About Jim Samson
Born 1946. Jim Samson is a British musicologist, music critic, university teacher, editor and composer.
Thomas James Samson, FBA (born 6 July 1946), commonly known as Jim Samson, is a musicologist and retired academic. Described as "a leading authority on the music of Chopin", his research extends to Romantic music, early 20th-century classical music and the music of east Central Europe in general.
Honours and awards Samson was awarded the Order of Merit by the Polish government in 1990 and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy, the United Kingdom's national academy, in 2000. In 2018, he received the IRC Harrison Medal from the Society for Musicology in Ireland.
Selected publications Music in Transition: A Study of the Tonal Expansion and Early Atonality, 1900–1920 (Dent, 1977; reprinted in 1993). The Music of Szymanowski (Kahn and Averill, 1980). The Music of Chopin (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985; reprinted by Clarendon Press, 1994). Chopin: The Four Ballades (Cambridge University Press, 1992). (Editor) The Cambridge Companion to Chopin (Cambridge University Press, 1992). Chopin (Oxford University Press, 1996). (Editor) The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music (Cambridge University Press, 2002). Virtuosity and the Musical Work: the Transcendental Studies of Liszt (Cambridge University Press, 2003). (Edited with J. P. E. Harper-Scott) Introduction to Music Studies (Cambridge University Press, 2008). Music in the Balkans (Brill, 2013). (Edited with Nicoletta Demetriou) Music in Cyprus (Routledge, 2015).
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Important facts
People in Jim Samson's life
Named in this biography and alive at the same time
Contemporaries
People whose lives overlapped Jim Samson's
Frequently asked questions
Who is Jim Samson?
British musician and musicologist
When was Jim Samson born?
Jim Samson was born in 1946.
What is Jim Samson's occupation?
Jim Samson is a musicologist, music critic, university teacher, editor and composer.
What nationality is Jim Samson?
Jim Samson is British.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Jim Samson. https://biography.guide/jim-samson/
MLA: "Jim Samson." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/jim-samson/.
Chicago: "Jim Samson." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/jim-samson/.
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