New York Times Critic To Speak On 'Future' Of Classical Music

February 20, 2003

by Lori Scott Fogleman

John Rockwell, the senior cultural correspondent for The New York Times, will speak on the "Future of Classical Music" at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 24, in Roxy Grove Hall on the Baylor University campus. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Baylor School of Music.
A writer, critic, arts administrator and journalist, Rockwell earned his doctorate in German cultural history from the University of California at Berkeley. He was classical music and dance critic for the Oakland Tribune and Los Angeles Times before joining The New York Times in 1972. He was the Times' classical music critic until 1991 and also was the chief rock music critic from 1974-80. From 1992-94, he was based in Paris as the newspaper's European cultural correspondent, covering all the arts, and was principal reviewer of classical recordings.
In 1994, Rockwell became the first director of the Lincoln Center Festival. He rejoined the Times as Arts and Leisure editor in 1998, and edited that Sunday section for four years.
Rockwell is the author of two books, All American Music: Composition in the Late Twentieth Century, a study of American music that was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award, and Sinatra: An American Classic. He has contributed widely to magazines, anthologies and encyclopedias, including The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera and The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll.
He is a Chevalier of the French Order of Arts and Letters and a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University. This will be Rockwell's second visit to Baylor. He attended a contemporary music festival at the School of Music in 1989.
For more information, call Kathy Johnson in the Baylor School of Music at 710-1162.