Ashkenazy’s father was a musician. At eight Ashkenazy was enrolled at the Central Music School in Moscow where he studied piano with Anaida Sumbatyan for the next ten years.

The only child of musical parents, Barenboim studied first with his mother, then with his father. After his debut in Buenos Aires at the age of seven, his parents (descendants of Russian Jews from Odessa) decided to move to Israel.

Idil Biret's gift for music was apparent from the age of three. She was trained at the Paris Conservatoire under the tutelage of Nadia Boulanger, graduating at the age of fifteen with three first prizes.

The Swedish tenor Jussi Björling (1911-1960) was born in Stora Tuna in the district of Dalarna. As a boy he toured and recorded with the family quartet, in addition to visiting the United States (1916-26).

The German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was born in Berlin in 1925. After war service he studied with the tenor Georg Walter and made his operatic début as Posa in Don Carlos in 1948.

Nicolai Gedda [b.1925] is one of the greatest lyric tenors of the twentieth century and unquestionably the most versatile.

Gould first studied piano with his mother who was a voice teacher. At ten he went to the Toronto Conservatory of Music where he studied piano with Albert Guerrero, organ with Frederick C. Silvester and theory with Leo Smith.

"The busiest man on the keyboard." Daily Telegraph newspaper (UK). Jenő Jandó is one of the most prolific artists in the history of classical music recording. He is also increasingly one of its most appreciated and admired.

The English soprano Dame Felicity Lott was born in Cheltenham on 8th May 1947 and started learning the piano when she was five, having her first singing lesson at the age of twelve.

Education As a child, Takako Nishizaki studied with her father, Shinji, the co-founder of the Suzuki Method and with Shinichi Suzuki himself.

Richter’s father was a pianist and composer who had studied in Vienna and then taught at the Odessa Conservatory. He was German, and Richter’s mother was his pupil.

The baritone Rolando Panerai (b.1924), born at Campi Bisenzio near Florence, had a long and distinguished career.

Peter Schreier was born in Gauernitz, where his father was a cantor and organist. At the age of eight he joined the Kreuzchor in Dresden.

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was born at Jarotschin, near Poznan, on 9 December 1915. Her teachers in Berlin included the Lieder singer Lula Mysz-Gmeiner, the coloratura soprano Maria Ivogun and the latter’s husband, the pianist Michael Raucheisen.

Robert Tear was born and educated in Wales, and became a choral scholar at KingÂ’s College, Cambridge.

Stephen Varcoe has established a reputation as one of Britain's most versatile bass-baritones, and has sung in opera, concerts and recitals covering a wide range of repertoire in Europe, the United States and the Far East.