Anne Midgette

Anne Midgette (born June 22, 1965) is an American music critic who was the first woman to write classical music criticism regularly for The New York Times. She was the chief classical music critic of The Washington Post from 2008 to 2019, prior to which she wrote for The New York Times from 2001 to 2007. A specialist in opera and composers of contemporary classical music, Midgette advocates the importance of online criticism and has previously maintained a classical music blog.

As a freelance writer she published in a wide variety of publications, sometimes covering other fields such as dance, theater, film and the visual arts. She is the co-author of two books, one with Herbert Breslin on his management of Luciano Pavarotti, and another with the pianist Leon Fleisher on his career.

Life and career Anne Midgette was born in Portland, Oregon on June 22, 1965. later moving to Roswell, New Mexico in middle school. Her first live theater experience was the New York premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass in 1972. She studied Classical Civilization at Yale University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1986. This included traveling throughout Europe to review opera, music, dance, theater, film and the visual arts for The Wall Street Journal, Opera News and Opernwelt among other publications. including one in 1993 on Bavaria for the Insight Pocket Guides series.

In 1998 she returned to the United States where she continued as a freelance writer for publications such ARTnews, Die Welt, Newsday, The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Town & Country and the now-inactive website MusicMaker.com. In addition to music, at The Times she occasionally reviewed theater; While at The Post, she covered a broad spectrum of classical music topics and sometimes the visual arts. She subsequently collaborated with the pianist Leon Fleisher on a book about his life, My Nine Lives, published in 2010.

Selected writings Books and chapters

Articles

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