RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM PERLMAN AND CARVALHO FAMILY PHOTOS Young Hawaii musicians will have their time to shine during taping of National Public Radio's "From the Top." Clockwise from left are Melody Lindsay, James Perlman and Daniel Carvalho. The taping is open to the public, and will be broadcast in February.

Melody Lindsay's mom, Holly, calls it "the 'American Idol' of classical music. It's a big thing on the mainland."

"From the Top" Taping of Public Radio International program featuring some of Hawaii's young classical musicians: Where: Hawaii Theatre When: 7:30 p.m. tomorrow Tickets: $15 to $45 Call: 528-0506

"From the Top" is a weekly national public radio program, airing 10 to 11 a.m. Saturdays on KHPR, that features soloists and ensembles comprising youths ages 9 to 18 nationwide, and tomorrow, Hawaii musicians will have their time in the spotlight, taping a Hawaii edition of the show for broadcast sometime in February.

Melody, 13, who plays the harp, says she'll be doing a sketch at tomorrow's "From the Top" tomorrow night at the Hawaii Theatre, although, when we spoke with her Saturday afternoon, she couldn't offer any specifics.

That's because the show combines an eclectic mix of onstage interviews, pre-produced features and sketches hosted by acclaimed pianist Christopher O'Riley, whose recent project involved solo piano interpretations of Radiohead songs.

Other youths to be showcased in this Hawaii edition are pianist Yohsuke Miyamoto, 18; the Enchantˇe Trio, featuring violinist Laura Jean Keller, cellist Dayna Furusawa and pianist Tiffany Hyun, all 16; bassoonist James Perlman, 13; and slack-key guitarist Daniel Carvalho, 14, adding local flavor to the classical-heavy show.

Melody will be performing, with O'Riley, the first movement of the Handel Harp Concerto in B-flat major.

Melody, a natural ham, has always wanted to be on the show. Her photo session turned out to be a small concert -- not only did she run through the Handel piece, but she played a jazzlike piece inspired by Duke Ellington, something from the "Lord of the Rings" score and some Christmas standards -- music she would usually play during her many seasonal gigs, which she's turned down to concentrate on tomorrow's show.

"I'm not nervous at all," Melody says matter-of-factly, also giving a practical reason for taking up the harp.

"My mom used to conduct orchestras, and she knew every instrument except the harp. So I played that because she couldn't criticize me!"

Melody took to the harp extremely well, much to the delight of her mother. She is considered to be one of the top harpists in her age group in the Western Hemisphere, studying with teachers here and on the mainland, and will be one of 16 performers, and only two Americans, to perform for the Focus on Youth program at next summer's World Harp Congress in Dublin, Ireland.

That's pretty cool for someone who was introduced to the instrument in a rather dramatic, if not dangerous, way.

"We used to have this big, brown harp when I was 4," Melody remembers, "and I was trying to play it one day, and I accidentally tipped it over, this 96-pound thing. Luckily, it missed me, but it made a big hole in the wall when it fell back."

Both mother and daughter agree that Melody rises to the occasion when offered a challenge, whether it involves music, writing, swimming, basketball, quick calculations on the "soroban" (Japanese abacus) or astronomy, another main interest.

"I want to help search for extraterrestrial life," the Iolani eighth-grader says.

HOME-SCHOOLED James Perlman of Paia, Maui, also thinks he'll pursue a career outside of music. He wants to be a computer programmer, like his dad, who runs his own property management software company. (His mother is a textile conservator currently working with the Doris Duke Center for Islamic Art.)

James and his mother are frequent visitors to Oahu, where James studies bassoon with Phil Gottling of the Honolulu Symphony, and plays with the Youth Symphony II Orchestra.

The versatile young musician said, "I did violin, piano, mandolin, trumpet and voice ... and started seriously on bassoon when I was 10," after seeing a performance of "Peter and the Wolf."

It was actually the bigger contrabassoon that caught his eye, but James has since had second thoughts. "I went to bassoon camp earlier this year, and some of the teachers said, 'If you play in orchestras, they will want you for second bassoon if you play that,' and I'm heading for the first-bassoon seat."

James will be playing, with O'Riley, the third movement of the Vivaldi Concerto in E minor, something he's already performed, earlier this year in a Mother's Day program.

While he's anticipating the development and completion of a "flickless system" that automatically changes octaves for the player, James carries on like a trouper.

"The bassoon is hard to play, yes," he said. "There are a few glitches in it -- switching between octaves is hard to do -- and although it's pretty primitive, it sounds good. It's a great instrument, although it could be better."

BOTH OF Daniel Carvalho's parents play slack-key guitar, so his familiarity with the instrument is no surprise.

His father Gene said, "When he was around 5, 6, my wife studied with Ray Kane, and it was later that Danny went to listen to his CDs when he got more interested in learning to play."

Daniel now studies with Ozzie Kotani, constantly amazing both his teacher and his parents with his ear for music.

Gene remembers once having "so many guitars, there was this old one I was going to salvage, but my wife threw it in the garbage can. Danny was 9 1/2 then, and he took it out of the can and put it in his room."

Although Gene was Daniel's first teacher, the boy's skills called for more specialized instruction.

"Danny's style of learning is different because he has dyslexia," Gene said. "He cannot follow music on the written page, so he uses his ear. That's made him different, and he's so good. He's able to improvise -- he's been like that from the beginning."

Daniel also doesn't look at his hands while he plays, and he admits he "goes with the feeling."

"After I learn the basic technique," he says, "I can stick stuff in."

The eighth-grader from Assets School likes slack key "because it isn't all flashy or all really slow."

Daniel has already made his name on the festival and concert circuit locally, and will be playing Kotani's arrangement of Gabby Pahinui's "Ki Ho'alu" on "From the Top" on a koa and spruce guitar made by his father.

He's composed one song, "Booboo's Lullaby," inspired by the family's miniature dachshund, and "I've started to learn a couple of classical pieces, like Rodrigo's 'Concierto de Aranjuez.' I've been fooling around with that. Part of the new thing for me is to look at my music on a wider horizon. Over the last year, my playing style has changed. It keeps evolving, becoming more complex. And the chords have gotten prettier."