Classical music still appeals to the public

Annaual Gramophone Awards, regarded by many as the most important classical music honour in the world, proved that this music genre is still popular all over the world. The organizators made an experiment – for the first time the winner of the most important award, Artist of the Year, was chosen by common classical music lovers.

All in all, listeners from 15 classical radio stations in 13 countries, including the USA, Germany, France and New Zeland, took part in the vote. The winner was a German violinist Julia Fischer. According to Gramophone magazine (which conducts this award) editor James Inverne, the contest reached a potential audience of 14 million people, with voter numbers in the tens of thousands.