Jacqueline du Pré

At five years old, the English cellist Jacqueline Du Pre first took up the instrument, then made her professional debut at sixteen to widespread critical praise. During the next decade she stood out among classical music’s most dynamic and inventive performers, forging collaborations and recordings with the conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim, who also became her husband. Multiple sclerosis ultimately halted her trajectory by stripping sensation from her hands; she succumbed to the illness at forty-two. Her brother Piers and her sister Hilary, herself a gifted flautist, later chronicled those experiences in the biography A Genius In The Family. The 1998 film Hilary and Jackie, drawn from the book, extended public awareness of her life and artistry still further.