maestro:
(plural: maestros or maestri; pronunciation: the letters ‘mae’ rhyme with the word “my”; female: unfortunately there is no word to address a woman of high music, artistic or sports talent — for the right pronunciation of this word, please click here)
RIP Ravi Shankar, the Indian sitar maestro
a great or famous musician especially one who directs the playing of music;
a music conductor or teacher;
a master of fine art; a pundit in fine arts, especially music;
a ustad,
(also used as a title given) to a master of any one of the fine arts, and also less commonly in sports, especially in fencing sport,
Maestro Semyon Bychkov, Vienna
Many fencing enthusiasts read books and watch videos by the late Maestro Ferenc Marki, a former fencing master.
When India’s famous movie music director, A. R. Rehman, won two Oscar awards for music in 2009, the headlines of every major newspaper in the world screamed: “INDIA’S MUSIC MAESTRO A.R. RAHMAN ROCKS THE WORLD!”
Though maestro means ‘master’ of something in certain fields, only fine arts in the past, people have started using it for popular or senior persons in every field, including politics and business, and, consequently, we have maestros of every kind and in every field.
