John Hamilton Warrack (born 1928, in London) is an English

music critic ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of mus ...

, writer on music, and oboist. Warrack is the son of Scottish conductor and composer Guy Warrack. He was educated at Winchester College (1941-6) and then at the Royal College of Music (1949–52).Encyclopedia.com
/ref> In the early 1950s he was a freelance oboist, playing mostly with the

Boyd Neel Louis Boyd Neel O.C. (19 July 190530 September 1981) was an English, and later Canadian conductor and academic. He was Dean of the Royal Conservatory of Music at the University of Toronto. Neel founded and conducted chamber orchestras, and cont ...

Orchestra and Sadler's Wells Orchestra. From 1954 until 1961 he was music critic for '' The Daily Telegraph'', and from 1961 until 1972 he was music critic for '' The Sunday Telegraph''. From 1978 until 1983 he served as the Artistic Director of the Leeds Festival. From 1984 until 1993 he taught on the music faculty at the University of Oxford. He is the author of ''Six Great Composers'' (1955); ''Carl Maria von Weber'' (

Hamish Hamilton Hamish Hamilton Limited was a British book publishing house, founded in 1931 eponymously by the half-Scot half-American Jamie Hamilton (''Hamish'' is the vocative form of the Gaelic Seumas eaning James ''James'' the English form – which was ...

, 1968, 2nd ed.

Cambridge UP Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Press i ...

, 1976), the standard study of

Weber Weber (, or ; German: ) is a surname of German origin, derived from the noun meaning " weaver". In some cases, following migration to English-speaking countries, it has been anglicised to the English surname 'Webber' or even 'Weaver'. Notable pe ...

in English; '' German Opera: From the Beginnings to Wagner'' (2001) and the co-author of ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera'' (1964, with Harold Rosenthal) and ''The Oxford Dictionary of Opera'' (1992, with Ewan West). Warrack lives in Helmsley, North Yorkshire. He is the father of the stonemason Simon Warrack.BBC Radio 3 Private Passions, 20 Nov 2022; ''Radio Times'' 19-25 NOV 2022 P. 122

References

1928 births Living people English music critics 20th-century English non-fiction writers English male journalists The Daily Telegraph people Academics of the University of Oxford Journalists from London Tchaikovsky scholars {{UK-journalist-stub