Page 144 - Alison Balsom Quiet City FULL BOOK

Chinese-born piano superstar Lang Lang might be classical music’s
greatest showman. In 2008, an audience of four billion watched him play
at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, marking the beginning of the pianist’s
power to reach the masses. A music education ambassador, his Lang Lang
International Music Foundation brings music to children in schools across
China and beyond.

22. Yo-Yo Ma – cellist

18-time Grammy Award winner, Yo-Yo Ma is arguably the world’s most
celebrated classical cellist and has recorded music from the beloved Bach
Cello Suites to American bluegrass, to traditional Chinese melodies. Born
in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris, he appeared as a boy in a
televised concert with Leonard Bernstein. Today, Ma is a cultural icon
and arts ambassador, known for bringing the healing power of music to
world events, from the global pandemic, to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,
and President Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma plays ‘Amazing Grace’ at the Celebrating
America concert
Play Video

23. Klaus Mäkelä – conductor

Aged only 26, thrilling young Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä is already at
the helm of two leading European orchestras, the Oslo Philharmonic and
Orchestre de Paris, is artistic director of the Turku Music Festival in
Finland, and will take up a position at the Concertgebouw orchestra from
next season, becoming chief conductor from 2027. The third conductor in
history to be signed exclusively to Decca, Mäkelä’s recording debut this
year was an ambitious cycle of Sibelius symphonies. A true star of the
future of classical music.

24. Wayne Marshall – organist

Organist Wayne Marshall heard Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue aged eight
and was spellbound. “For me, your American music is just as important as
any Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Brahms,” Marshall has said. The British
pianist, organist and conductor is a celebrated interpreter of Gershwin
and Bernstein, among other 20th-century American composers. As a
conductor, he led the first concert of the Chineke! Orchestra, Europe’s
first majority Black and ethnically diverse orchestra, in 2015.

25. Anne-Sophie Mutter – violinist