance and has been a part of many of Reed’s music local ensembles including orchestra and chamber music. She started violin at 4 years… More


May 11, 2024

On Deck with Haruka Sakiyama

Haruka Sakiyama is a 17-year old junior at West Linn High School, and one of All Classical Radio’s 2024 Young Artist Ambassadors.  Haruka is a French horn player, a violinist, a composer… and she also plays the koto.  In this episode of On Deck, Raul Gomez-Rojas talks with Haruka about all of these talents, and… More


Ian Sage

May 4, 2024

On Deck with Ian Sage

Ian Sage is a 21-year-old junior at Portland State University currently studying composition and percussion. In college, composing has become a natural extension of his love for playing and listening to music. In this episode hosted by Adam Eccleston, Ian talks about taking influences from classical, jazz, film, and video game music in his works… More


Cellist Pearl Liao

April 27, 2024

On Deck with Pearl Liao

Raul Gomez-Rojas talks with 18-year old cellist Pearl Liao, a cellist with the Portland Youth Philharmonic. Pearl has some wisdom to share about practicing, and she also tells us about her future goal to be a surgeon.


April 20, 2024

On Deck with Nikita Istratov

Christa Wessel chats with 17-year old pianist Nikita Istratov, a senior at Sunset High School and one of the winners of Cognizart’s Young Artist Debut Concert on May 17th.  In this episode of On Deck, Nikita talks about his love of classical music, his curiosity about how creative people became creative, and about getting his… More


Katelyn Nguyen

April 6, 2024

On Deck with Katelyn Nguyen

Raul Gomez-Rojas chats with 17-year old bassoonist Katelyn Nguyen, one of All Classical Radio’s 2024 Young Artist Ambassadors.  In this episode of On Deck, we’ll learn not only why she chose the bassoon, but why she has chosen to play in both the Metropolitan Youth Symphony AND the Portland Youth Philharmonic.  As she heads to… More


Sophie Bergkvist

March 30, 2024

On Deck with Sophie Bergkvist

Sophie Bergkvist is in the midst of her first season with the Metropolitan Youth Symphony (MYS), where she plays trumpet with the Concert Orchestra and Symphonic Wind Ensemble.  She began playing trumpet at the age of 10 by joining her school band.  She enjoyed it so much, that she decided to study under Jim Kvech,… More


Eden Warmflash

March 9, 2024

On Deck with Eden Warmflash

Eden Warmflash is a 16-year old junior at Portland’s Cleveland High School, and a percussionist with the Metropolitan Youth Symphony.  In her chat with Raul Gomez-Rojas, Eden talks about the various categories of percussion instruments, some misconceptions about percussionists, and how playing in musical ensembles helps her as a dragon boat captain.


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