Violinist David Garrett Voted World’s Favourite Musician In The uDiscover Classical 100

Fans of the crossover violinist David Garrett came out in force to vote for the musician who has won the first-ever poll to find the world’s most popular living classical artist, The uDiscover Classical 100.

David Garrett is one of the most popular classical crossover and pop violinists in the world. He started playing the violin when he was four years old and he became the youngest artist to sign a record deal with Deutsche Grammophon when he was thirteen. He has performed with esteemed orchestras and conductors including Zubin Mehta, Claudio Abbado, and Yehudi Menuhin. In 2007 he released his first crossover CD, Free, and every year since then he has released either one crossover or classical recording. David Garrett’s latest album, Alive – My Soundtrack, is a personal collection of his favourite soundtrack music.

David Garrett narrowly beat world-famous tenor Andrea Bocelli in The uDiscover Classical 100, who came second, and violinist André Rieu who took third position. Pianist Seong-Jin Cho reached number four while violinist Nicola Benedetti was voted into fifth place.

Pianists fared the best in the classical poll, with seven making it into the top 25: Seong-Jin Cho, Martha Argerich, Yuja Wang, Alfred Brendel, Lang Lang, Daniil Trifonov and Yiruma.

The violin was the second most popular instrument in The uDiscover Classical 100, with five violinists inside the top 25: David Garrett, André Rieu, Nicola Benedetti, Itzhak Perlman and Hilary Hahn. Singers were also popular, with five being voted into the top 25: Andrea Bocelli, Katherine Jenkins, Plácido Domingo, Cecilia Bartoli and Sarah Brightman.

Simon Rattle and Daniel Barenboim were the only two conductors to make it into the list, alongside two composer-conductors, John Williams and Hans Zimmer. Yo-Yo Ma and Sheku Kanneh-Mason were the only two cellists, while trumpeter Alison Balsom and saxophonist Jess Gillam were the only wind players to reach the top 25.

The two youngest artists to reach the top 25 were saxophonist Jess Gillam, aged 22, and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, aged 21 (at chart Numbers 17 and 21 respectively).

A wide range of countries were represented in the top 25, including Germany, United Kingdom, South Korea, China, Argentina and the US, among others.

Over 11,000 votes were cast in the classical poll, which was open for voting from November 2020 to the end of January 2021.

The full list of the top 25 artists in The uDiscover Classical 100 can be found here.

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