Before Lady Gaga and Madonna, there was Debbie Harry, the original subversive platinum blonde pop star. In the late '70s and early '80s, she became the world's hottest pin-up.

Chase & Status are undeniably the dance production duo of the moment. Their debut album, More than Alot rocketed into the UK chart at number 2, they have had two top 10 singles, and praise from r'n'b and hip-hop royalty such as Rihanna and Jay-Z.

Interviewing the Jerusalem Quartet is almost impossible. It has taken many months and a series of increasingly frantic emails to track down the ensemble's first violinist, Alexander "Sasha" Pavlovsky, at his home in Jerusalem. The elusiveness has nothing to do with an aversion to the media.

'When I was 10 years old my father took me to a cello shop. The owner showed us one for £5. I offered him half. He settled for £3."

The prevailing wisdom is that following in the footsteps of a famous father can be dangerous, particularly when your father was Benny Green, the beloved jazz saxophonist, writer and broadcaster who died in 1998.

The violinist Ruth Waterman should probably be a household name, such is the quality of her musicianship. But perhaps that is also the reason she isn't. Throughout her career she has chosen a route more individual than the mainstream concert circuit, one that has allowed her to focus in earnest on her first great passion - the music of Bach.

In the song Wamp Wamp (What It Do), American rapper Malice refers to a Jew who is a "tightwad". Malice, with his brother Pusha T, comprises the acclaimed hip-hop duo The Clipse. Since they specialise in overblown stories of crime escapades, the "tightwad" line is fairly tame in comparison to much of their other material, but it still stands out as a stark example of casual antisemitism.

Pinchas Zukerman is running late. So when he picks up the phone at his offices in Ottawa, Canada, where he has been music director and principal conductor of the National Arts Centre Orchestra since 1998, he is saving time by simultaneously eating a "Shabbat pie" and talking to me, both without apparent difficulty.

Of the British beatboxers who have risen to fame over the past few years, an extraordinary number -Beardyman, Bellatrix and Shlomo included - are Jewish.

In Jack Liebeck's living room, two violin cases lie on the floor, stacks of classical CDs line the shelves and the score of Mendelssohn's violin concerto rests on the coffee table. It is not hard to guess what he does for a living.