The Nominees for Artist of the Year 2009

1. 

   1. The Sixteen

   In their 30th anniversary year, this most-engaging of ensembles continue their, and our, fascinating journey of musical discovery, not least with a stream of marvellous recordings. Could it be their year for a collective award?

2. 

   2. Gustavo Dudamel

   The autumn sees him step up to the Los Angeles Philharmonic podium, but it's his thrilling concerts with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra that have most charmed audiences this year.

3. 

   3. Sarah Connolly

   Her recent triumph on disc in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas merely underlined this mezzo soprano's ascension to the royal line of great British mezzos, a worthy successor to Dame Janet Baker et al.

4. 

   4. Bryn Terfel

   Whether awesome in Wagner at Covent Garden, powerful in Elgar with the Hallé (thankfully recorded), or charming in his British folk music album, this most popular Welsh singer has had a fine year.

5. 

   5. Gerald Finley

   The bass-baritone has had a magnificent 12 months in opera and song, on record and on stage. Schumann, John Adams, Purcell, Ravel, Britten ­across the widest of repertoire he continually astonishes. Photo by Sim Canetty-Clarke.

7. 

   6. Diana Damrau

   Substituting for Anna Netrebko to enormous acclaim in New York, delighting London audiences at Covent Garden, Damrau as fine an actress as she is a singer, is the newest soprano du jour. And with quality like hers, she's here to stay.

8. 

   7. Pierre-Laurent Aimard

   The Aldeburgh Festival¹s new artistic director has turned his ever-searching musical intelligence to Messiaen recently, with revelatory performances on both stage and disc.

9. 

   8. René Jacobs

   A typically excellent year, with exciting new installments in his Mozart operas series to the fore, for this most engaging, original and supremely gifted of musicians.

10. 

    9. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet

    Even at a time when great pianists are hardly thin on the ground, Bavouzet all but demands attention with his superb series of Debussy discs for Chandos. There is no doubt that here is a pianist we will all be talking about for a long time.

11. 

    10. Mariss Jansons

    Jansons triumphed in Gramophone's Greatest Orchestras In The World ranking this year, as the only conductor with two orchestras in the top 10. And his CD of Richard Strauss's Alpine Symphony, with his Royal Concertgebouw forces, was a knockout.

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