This year’s Jewish Book Week opens with pianist Danny Driver, and cellist Gemma Rosefield in performance, followed by a panel discussion to reflect on the mounting challenges recently faced by artists and institutions.

In May 2024, an Amsterdam concert hall cancelled performances by the Jerusalem Quartet, igniting a global debate on artistic freedom and cultural boycotts. Pianist Danny Driver led a petition with harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, protesting this decision; for our opening night event, Danny joins cellist Gemma Rosefield to perform. This will be followed by a panel discussion chaired by Mark Lawson, featuring Danny, author and journalist Lionel Shriver, and former Culture Minister Ed Vaizey. Together, they will reflect on the mounting challenges facing artists and institutions and explore how to protect creativity and expression in uncertain times.

This event will last approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes, including an interval.

About the speakers:

One of Britain’s most respected pianists, Danny Driver is recognised internationally for his sophistication, insight and musical depth, with a holistic approach inspired by studies at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Music. Concerto engagements have included many of the UK’s major orchestras and two appearances at the BBC Proms, while UK recital highlights have included frequent visits to London’s Wigmore Hall, among them a series focussed on Gyrgy Ligeti (2021-22) and a five-concert Variations series planned over the next two years. He makes his debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall in March 2025.

Driver’s international work has included engagements in the USA, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Germany, Australia, China, and Hong Kong. Over the past fifteen years, he has released many acclaimed recital and concerto recordings on the Hyperion Records label, including music by C P E Bach, Handel, Amy Beach, and Gyrgy Ligeti.

Winner of the prestigious Pierre Fournier Award in 2007, Gemma Rosefield made her concerto debut at the age of sixteen when she won First Prize in the European Music for Youth Competition in Oslo, Norway, playing a televised performance of the Saint-Saens Concerto with the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Described by The Strad on her 2003 Wigmore Hall debut as ‘a mesmerising musical treasure’, by the London Evening Standard as ‘a phenomenal talent’, and featured in BBC Music Magazine as ‘one to watch’. Gemma is a professor of cello at the Royal College of Music, London. Her instrument is a cello made in Naples in 1704 by Alessandro Gagliano, formerly owned and played by the Prince Regent.

Mark Lawson is a journalist, broadcaster, author and playwright. He is a cultural critic and  feature writer for The Guardian, writes regularly about TV for Radio Times, and is theatre critic of The Tablet. His work as a broadcaster includes Mark Lawson Talks To… (BBC4), Front Row (BBC Radio 4) and Late Review / Review / Newsnight Review (BBC2). His novels include The Allegations, The Deaths, Enough Is Enough, Idlewild and Going Out Live. He has written dramas for TV (Absolute Power, Going Out Live) and more than two dozen dramas for BBC Radio 4, most recently In Good Faith, Word Scrubs and Transparency.

He is a fellow of the Royal Society Of Literature, a trustee of the Royal Literary Fund and Pro Chancellor of the University Of Northampton. He is an honorary fellow of University College London and of the University of Northampton.

A prolific journalist with a fortnightly column in The Spectator, Lionel Shriver has written widely for the New York Times, the Guardian, the London Times, Prospect, the Financial Times, Harper’s Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and many other publications.  Her first nonfiction book, Abominations: Selected Essays from a Career of Courting Self-Destruction, was published in 2022.  As a fiction writer, she has published one story/novella collection (one of whose selections won the 2014 BBC Short Story Award) and fifteen novels, including the bestsellers The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047, Big Brother, So Much for That (a finalist for the 2010 National Book Award and the Wellcome Trust Book Prize), The Post-Birthday World (Entertainment Weekly’s 2007 Book of the Year), and the Orange-Prize winner We Need to Talk About Kevin (a 2011 feature film starring Tilda Swinton).  Her most recent novel Mania was released in April 2024.  Her work has been translated into 35 languages.

Ed Vaizey is a member of the House of Lords, business adviser, broadcaster, speaker and event host. Ed was the Member of Parliament for Wantage between 2005 and 2019. He served as the UK Government Culture and Digital Minister from 2010-16, and is the longest-serving Minister in that role. He was appointed a privy councillor in 2016.

As well as his work in the House of Lords, Ed advises a number of companies on strategic issues. He is a well known broadcaster, with a show on Times Radio, and regularly contributes to the media. Ed is a trustee of Tate, chairman of the UK-ASEAN Business Council, an honorary fellow of the Radio Academy, and has an honorary degree from Newcastle University, where he is a visiting professor.