Edwin Evans

Edwin Evans (1 September 18743 March 1945) was an English music critic.

Evans was born in London. His father (1844–1923) of the same name was a composer, writer on music and an organist. Edwin's early education was at Lille from the age of nine until eleven, then at Echternach in Luxembourg for another four years. On returning to England, he successively worked in cable telegraphy, the stock exchange and banking, and financial journalism.

Then in 1901 he started his career in music criticism, first writing on French music, championing the music of Claude Debussy in particular but also of Henri Duparc, Paul Dukas, Gabriel Fauré and Maurice Ravel. He went on to champion Russian composers, notably those associated with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, and British composers: in 1919–20 he wrote a series of articles on British composers for The Musical Times.

He was music critic of the Pall Mall Gazette (1912–23), In 1938 he was elected President of the International Society for Contemporary Music, succeeding Edward Dent. The library holds a portrait in oils of Evans painted in 1916 by Mary Eristoff.

Evans' daughter was the pianist and author Natasha Spender, who did not know her father until the age of 12.