Hélène Grimaud

While those of us who subjected ourselves to the CGI nightmare that was the big-screen mega-flop Cats are still trying to harness that Men In Black technology to erase the memory of Jennifer Hudson’s snot-covered rendition of “Memory” from our brains, French pianist Hélène Grimaud is exploring all facets of memory and how it is the key to the present, future, and how it is among the things we begin to lose as we age. On the celebrated pianist’s 2018 work titled, you guessed it, Memory, Grimaud takes on a selection of classic works by Chopin, Satie, Valentyn Silvestrov, and Debussy, including Debussy’s ultimate memory-jogger, the ever-so-delicate “Clair de lune” from Suite bergamasque. Fun fact: Grimaud also founded the Wolf Conservation Center in New York in 1999, which aims to preserve and protect North America’s wolf populations through advocacy and education.