Classical music lovers will have the opportunity to watch some of today’s biggest names in music perform at the Athenaeum, in a project entitled ‘Culture’s Crusades’ initiated by ArtEst Foundation.

Thus, on September 25, main guest at the Athenaeum will be Sam Haywood who will perform Chopin’s best known piano works. One month later, on October 27, main guests are Katia and Marielle Labeque and on November 28 Sarah Chang will return on a Romanian stage, just six months after her first Athenaeum performance in March.

Sam Haywood has performed to high critical acclaim all over the world as concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. He has recorded extensively for radio and CD, his latest release being the first recording to have ever been made on Chopin’s own Pleyel piano of 1846. Haywood began playing the piano at the age of four, inspired by evenings listening to crackly Beethoven LPs with his Grandmother in the English Lake District. Following his success at the age of thirteen in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, the Royal Philharmonic Society gave him with their prestigious Isserlis Award. He went on to study in Vienna with Paul Badura-Skoda and at the Royal Academy of Music with the late Maria Curcio, a pupil of Artur Schnabel.

Katia and Marielle Labeque were born on the southwest coast of France near the Spanish border. The two sisters are a sharply contrasted, yet highly communicative piano team. Their repertoire includes a broad range of material, from Bach on period instruments to the 21st century contemporary composers. The sisters received initial instruction from their Italian mother, Ada Cecchi, who began lessons when her daughters were three and five years of age. Violinist Sarah Chang is recognized the world over as one of classical music’s most captivating and gifted artists. Appearing in the music capitals of Asia, Europe and the Americas, she has collaborated with most major orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic.