The Classical Crossover Corner

LILI HAYDN      Haydn seek.... A new discovery!  She's blessed with the surname of a well-known Austrian classical composer, so how could Canadian violinist Lili Haydn be anything other than a classical crossover artist. 

Remember this? It's Funkadelic! 

IL DIVO     An international UK-based group of four fivers (created by Simon Cowell) who are slightly less worthy than the three tenors. Il Divo (The Star) sing most of their songs in Italian, although they're about as authentically Italian as a Cornetto ice cream. 

HAYLEY GRIFFITHS     Hayley Griffiths is a girl of many talents, having been a Celtic Rose with Prog Folk band Karnataka, and then a Pop Princess with her album "Far from Here", and now as "Melanie", she's a Symphonic Metal goddess!  

PHILIP GLASS    An American composer of 15 operas and musical theatre works, 14 symphonies, 12 concertos, nine string quartets and numerous film scores, pianist Philip Glass is the world's greatest living classical composer (at the age of 87) whose Glass-shattering, record-breaking discography of 104 albums (to date) is only exceeded by Ennio Morricone (500+ soundtracks), Tangerine Dream (192 albums) and Rick Wakeman (108 albums). 

DAVID GARRETT      A German violin virtuoso who denies he was ever expelled from the Royal College of Music in London. In David Garrett's own words:- "I skipped a few lessons and then broke into the RCM to do some extra practice, so that didn't help."  

One of the first albums I ever bought was Louis Clark's Perspektiv, long before I'd even heard of Symphonic Prog. 

I'll be sure to check them out. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is one of my favourites.