A world tour in music

XUEFEI YANG

Beijing-born and UK-based, Xuefei Yang is one of the finest classical guitarists in the world. From the Royal Albert Hall to the Lincoln Centre in New York, she has not only performed in over 40 countries as a soloist and with world-renowned orchestras, but was the first guitarist in China accepted at a music school at a time when Western music was banned.

John Williams was moved sufficiently to donate to her two of his instruments upon hearing her at Beijing's Central Conservatoire, and she went went on to become the first Chinese student awarded a full postgraduate scholarship at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music, London.

Fei currently gives recitals in pretty much every corner of the globe—from Europe to Asia and back again—in between recording exclusively for EMI Classics. Her debut album, Romance de Amor, won a gold disc in Hong Kong and her second, 40 Degrees North, was selected as Editor’s Choice in Gramophone magazine. Most recently she has recorded a concerto album with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Eiji Oue.

She says: “I have been to Scotland a few times and have already tried haggis, and seen the sights", she says.  "On this trip—apart from looking forward to playing the concert—I am looking forward to buying some tartan to add to my collection of fabrics from around the world...”

 

CHARLES DUTOIT

To say Dutoit is an accomplished conductor is a huge understatement. Chief conductor for The Philadelphia Orchestra, for whom this year marks his final season, he has conducted all the major orchestras in America, as well as Europe, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic. He has received more than 40 awards in total, half with the Montreal Symphony for whom Dutoit was artistic director for 25 years.

He has been named Musician of the Year by the Canadian Music Council, made an Honorary Citizen of the City of Philadelphia, proclaimed as the Grand Officier de l'Ordre National du Quebec by the government of Quebec and the Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. Impressive, eh?

He says: "Being an insatiable, passionate art lover, I am looking forward to visiting the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

"This is one stop in this European Festival Tour with the Philadelphia Orchestra where we can put down our suitcases and stay in the same city for 2 days – I look forward to reacquainting myself with this beautiful capital."

 

OLLI MUSTONEN

Passionate, startlingly original and utterly transfixing, Olli Mustonen plays each concert with the freshness of a first performance. Having worked with most of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and partnering conductors such as Ashkenazy, Barenboim, Berglund, Boulez, Chung and Dutoit, Mustonen is recognised for his forays beyond the established musical canon.

His recording catalogue is just as distinctive as eclectic. His Decca release of Preludes by Shostakovich and Alkan—a collection of famously difficult works— received both the Edison Award and Gramophone Award for the Best Instrumental Recording. In 2002 Mustonen signed a recording contract with Ondine, and has just finished recording all the Beethoven Piano Concerti as soloist and director with Tapiola Sinfonietta.

Mustonen is not just a pianist but also an acclaimed composer, having led  the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra and the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln. Constantly pushing the boundaries of his craft and a pianist since the age of five, his Edinburgh performances promise to be a playful piece capturing the innocence of childhood.

 

MYUNG WHUN CHUNG

Starting out as a pianist for the Seoul Philharmonic at the remarkable age of seven, Myung had alread won second prize at the Tchaikovsky piano competition in Moscow before studying music at the Mannes School and the Juilliard School in New York. From there he went on to assist Carlo Maria Giulini at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and two years later he was associate conductor.

Since then, he has conducted virtually all the world’s leading orchestras, including the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw, all the major London and Parisian Orchestras, Bayerische Rundfunk, Dresden Staatskapelle, the Boston and Chicago Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras.

Named Artist of the Year 1991 by The Association of French Theatres and Music Critics, given the Premio Abbiati and the Arturo Toscanini prize in Italy and having won the "Victoire de la Musique" award three times, Myung Whun Chung is nothing short of a must-see.

 

VALERY GERGIEV

The Grammy awarding-winning conductor has won everything from the Dmitri Shostakovich Award to the rather impressively titled Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion. A sensitive but unstoppable tour de force, Gergiev’s inspired leadership as artistic and general director of the Mariinsky Theatre has resulted in performances across 45 countries – not to mention universal acclaim.

At home in St. Petersburg, his leadership resulted in the brand new Mariinsky Concert Hall not to mention the Mariinsky Label. Launched in 2009, it's first two recordings received five Grammy nominations.

Gergiev is currently the Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and The World Orchestra of Peace, as well as Artistic Director of six music festivals, including the Stars of the White Nights Festival and New Horizons Festival in St. Petersburg and the Red Sea Festival in Eilat, Israel. He's not simply a creative powerhouse in Russia, but right across the globe.

 

PHILIP GLASS

Despite having composed more than 20 operas for the world's leading theatres and performing lectures, workshops and solo keyboard performances internationally, Philip Glass is an Edinburgh newbie. Having worked with Twyla Thorp, Woody Allen, David Bowie and Allen Ginsberg, Glass is the first composer to reach such a varied, multi-generational audience simultaneously in the opera house, the concert hall, the dance world and in film and popular music. In fact, his work sparked a whole new musical style, usually called minimalism, but one he prefers to call "music with repetitive structures".

In the last 20 years he's composed numerous operas, eight symphonies, two piano concertos as well as concertos for violin, piano, timpani, and saxophone quartet and orchestra, soundtracks to films ranging from the classics of Jean Cocteau to Errol Morris’s documentary about former US Defense secretary Robert McNamara and a whole host of critically acclaimed solo piano and organ work. He composed the score for the academy award winning motion picture The Hours and has worked with Paul Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Yo-Yo Ma, and Doris Lessing, among many others, and continues to spearhead the Philip Glass Ensemble, which he founded in 1968.

 

RAVI SHANKAR

At 91 years of age Ravi Shankar is returning to the Edinburgh Festival for the first time in more 20 years. A legendary sitarist, dubbed "the godfather of world music" by the late George Harrison, Shankar has written three concertos for sitar and orchestra, authored violin-sitar compositions for Yehudi Menuhin, music for flute virtuoso Jean Pierre Rampal, and has collaborated with Phillip Glass as well as countless other luminaries of world music.

Ballets and films from India, Canada, Europe and the United States have been given the Shankar treatment, including the multi award-winning film Gandhi. He is an honourary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has received fourteen doctorates, the Bharat Ratna, two Grammy awards and  the Fukuoka grand Prize from Japan. Notably, he planned the Concert for Bangladesh (1971) with George Harrison to collect money for the eight million refugees who came to India during the Bangladesh freedom struggle from Pakistan, paving the way for the likes of Bob Geldof's Live Aid. A unique opportunity to see a truly remarkable and highly significant figure.