Sparked by a keen interest in early performance practice whilst studying violin at universities in Melbourne and Vienna, Chris embarked on a freelance career with ensembles in Europe, America, also performing regularly with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra back in his native homeland. Pragmatic and undeterred from continuing his journey after a serious accident abruptly ended his violinistic ambitions, he now shares his knowledge and insight into performance as a music critic, formerly writing for Vienna’s Wiener Zeitung and currently for the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, where he also studies wine, his other great passion!
Christopher’s professional background is in the public sector, and includes a spell in music librarianship. A composer, he is a keen follower of contemporary music and has attended all but four editions of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, including the first concert in 1978. Other musical passions include a fascination with the “bad boys” of the New Complexity fixation, particularly the god-like Brian Ferneyhough – arguably the best thing to have come out of Coventry. When not listening to Boulez, Christopher relaxes by frequenting the fields, orchards, woodlands and pubs on the Weald of Kent, where he lives.
Doctora en Estudios Artísticos, Literarios y de la Cultura (2021, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Sobresaliente Cum Laude), universidad en la que también cursó sus estudios de máster. Graduada en Pedagogía de las Artes Visuales y la Danza por la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, completa su formación artística con estudios de violín. Sus trabajos de investigación en torno a la danza incorporan una lectura interdisciplinar hacia otras teorías del conocimiento cultural, así como hacia otras artes. La interacción entre la creación coreográfica y la literatura es parte central de sus estudios, recogidos en ponencias y comunicaciones impartidas en congresos nacionales e internacionales, y en artículos académicos. Sus publicaciones abarcan también la reseña bibliográfica y colabora como crítica de danza en la Revista Red Escénica.
Formée au Conservatoire de Metz, Clara Leonardi y obtient son DEM de violon et son prix de Perfectionnement de quatuor à cordes. Elle s’implique aujourd’hui dans plusieurs orchestres amateurs parisiens en parallèle de ses études de commerce et fréquente assidûment les grandes salles parisiennes. Passionnée par le répertoire des compositrices, elle est aussi la co-fondatrice de ComposHer, un média en ligne dédié aux femmes dans la musique classique.
Clare is a freelance writer and music critic from the UK, currently living in the Netherlands where she writes about Music, Food and Culture. Clare is a passionate musician, having learnt the violin and piano from an early age. When not at her laptop writing, she spends her time nurturing the next generation of brass players, all from her Dutch kitchen in the sky. Read more at The Spidy Editor.
Cristina Burack studied piano and flute for many years, before earning her BM in Voice and Opera performance at Northwestern University, with a strong focus on German Lieder, as well as a BA in History. After continuing her vocal studies in Vienna, she turned her professional focus to communications. She is a freelance journalist who particularly enjoys covering the intersection of music, history and politics.
After a career in the legal field where she combined her job as an Attorney at Law with collaborative roles in various local and international cultural enterprises, Cristina de Lucas turned to dance research and criticism in 2009, when she moved to London. She obtained her doctorate from the Department of Dance at the University of Roehampton (London). Her fully-funded thesis focused on the confluence between dance and narrative in the repertory of the British choreographer Kenneth MacMillan. Her research has received several awards, such a full Vice-Chancellor scholarship and the 2014 SDHS Graduate Student Travel Grant. She also reviews dance and cinema, contributing regularly to several publications in Spain and UK.
Passionnée de musique ancienne, Cristina Diego Pacheco suit une formation musicale (piano, harmonie, clavecin, chant, direction de chœur) en même temps qu’elle étudie l’Histoire. Docteur en musicologie et maître de conférences à l’Université de Lorraine (Nancy), elle collabore régulièrement avec des magazines de musique classique et publie souvent sur des sujets liés à la musique de la Renaissance.
Daniel Martínez Babiloni cursa estudios de Máster de Musicología Aplicada en la Universidad de La Rioja, donde se licenció en Historia y Ciencias de la Música. Sus preferencias de estudio se centran en el clarinete, la música actual, la música popular urbana y las bandas de música. Sus artículos han sido publicados por la Universitat de València, Universitat Politècnica de València y la Sociedad Española de Musicología. Colabora con instituciones como el Institut Valencià de Cultura, Palau de la Música de València, Festival Internacional de Santander, así como con diferentes revistas y diarios. Es Profesor Superior de Clarinete y Maestro de Educación Musical.
Daniel Pratt trained in London, England, attending the Royal Ballet School Associates program before completing his vocational training at Central School of Ballet where he gained a BA (hons) in Professional Dance and Performance. Daniel joined The Sarasota Ballet in 2012, dancing a broad range of works including ballets by Ashton, Balanchine, MacMillan, and modern works by Taylor, Graham and Tharp. Daniel has also performed with Northern Ballet and English National Ballet. Daniel’s writing on dance has appeared in The Dancing Times and Tanz Magazine. Daniel currently serves on the board of the American Guild of Musical Artists.
David Grundy is a poet and scholar based in London. He is the author of A Black Arts Poetry Machine: Amiri Baraka and the Umbra Poets (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019) and coeditor, with Lauri Scheyer, of Selected Poems of Calvin C. Hernton (Wesleyan University Press, 2023).
David is a co-founder of Bachtrack. He is a musical omnivore interested in almost all types of music, but with a particular love of Italian opera. You can contact him from this link.
David Larkin is a Senior Lecturer in Musicology at the University of Sydney, where he specialises in nineteenth-century music. Educated at Dublin and Cambridge, he has published on the music of Richard Strauss, Liszt and Wagner. As a reviewer, he has reported from the Bayreuth Festival and reviewed opera and concert performances in four different countries. He gives regular pre-concert talks and educational lectures at venues all around Sydney and enjoys singing with choirs and playing the piano (in private).
David Renke, geboren in München, hat Musikwissenschaft an der Universität zu Köln studiert, wechselte dann zum Studiengang Medien und Kommunikation an die Universität Passau. Er spielt Klavier, Gitarre und ist als Sänger in verschiedenen Chören in Süddeutschland tätig. Sein Schwerpunkt liegt bei der Musik des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts.
David Santana (Bilbao, 1996) comienza sus estudios de música en la especialidad de
fagot en el Conservatorio Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga de Bilbao. En 2014 se traslada a
Madrid, donde cursa el grado en Musicología en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid
y continúa y finaliza sus estudios musicales de fagot en el Conservatorio Adolfo Salazar
de Madrid. Actualmente se encuentra ampliando su formación con la realización del
Máster de Investigación de Música Española e Hispanoamericana en la UCM.
David the farmer was drawn into music through choirs, orchestras, taking part in and directing 'serious' opera as a student. Passionate about live classical music, particularly chamber opera, unusual pieces and events and giving the next generation the tools to engage with the classical world.
After many years as a musician – conducting choirs, singing as a lay clerk at Winchester Cathedral and an involvement in education, David now writes programme notes, occasionally composes and enjoys a busy schedule of reviewing.
David Wolfson holds a PhD in composition from Rutgers University, and has taught at Rutgers University, Montclair State University and Hunter College. He is enjoying an eclectic career, having composed opera, musical theatre, touring children’s musicals, and incidental music for plays; choral music, band music, orchestral music, chamber music, art songs, and music for solo piano; comedy songs, cabaret songs and one memorable score for an amusement park big-headed-costumed-character show. You can find more information here.
Deb joined Bachtrack in 2022 and commissions reviews and writing on ballet and dance. She was Royal Ballet School-trained and is a former principal dancer for companies including London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet) and Bayerisches Staatsballett. She has been writing for more than 30 years – publications have included Dancing Times, DanceTabs, Dance for You and Dance Europe. She also interviews for Voices of British Ballet, an oral archive of people who have worked in the industry in the UK. In addition to her writing, since 2016 she has been facilitating programmes that support victims of domestic abuse. Deb is passionate about her rescue dog, Bruce, and daughters (not in that order), swims a mile at least five days a week and is an avid reader.
Estudió en Madrid en el Real Conservatorio Superior de Música y Musicología en la Universidad Complutense. Se doctoró en la Universidad de La Rioja con una tesis sobre la música compuesta por Roberto Gerhard durante el magisterio de Arnold Schönberg. Ha sido investigador y profesor invitado en la Universidad Humboldt (Berlín), University of Cambridge, Goldsmiths, University of London, entre otras. Actualmente es profesor e investigador senior (Ramón y Cajal) en el Dpto. de Musicología de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Dominic Lowe recently completed a degree in Classics, and one of his great interests is the reception of Greece and Rome in opera. A regular opera-goer since his very early teens, he is particularly keen on the hidden operatic gems of the 19th century. He is largely based in the South of England.
Ed. López-Collazo nació en Cuba, lugar donde la danza clásica es tan popular como el fútbol en otras latitudes. Desde siempre ha sido un apasionado de este arte en todas sus manifestaciones. Su formación académica primero en Física Nuclear y luego en Inmunología, en la que es doctor, no le ha mermado su interés por la danza y el arte en general. Sus críticas han aparecido en varias publicaciones españolas y durante los últimos años se ha hecho cargo de la sección de danza de ocioxocio.com.
Edward has been living in New York for the last 25 years, one of the reasons being the extraordinarily rich cultural life in this city.
He has studied piano and classical music in his early years. He switched later on to computer science and data architecture but he kept an unwavering interest in following the classical music phenomenon here in New York and in his travels.
Edward occasionally reviews fine arts events for the most prestigious literary magazine in Romania, his home country.
Formerly Chief Classical Music Critic of The Independent, Edward Seckerson is a writer, broadcaster, podcaster, and musical theatre aficionado. He wrote and presented the long-running BBC Radio 3 series Stage & Screen, in which he interviewed many of the biggest names in the business – among them Julie Andrews, Liza Minnelli and Stephen Sondheim. During his journalistic career he has written for most major music publications and is still on the panel of Gramophone magazine. He appears regularly on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and presented the 2007 series of the musical quiz Counterpoint. On television, he has commentated a number of times at the Cardiff Singer of the World competition. He has published books on Mahler and the conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.
Eleanor is a writer and librettist. Her work has appeared in all kinds of places from the Royal Opera House to the foot tunnels beneath the Elephant and Castle roundabout, and she has written arts reviews and features for British papers and magazines. Having begun her working life in theatre, she switched to publishing and later taught creative writing at the University of Brighton and Birkbeck. Currently based in the Netherlands, she teaches at the University of Utrecht. Eleanor plays violin and sings, though not usually at the same time, and has recently taken up speed-skating.
After completing their Master's degree in Musicology in Rome, Elena has now moved to Berlin to dedicate themselves to more things musical. With a publication on Béla Bartók and a seminar at the Humboldt-Universität underway, their interests mostly veer toward 20th-century opera, with some forays into queer musicology. Some of their latest undertakings also include oboe lessons, stencil-making and tea-making.
Elisabeth is Bachtrack’s German Editor and Press Manager. After more than five years in London, she is now back in Vienna, spending more time at the opera and in cafés than her own living room. She also organises music projects for people who have experienced homelessness and works as a freelance translator and copywriter for classical music PRs.
Originaire de Lorraine, Elodie Olson-Coons a fait ses études littéraires à Cambridge. Mezzo-soprano et pianiste, elle est particulièrement intéressée par la musique contemporaine et vocale.
Après des expériences au sein des services éditoriaux de la Cité de la Musique et du Festival de Radio France Occitanie Montpellier, Emma a occupé les fonctions de responsable communication pour l’Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg. Depuis le printemps 2021, elle est correspondante locale à Berlin pour le média des Français et francophones à l’étranger, lepetitjournal.com. Pianiste de formation, elle a également été choriste au sein de plusieurs ensembles en Ile-de-France et à l’étranger. Elle garde un fort attachement à la scène musicale et trouve son équilibre en couvrant les productions des maisons de concerts et d’opéras de la capitale allemande pour Bachtrack.
