Norman Lebrecht was in town for the League of American Orchestras' 2015 Conference. He stopped by WCLV to chat with Bill O'Connell about his first time in Cleveland, the health of the classical industry, and the future of classical music.
Norman Lebrecht is a prolific cultural commentator and an award-winning novelist.
He has written 12 books about music, which have been translated into 17 languages. The latest is Why Mahler?, a radical reinterpretation of the most influential composer of modern times. Also back in print is Mahler Remembered (Faber, 1987), a ground-breaking biographical compilation.
Norman Lebrecht’s first novel The Song of Names won a Whitbread Award in 2003 and is presently being cast as a major feature film. His second novel, The Game of Opposites,was published in the US by Pantheon Books. A third is in preparation.
A collection of Lebrecht columns was published in China in 2012, the first such anthology by any western cultural writer. A Lebrecht essay appears monthly in Standpoint, the cultural and intellectual magazine. Norman Lebrecht’s Album of the Week is featured on the Sinfini website.
Slipped Disc, Norman Lebrecht’s blog, has become the world’s most-read cultural news and views site in English, drawing well over one million readers every month.
Norman Lebrecht is a popular lecturer at cultural institutions and leading universities. Other works in progress include a stage play, a radio series and television documentaries.