Classic FM’s Rising Stars: 30 brilliant musicians we’re celebrating in 2022

Classic FM’s Rising Stars in 2022. Picture: Alamy/Rebecca Naen/Kaupo Kikkas

By Classic FM

@ClassicFM

 

We’ve selected 30 outstanding young musicians for Classic FM’s Rising Stars 2022 – from cellists to clarinettists, and composers to conductors, from across the globe.

In the year that Classic FM celebrates its 30th birthday, we’ve compiled a list of 30 brilliant young musicians all under the age of 30.

The list has been compiled in collaboration with Julian Lloyd Webber, who hosted the radio series Rising Stars on Classic FM in 2021. Speaking to Classic FM, Lloyd Webber said: “It’s been incredibly exciting to work together with Classic FM on our second annual list of ‘30 under 30’ Rising Stars. These musicians are quite extraordinary and I can’t wait to share their brilliant talents with Classic FM’s listeners!”

Beginning on Monday 11 July, a recording by a different Rising Star will be played during each programme on Classic FM, beginning with Tim Lihoreau’s More Music Breakfast, and ending the following morning in Lucy Coward’s Early Breakfast show.

Read on to find out more about this year’s list of outstanding young musicians.

1. Bruce Liu, 25 – Canadian Pianist

   25-year-old pianist Bruce Liu shot to fame in 2021 after winning the 18th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. Born in Paris and growing up in Montreal, Liu made his performing debut at the age of 11 and has gone on to sign an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon, releasing a debut album in November 2021.

2. Klaus Mäkelä, 26 – Finnish conductor

   At just 26 years of age, Klaus Mäkelä is chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, music director of the Orchestre de Paris, and artistic director of the Turku Music Festival in Finland. It was also recently announced that Mäkelä will take up a position with the Netherlands’ Concertgebouw Orchestra from next season, taking the helm as chief conductor from 2027. He is a Decca Classics artist, and in March 2022 released the complete cycle of Sibelius symphonies in an all-Finnish affair alongside the Oslo Philharmonic.

   

   Klaus Mäkelä. Picture: Mathias Benguigui / Pasco & Co

3. Leia Zhu, 15 – British violinist

   Leia Zhu made her performance debut aged four, and has since gone on to perform with renowned musicians and orchestras the world over. From the London Symphony Orchestra with Simon Rattle to the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, Zhu was last year appointed artist in residence with the London Mozart Players.

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4. Plínio Fernandes, 27 – Brazilian guitarist

   In May 2022, record label Decca Gold announced the signing of Brazilian guitarist Plínio Fernandes. He released a new album Saudade on 8 July, championing work by Brazilian composers including Heitor Villa-Lobos, and featuring collaborations with both Sheku and Braimah Kanneh-Mason.

   

   Plínio Fernandes, guitarist. Picture: Rebecca Naen

5. Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, 28 – South African soprano

   Growing up in the Limpopo province of South Africa, Masabane Cecilia is currently based in Europe and South Africa. She has graced the stage of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden under the baton of Antonio Pappano, where she was also part of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme in the 2019/20 season. More recently, she has performed in Bern, Moscow, Stellenbosch, and at Classic FM Live in the Royal Albert Hall in April 2022.

   

   Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha performs with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Classic FM Live. Picture: Alamy

6. Isabelle Peters, 29 – British soprano

   For the 2021/22 season, Isabelle Peters was appointed Associate Artist at the Welsh National Opera, performing in Don Giovanni, The Barber of Seville and more. She has previously appeared with the Waterperry, English National, and Garsington opera companies, and will make her debut at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury theatre in 2023.

7. Alexandra Whittingham, 25 – British guitarist

   Alumna of the Royal Academy of Music, Alexandra Whittingham’s debut album My European Journey was released in May 2021 and reached the top spot on two of the industry’s leading classical music charts. Whittingham has also reached the finals of various European guitar competitions, taking home first prize from the Edinburgh Guitar Competition in 2013.

8. Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, 19 – British pianist

   Jeneba Kanneh-Mason is an award-winning young pianist, currently studying at the Royal College of Music in London. She has performed across Europe and the Caribbean as well as frequent solo appearances with Chineke! Orchestra.

9. Theo Plath, 28 – German bassoonist

   Theo Plath was appointed principal bassoon of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2019, and has also appeared as guest principal bassoon with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the WDR Sinfonieorchester. Plath released a CD as soloist with the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in 2020, with another album with fellow members of the Monet Wind Quintet due to be released soon.

   

   Theo Plath, bassoonist. Picture: Marco Borggreve

10. Stephen Waarts, 26 – Dutch-American violinist

    Stephen Waarts’ performance credentials include the Munich Symphony, Brandenburg Symphony, and Camerata Schweiz orchestras, under the esteemed batons of such conductors as András Schiff, Christoph Eschenbach, Marin Alsop and Elim Chan. 2022 saw his debut concerto recording with Camerata Schweiz and Howard Griffiths, with a performance of Mozart’s first violin concerto.

11. Coco Tomita, 20 – Japanese violinist

    Coco Tomita burst onto the classical music scene in 2020, having already won first place at competitions in Vienna, Berlin, Eastbourne and Baden-Baden. She made her performance debut aged 10 at Cadogan Hall and has performed in countries across Europe as well as a tour of her home country, Japan.

12. Alexandre Kantorow, 25 – French pianist

    In 2019, at the age of 22, Alexandre Kantorow made history as the first French pianist to win both the gold medal and the grand prize at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition. Now, with an international performing career on some of the world’s greatest stages, Kantorow has recorded multiple award-winning albums with BIS Records in an exclusive deal.

13. Martin James Bartlett, 25 – British pianist

    Alumnus of the Purcell School and the Royal College of Music, Martin James Bartlett has performed with many of the UK’s leading orchestras as well as further afield, with the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. In 2017, while still studying for his undergraduate degree, Bartlett reached the quarter finals of the distinguished Van Cliburn competition in Texas.

14. Laura van der Heijden, 25 – British cellist

    With an award-winning debut album 1948 released in 2018, Laura van der Heijden has performed with leading orchestras across various continents, from the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra to the New Zealand Symphony. In late 2021, it was announced that van der Heijden had signed to Chandos Records, with her first album on the label, Pohádka, following in February 2022.

15. Jordan Bak, 27 – Jamaican-American violist

    With a master’s degree from The Juilliard School in New York, Jordan Bak is only the third violist to earn the Artist Diploma from the prestigious music school. In the last season, Bak has made recital debuts at London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s Merkin Concert Hall, and Baltimore’s Shriver Hall Concert Series, having previously performed at the Verbier Festival and the Helsinki Musiikkitalo.

    

    Jordan Bak, violist. Picture: Dario Acosta

16. Chelsea Guo, 21 – American pianist and soprano

    Chelsea Guo made her piano debut with the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra at the age of nine, going on to become a Young Scholar at the Lang Lang Foundation and a recipient of the Chopin Foundation scholarship. She studies both voice and piano at Juilliard, and has performed recitals at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, as well as appearing in venues across North America, Europe and Asia. Her debut album was released in 2021, where Guo champions Chopin’s solo piano works and accompanies herself in songs by Chopin and Rossini.

17. Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux, 26 – French violinist

    Born in France, Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux recently completed a master’s degree at the Royal College of Music, where she studied with Alina Ibragimova. She has recently appeared at Wigmore Hall and at the Gstaad Festival in the Swiss Alps where she performed in a quintet with star performers Alina Ibragimova, Lawrence Power, Sol Gabetta and Bertrand Chamayou. In May this year, Saluste-Bridoux released her debut album Ostinata.

18. Helen Charlston, 29 – British mezzo soprano

    In 201, Helen Charlston won first prize at the Handel Singing Competition, following up her success by winning the Ferrier Loveday Song Prize in the 2021 Kathleen Ferrier Awards. Charlston has recently debuted with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Northern Sinfonia, as well as a global tour of Handel’s Messiah with the Seattle Symphony. During 2020, Charlston presented The Isolation Songbook in collaboration with Michael Craddock and Alexander Soares.

19. Armand Djikoloum, 24 – French oboist

    A prize winner at the 2021 Young Classical Artists Trust International Auditions, Armand Djikoloum is currently studying at the Hochschule for Music in Saar for a master’s degree. Djikoloum was appointed principal oboist of the Hannover State Opera aged just 22, and now regularly appears as guest principal with leading orchestras in Dresden, Frankfurt and Oslo. His UK appearances include Wigmore Hall and Cheltenham Music Festival, as well as with Chineke! Orchestra at the reopening of Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre.

    

    Armand Djikoloum, oboist. Picture: Kaupo Kikkas

20. Giuseppe Gibboni, 21 – Italian violinist

    Born to a family of musicians, Giuseppe Gibboni learned to play violin from his father, before attending music college in Salerno. He was admitted to the Stauffer Academy aged 14, and released his debut CD on Warner Classics the following year. In October 2021, Gibboni won first prize at the Paganini Violin Competition, also taking home the prizes for audience choice and best interpretations.

21. Ben Goldscheider, 24 – British horn player

    Born in London, Ben Goldscheider studied at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin, graduating in 2020. His performing career began several years earlier, with performances alongside the Mozarteum, Aurora, Royal Philharmonic and English Chamber orchestras, as well as the Britten Sinfonia, Manchester Camerata and Berlin Symphony Orchestra. Goldscheider has worked with Nicholas Collon, Mark Wigglesworth, and Sir Mark Elder as well as collaborations with Daniel Barenboim, Martha Argerich, Sunwook Kim and more.

22. Anastasia Kobekina, 27 – Russian cellist

    Aged 12, Anastasia Kobekina was accepted into the Moscow Conservatory, before studying in Berlin from 2016 and later Paris. Currently studying in Frankfurt, Kobekina won third prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2019 and recently performed with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra with Vasily Petrenko as well as making her recital debuts at the Verbier and Gstaad Menuhin festivals.

23. Jonathan Leibovitz, 25 – Israeli clarinettist

    Jonathan Leibovitz made his debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra aged 18, joining the orchestra as a member in 2019/20. He has also appeared as a guest with the Jerusalem Symphony and Israel Chamber orchestras, having won awards at at the Aviv, Israeli Wind and Carl Nielsen competitions. Leibovitz has appeared as a soloist with various orchestras and given recitals across Israel and Europe, and is founder of the Avir Wind Quintet.

24. Gabriel Martins, 24 – Brazilian-American cellist

    Medal winner at various prestigious competitions including the David Popper Cello Competition and the International Tchaikovsky Competition, Gabriel Martins has performed internationally at Wigmore and Carnegie halls, and with various US orchestras. Martins is alumnus of the Thornton School of Music and New England Conservatory.

25. Iyad Sughayer, 28 – Jordanian-Palestinian pianist

    Alumnus of the Royal Northern College of Music and Trinity Laban Conservatoire, Iyad Sughayer released his debut album Khachaturian Piano Works in November 2019, followed by a further recording of Khachaturian’s Piano Concerto and Masquerade in 2021/22. Sughayer has appeared as a soloist with leading orchestras internationally, with recitals at Dubai Opera House, Steinway Hall in New York, and other venues across the UK, Europe and the US.

26. Yue Yu, 24 – Chinese violist

    Yue Yu began learning to play the viola at 12, having started violin lessons from six, and moved to the UK in 2015 to study at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Currently continuing her studies in Austria, Yu recorded her debut solo album with Naxos in September 2019, due for release later this year. Yu performs internationally at venues across the UK as well as in Austria, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and China.

    

    Yue Yu. Picture: Yue Yu

27. Yoav Levanon, 18 – Israeli-French pianist

    Beginning piano lessons at the age of three, Yoav Levanon made his performance debut aged four and made history in 2019 as the youngest pianist to perform at the Verbier Festival, attracting the largest online audience of the festival that year. In 2021, Levanon filmed a project with renowned pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, and signed with Warner Classics in an exclusive contract.

28. Segun Akinola, 29 – British composer

    Segun Akinola began playing piano and drums at the age of five, going on to study composition at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. A musical storyteller, his composer credits for the screen include Black and British, a documentary on 9/11, and most notably Doctor Who.

29. Yunchan Lim, 18 – South Korean pianist

    Yunchan Lim found widespread renown in June 2022 when he became the youngest ever winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Prior to his success in Texas, Lim had won prizes at the Cleveland International, Cooper International and Korea’s IsangYun International competitions, performing with various orchestras in South Korea.

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30. Dmytro Choni, 28 – Ukrainian pianist

    In 2018, Ukrainian pianist Dmytro Choni won both first prize and gold medal at the Paloma O’Shea Santander International Piano Competition in Spain, and earned laureate at the Leeds in 2021, as well as Busoni and Vladimir Horowitz in 2017. Choni’s debut album was released in 2020 on the Naxos label, and he regularly performs as soloist with orchestras such as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Phoenix Symphony, and Ukraine National Symphony, among others.

Classic FM welcomes thousands of new classical music listeners in 2022, radio figures reveal

Alexander Armstrong, Charlotte Hawkins and Moira Stuart. Picture: Classic FM

By Classic FM

@ClassicFM

 

New audience figures show that in the first three months of 2022, the year we celebrate our 30th birthday, Classic FM welcomed thousands of new listeners.

We have welcomed 100,000 new listeners to Classic FM, according to the latest radio listening figures.

In our 30th birthday year, results by Radio Joint Audience Research (RAJAR) show that 5.2 million people now tune into Classic FM every week.

The overall amount of time the audience tunes in has gone up too. Total listening to Classic FM every week now stands at 44.5 million hours, which is the highest it’s been for 17 years.

The figures, which come from the official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in the UK, prove that classical music continues to provide comfort, focus and joy in people’s lives.

We have seen increases in listeners for all daytime programmes beginning with Classic FM’s More Music Breakfast with Tim Lihoreau, which has seen a rise of 87,000 listeners compared to the last three months of 2021, bringing Tim’s audience to a total of 1.7 million.

Alexander Armstrong welcomes 2.4 million listeners from 9am to 12pm on weekdays, a rise of 43,000 listeners compared to the previous quarter.

Classic FM Requests also proves as popular as ever, with an additional 28,000 listeners boosting Anne-Marie Minhall’s afternoon audience to 2.5 million listeners.

Smooth Classics with Margherita Taylor has gained just shy of 100,000 listeners, with 700,000 people now listening to Classic FM from 10pm to 1am on weekdays. Similarly on weekends, Myleene Klass now welcomes 484,000 listeners to her Smooth Classics programmes on Saturday and Sunday evenings.

At the weekend, Alan Titchmarsh and Aled Jones are joined by nearly a million listeners each on Saturday and Sunday mornings, with 964,000 and 998,000 people tuning in respectively.

Source: Ipsos /RAJAR.

Why Schubert’s ‘Ave Maria’? The Batman soundtrack explained

 

Tiffin Boys' Choir sing in The Batman. Picture: Warner Bros. Pictures / Alamy

By Sophia Alexandra Hall, ClassicFM London

@sophiassocials

 

We break down the classical music heard in the new Batman film, and the voices behind the soundtrack... 

The first sound audiences hear when sitting down to watch DC’s new big screen comic book offering, The Batman, is the opening of Schubert’s Ave Maria.

The track, performed by Tiffin Boys’ Choir, a world-renowned school choir from London, UK, can be heard accompanying someone’s heavy breathing as the first scene of the film plays out after an unusually silent film credits opening.

Ave Maria is heard three more times in the film, and Schubert’s melody is continuously weaved into the soundtrack in a twisted villainous arrangement.

But why this piece of music, what’s its significance to the story line, and what themes does the song represent? We take a closer look at this musical prayer and the other music featured in the new Batman film.

Warning: Spoilers ahead... 

What is the meaning behind ‘Ave Maria’ in The Batman?

Robert Pattinson stars as the title role in The Batman alongside actor and musician Paul Dano, who portrays the film’s main villain, the Riddler. Director, Matt Reeves, wrote the part of the Riddler for the new Batman film with Dano in mind to play the part.

In the comic books, the Riddler is depicted as one of the most notorious criminal masterminds in Gotham City, and is most associated with his obsession with riddles, puzzles, and death traps, which assert his intelligence over both Batman, and the police force.

In this new film, one puzzle the audience has to solve is the association of Schubert’s Ave Maria with this character.

The villain’s main theme is even a twisted minor key version of Schubert’s melody, giving the song even more play-time than its already three-time film appearance.

The theme uses the first six-note pattern of Schubert’s melody, but instead of rising to the major third on the fourth note of the phrase, the Riddler’s theme only rises to the minor third, creating an uneasy sonic atmosphere, before a falling semitone leads us back to the phrase’s starting note.

The unedited version of Schubert’s Ave Maria is heard three times in The Batman.

Firstly in the opening scene, while the Riddler watches his first victim, Mayor Don Mitchell Jr., and his family through a window. Secondly, in archive footage found in the city’s old orphanage, the song is performed by a children’s choir while Batman’s father (Thomas Wayne) gives an electoral speech. Finally, the song is sung by the Riddler himself while locked up in Arkham State Hospital.

While it’s not uncommon for film villains to sing their own themes (see Die Hard), the Riddler’s reason for singing this song is more one of vengeance, a theme that weaves through The Batman.

The Riddler reveals that he was an orphan in his ‘face off’ with Batman in Arkham State Hospital, and thanks to pinboard footage we see during an earlier scene, we can place the Riddler as a child in the children’s choir that sings Ave Maria.

This piece of music is subsequently suggested to be very important to the Riddler’s character, as it was the song he and his peers at the orphanage sang the day soon-to-be mayor, Thomas Wayne, announced the ‘renewal fund’; a billion pound investment into the city, part of which would go to the orphanage.

Wayne however, was murdered a week later, meaning the money promised to the orphanage from the renewal fund was never invested, and the orphaned children had to continue living in squalor while the criminals and corrupt police in the city profited.

What does Ave Maria represent in The Batman?

The Riddler’s children’s choir sings Ave Maria to Schubert’s melody, one of the Latin prayer’s most common modern-day settings. The lyrics for Ave Maria (Hail Mary in English), revere Jesus’ mother, the Virgin Mary, in the Christian religion.

Schubert’s melody and the Latin prayer text is a popular choice for funerals, making the repetitive appearance of the song throughout the film an eerie one.

The song is also visually associated with death throughout the film, with the first time it plays preempting the death of Mayor Don Mitchell Jr., and the second time preempting the death of Thomas Wayne.

Batman (aka Bruce Wayne) attends the Mayor’s funeral. Picture: Warner Bros. Pictures

There are various settings of the Latin prayer, and it is poignant that the music team chose the Schubert melody for the film, due to the original lyrics associated with this music.

Although today, the Schubert melody is most commonly sung with the Latin prayer lyrics, the German composer originally wrote the tune as part of a setting of seven songs from Walter Scott's popular epic poem The Lady of the Lake.

This melody was from song number six, Ellens dritter Gesang (Ellen’s third song), and the original German lyrics were actually a call to the Virgin Mary for help.

Schubert’s lyrics plead, “Thou canst hear though from the wild; Thou canst save amid despair. Safe may we sleep beneath thy care, Though banish'd, outcast and reviled.”

In Arkham State Hospital, the Riddler recounts in the orphanage, 30 children would sleep in one room, and every winter a baby would die because it was so cold, and the institution was unable to properly care for the infants.

The despair and wish for safety during sleep in Schubert’s lyrics are echoed by the Riddler in his description of his childhood, and perhaps explain why this melody was chosen to soundtrack his character.

What other classical music is heard in The Batman?

The Tiffin Boys’ Choir also perform Henry Purcell’s Dido’s Lament (When I am laid), a song about preparing for death, which is heard during the funeral of Mayor Don Mitchell Jr. As well as appearing on the soundtrack, the choir appear on screen in white chorister robes during the scene.

The school choir have lent their voices to multiple other Hollywood films before including The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) and Dumbo (2019).

Another famous choral piece is heard as Batman races back to his penthouse to save his butler, Alfred, played by Andy Serkis, from a bomb threat.

In a dramatic scene, where the action unfolds under the crescendoing soundtrack, the piece playing is Fauré’s Requiem (Requiem Op. 48 7. In Paradisum (I)). Yet again, this is another classical piece of music often played at funerals, and has the viewer concerned that Alfred will die due to the death-associated music playing.

Although Alfred ends up surviving, it is an intensely emotional scene, and pulls at the viewers heartstrings as the huge orchestral and choral melody blocks out all other sound and makes you think you’re about to witness a main character death.

Earlier in the film, we also hear Alfred listening to classical music as he works on trying to break one of the Riddler’s cyphers. As he decodes, the music playing is the second movement of Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Piano Concerto No. 5.

Who wrote the music in The Batman?

Away from the featured classical music (and the Nirvana track Something in the Way) the score for the film was composed by Michael Giacchino.

Giacchino told Collider in 2020 that he felt “total freedom to do whatever [he wanted]” when it came to music for the film.

It was clear that director, and Giacchino’s friend, Matt Reeves trusted the composer with the task, as the two have worked on multiple films together such as Cloverfield (2008), Let Me In (2010), and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014).

Giacchino’s mostly minimalistic score, uses mainly strings and brass to emphasise the plot’s overarching theme of vengeance.

Like the Riddler’s theme, The Batman’s theme also centres in on a short phrase. The Batman’s theme is made up of a four-beat phrase, with just two notes, and is a repetitive and somewhat unusually simple theme for the composer.

However, Giacchino’s score uses dynamics and texture to create a theme out of this limited phrase. The music lifts from a mysterious, low four-note pattern to an unstoppable orchestral force incorporating brass and percussion to illustrate the power of the film’s hero.

Arguably the most developed theme, melody-wise, comes in the form of the second protagonist of the film, Catwoman. Her theme is a slinky syncopated smooth shared strings and solo piano melody. The lounge piano style music reflects Catwoman’s job as a hostess at a criminal club, while the stealthy strings illustrate her cat-like tendencies.

The soundtrack was released on 25 February 2022, just over a week before the film, and fans across multiple platforms, from the music alone, were already declaring the movie to be a “masterpiece”, and that this was Giacchino’s best score yet.

With the composer’s award-winning track record, critics are already suggesting The Batman could be on the cards for an Oscars nomination for Best Original Score in 2023.

The Batman is out in cinemas now.