Nicholas Kenyon

Sir Nicholas Roger Kenyon CBE (born 23 February 1951 in Cheshire) is an English music administrator, editor and writer on music. He was responsible for the BBC Proms 1996-2007 following which he was appointed Managing Director of the Barbican Centre.

Education and career

After attending St Bede's College, Manchester, and playing bassoon with Stockport Youth Orchestra, Kenyon studied history at Balliol College, Oxford. After graduating he worked for the English Bach Festival, and as a freelance writer on music. From 1979 to 1982 he was a music critic for The New Yorker. On returning to the UK he became music critic for The Times, then Chief Music Critic of The Observer. He was also Music Editor of The Listener and Editor of the journal Early Music. In 1992 he was appointed Controller, BBC Radio 3 and was appointed Director of the BBC Proms from the 1996 season. In 2000 his title changed to Controller BBC Proms, Live Events and Television Classical Music. In February 2007 he was announced as the Managing Director of the Barbican Centre in the City of London, in succession to Sir John Tusa.

Kenyon is a member of the Board of English National Opera, a Governor of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, a member of English Heritage's Blue Plaques Panel, a Trustee of the Dartington Hall Trust, a member of the Dartington International Summer School Foundation and a patron of Spode Music Week. He is also a Fellow of The Radio Academy.^[1]

In the 2001 New Year Honours he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to music and millennium broadcasting.^[2] He was knighted in the 2008 New Year Honours.^[3]

Publications

Amongst his publications are The BBC Symphony Orchestra: the first 50 years (1982), the biography Simon Rattle: from Birmingham to Berlin (2001), and the "Faber Pocket Guide to Mozart" (2005). He edited the influential Authenticity and Early Music (1987), and the BBC Proms Guides to Great symphonies, Great Concertos, Great Choral Works and Great Orchestral works.

References

1. The Radio Academy "Fellows"
2. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 56070. pp. 7–8. 30 December 2000. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
3. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 58557. p. 1. 2007-12-29. Retrieved 2007-12-31.

External links

• BBC Press Office biography
• Guardian article by Kenyon on the influence of recording and broadcasting on musical tastes