author
Louis Biancolli
1907–1992
A longtime American music critic and program annotator, he helped generations of listeners feel more at home in the concert hall. His books and notes brought opera, symphonies, and major performers to readers in a clear, welcoming way.
2 Audiobooks
Serge Prokofieff and his orchestral music
by Louis Biancolli
Tschaikowsky and his orchestral music
by Louis Biancolli
About the author
Born in New York in 1907, Louis Biancolli became a prominent American music critic. Reference sources describe him as the chief music critic for the New York World-Telegram and Sun from 1928 to 1966, and as program annotator for the New York Philharmonic from 1941 to 1949.
He also wrote a number of books about classical music and musicians, including works on Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, opera, and the soprano Kirsten Flagstad. That mix of journalism and explanatory writing suggests the kind of author he was: someone who not only reviewed performances, but also helped audiences understand the music behind them.
Biancolli died in New Milford, Connecticut, in 1992. A later family memoir by Amy Biancolli remembers him within a deeply musical household that also included violinist Jeanne Mitchell Biancolli, adding a more personal glimpse of the world around his work.