Norman Lebrecht facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Norman Lebrecht
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Lebrecht in 2004
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| Born | 11 July 1948 London, England
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Norman Lebrecht (born on July 11, 1948) is a British writer and journalist who focuses on classical music. He is most famous for owning a popular website called Slipped Disc, which is all about classical music news.
Some people say his writing is exciting and entertaining. Others have said it sometimes has small mistakes. Unlike many music writers, Norman Lebrecht usually writes about the people and organizations involved in classical music, rather than just reviewing concerts or recordings. A famous musician named Gilbert Kaplan once called him "surely the most controversial and arguably the most influential journalist covering classical music."
He used to write for big newspapers like The Daily Telegraph (from 1994 to 2002) and was an assistant editor at the London Evening Standard (from 2002 to 2009). He also hosted radio shows on BBC Radio 3, like lebrecht.live and The Lebrecht Interview.
Besides his work on classical music, Norman Lebrecht has written 12 books about music and two novels. One of his novels, The Song of Names (published in 2001), won an award in 2002 and was later made into a movie. In 2019, he published a book about history called Genius and Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World, 1847–1947.
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Early Life and School
Norman Lebrecht was born in London, England, on July 11, 1948. His parents were Soloman and Marguerite Lebrecht. He went to Hasmonean Grammar School in London. He looked up to Solomon Schonfeld when he was a child.
From 1964 to 1965, Norman Lebrecht studied at Kol Torah Rabbinical College, a special school in Israel. After that, he went to Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan (from 1966 to 1968) and Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
In 1977, Norman Lebrecht married Elbie Spivack, who is a sculptor and writer. They have three daughters.
His Work as a Journalist
After finishing his studies, Norman Lebrecht worked at the Kol Yisrael news department in Israel from 1970 to 1972. This was part of the Israel Broadcasting Authority. He then moved back to London in 1972 and worked as a news executive at Visnews Ltd from 1973 to 1978.
From 1982 to 1991, he was a special writer for The Sunday Times newspaper. In 1993, he started writing a music column for The Daily Telegraph in Britain, which he continued until 2002.
In 2002, he became an arts writer and assistant editor for the Evening Standard newspaper. He wrote a weekly column there until 2015. Gilbert Kaplan, a well-known figure in music, said that Norman Lebrecht's column was "must-reading around the world" because it reported on the classical music world like a political reporter would. He was one of the first to predict that major classical record companies would face difficulties.
Norman Lebrecht also wrote a monthly column for a culture magazine called Standpoint. When that magazine stopped publishing in 2021, he moved his monthly articles to a new magazine called The Critic.
Books He Has Written
Norman Lebrecht has written many books about music and other topics. In the 1980s, he published books like Discord: Conflict and the Making of Music (1982) and The Book of Musical Anecdotes (1985).
One of his important books is The Maestro Myth: Great Conductors in Pursuit of Power (1991). This book looks at the history of music conductors and how their role changed over time. He also wrote When the Music Stops: Managers, Maestros and the Corporate Murder of Classical Music (1996), which explored the business side of classical music.
Novels and Other Works
Norman Lebrecht also writes novels. His first novel, The Song of Names, was published in 2001. It tells the story of two boys growing up in London during wartime and how the Holocaust affected them. This book won the 2002 Whitbread Award for Best First Novel. In 2019, a movie based on The Song of Names was released, directed by François Girard and starring actors Tim Roth and Clive Owen.
In 2009, he published another novel called The Game of Opposites: A Novel. He also wrote a book about the composer Mahler called Why Mahler?: How One Man and Ten Symphonies Changed Our World (2010). For his work in spreading music culture, he received the Cremona Music Award in 2014.
His book Genius and Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World, 1847–1947 was published in 2019. This book explores how Jewish people influenced the world in many different ways during that time. Critics praised it for being wide-ranging and fascinating.
In 2023, Norman Lebrecht released Why Beethoven: A Phenomenon in 100 Pieces. This book is a guide to different recordings of Beethoven's music. Reviewers found his descriptions of the music and performances to be very interesting and unique.
About a Book Issue
In 2007, Norman Lebrecht's book Maestros, Masterpieces and Madness: The Secret Life and Shameful Death of the Classical Record Industry had some issues. The book was taken off the market because it contained statements that were found to be incorrect. The founder of Naxos Records, Klaus Heymann, took legal action against Lebrecht's publisher, Penguin Books. The case was settled, and Penguin Books apologized for the incorrect statements and paid a sum of money. They also agreed to remove unsold copies of the book.
Broadcasting Work
Norman Lebrecht has also worked in radio. Starting in 2000, he hosted a show called lebrecht.live on BBC Radio 3. This show was a place where people could discuss and debate different topics in the arts.
From 2006 to 2016, he hosted another show on BBC Radio 3 called The Lebrecht Interview. On this show, he talked with important people in the world of classical music.
Slipped Disc Blog
In March 2007, Norman Lebrecht started his own classical music blog called Slipped Disc. It began as part of another website, ArtsJournal.com, but by 2014, it became its own website.
Slipped Disc is very popular, attracting over one million readers every month. The blog often shares news and interesting stories about the classical music industry. Norman Lebrecht has said that he enjoys writing about the "human comedy" of the music world, focusing on what people find interesting and talk about, like what happened with a famous conductor.
