Richard Morrison

Richard Duncan Morrison (born 24 July 1954) is an English music critic who specializes in classical music. As chief music critic of The Times since 1992, he "has long been admired for his penetrating cultural column". on 24 July 1954. His first classical music experience was attending a 1960 London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) concert at the age of five. He was educated at University College School in Hampstead, and after studying music at Magdalene College, Cambridge worked variously as a pianist, organist, and trombonist.

Following his period at Cambridge, Morrison soon embarked in the realm of music criticism, first writing for the Classical Music magazine in 1978. Morrison also edited the arts pages for The Times between 1989 and 1999. at both The Times (weekly) and in the BBC Music Magazine (monthly since 2004), he writes a column. His column at The Times is "noted for its humour and passion",

Morrison published a history of the LSO to coincide with the orchestra's centenary in 2004. Writing in the August 2020 edition of BBC Music Magazine, Morrison called for the dropping of three nationalistic songs, "Jerusalem", "Rule, Britannia!" and "Land of Hope and Glory", from the Last Night of the Proms, the last two being in his opinion "bordering on incendiary" in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Selected writings

Articles