Roll Over Beethoven

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Daniel Harding, 28, England.
Of all the musical professions, conductors tend to reach their peak in later years, after acquiring the life experience and authority to mine the deepest riches of an orchestra. None of which bothers Harding. "It is an older man's game," he concedes. "But the great conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler made his debut at 19, so there are exceptions!"

Harding is making his own rules. As a young teenager in Oxford he would conduct groups of friends on weekends. Artistically ambitious, he decided to try a rare piece by Schönberg, but found it so difficult he sought help from his music

Crossing Over With images as shiny as their instruments, these chart-happy classical musicians are acting like pop stars and blurring the line between Brahms and Britney Myleene Klass yui mock/pa Pert pinup who found fame through the U.K. reality TV-show Popstars, saw her group break up and now hopes to make it as a pseudo-classical pianist. Universal signed her to a six-album deal reportedly worth over €1.4 million. Cheerfully admits she couldn't sit through a long opera. Her CD's not out yet, but if she's a great pianist, wouldn't we have heard about it before now? She can count on a teen following in Britain, but elsewhere she'll have to get by on talent. As a manufactured pop star she didn't last long, so it's unlikely she'll fare better with the classics. Commercial potential: $$ Artistry: Too soon to tell Dominic Miller Argentinian session guitarist and a favorite collaborator of Sting, he hit the classical charts earlier this year with Shapes — pop reworkings of classics by Beethoven, Bach, Elgar and Albinoni. When his album launched BBC Worldwide's Inversion label, rivals feared the label's built-in media access would mean unfair playtime. Sales might have more to do with model looks than the inoffensive muzak. Commercial potential: $$$$ Artistry: ... Tony Henry myung jung kim/pa Former journeyman singer Anthony Garfield Henry now has a better name, Gucci shades and big rings, and is being hailed as opera's P. Diddy (although what this means is anyone's guess — will he date Jennifer Lopez and fire weapons in crowded opera halls?). Warner Music is trumpeting his 34.3 million, five-album contract — one of which will be an opera-style CD of pop songs. Opera meets rap — well, at least he's got the niche to himself. Commercial potential: $$$$ Artistry: Too soon to tell

teacher — who mentioned it to Simon Rattle. Rattle was curious to meet the boy who wanted to conduct Schönberg, and invited him to a rehearsal with his City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He even let him conduct a bit.

Impressed by Harding's knowledge and his confidence, Rattle took Harding on as an assistant and began recommending the young man everywhere. Before long, Harding was plucked from university at 18 by Claudio Abbado, then chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, who wanted Harding to assist him. He made his full debut with the Berliners at 21. Now living in France, Harding is about to lead his second band, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. The key to avoiding crippling nerves, he says, is never to allow them through the door: "You just have to think that you're not saying you're the best musician in the room, just that you know how to do your job. You're not telling these musicians who've been around for years how to do theirs." Matthew Gibson, double-bass player and board member of the London Symphony Orchestra, says of Harding: "We all think he'll be one of the greats in 10 or 15 years."

Harding's recordings (he's signed exclusively to Virgin Classics) have been mixed so far, but last year's issue of Britten's opera The Turn of the Screw revealed a new depth pushing through his characteristic incisiveness. But Harding is the first to concede that he has some ripening to do: "I feel I'm a grown-up artist now, with my own orchestra and recordings, but I also know that in 10 years I'll look back and say, 'A grown-up? Then? Preposterous!'"

Jonathan Lemalu, 27, New Zealand.
This burly bass-baritone may have accomplished less so far than Lang Lang or Harding, but he's generating just as much buzz. And no wonder. At his Glyndebourne Festival debut this summer, playing Neptune in Mozart's Idomeneo, he riveted the attention with not only vocal power, but musicality in a flashy part that's too often just belted out.

Lemalu is on the cusp of stardom. His first album last year, a rich collection of favorite songs like Schubert's Der Wanderer and Finzi's Rollicum-Rorum, won him the Gramophone magazine award for best newcomer. Although EMI are cagey about the figures, it sold tens of thousands — extremely good for an unknown singer — persuading the label to sign him to a five-year contract. His triumph in New Zealand music competitions led famous judges Sarah Walker and Tom Krause to recommend him to London's Royal College of Music, where he won the college's gold medal.

It's not only Lemalu's vast, rolling bass-baritone that has marked him out. "He's got an incredible stage presence and real artistry," says Glyndebourne's executive chairman Gus Christie. The singer himself attributes his confidence to his Western Samoan roots. "My people are not performers, but they are very flamboyant," he says. "They have self-belief in things which might perhaps deter others."

The famous haka war ritual performed by New Zealand's All Blacks rugby team, a posturing display of aggression, is the ultimate Kiwi demonstration of confidence, and Lemalu, soft-spoken with a frequent laugh, comes from a background more rugby than Rigoletto. "The fact that I sang in the choir sat uneasily with my rugby playing as far as the other boys were concerned. But I really enjoyed it." With a Schubert disc due out next year and debuts at London's Royal Opera and with the Berlin Philharmonic coming up soon, Lemalu might have to let sports take a back seat for a while.

Is classical music in crisis? With young talents like these bursting through, it's hard to be too pessimistic. The industry will never achieve pop's massive sales, but it continues to produce great artists with long shelf lives and tidy profit potential. And they don't have to wear wet T shirts or simulate sex with their instruments to do it.

Official Website: www.jonathanlemalu.com