Ivan Hewett

Ivan Hewett is a writer on music for the Daily Telegraph, broadcaster on BBC Radio 3, and teacher at the Royal College of Music. 

He studied music at Oxford University, went on to study composition at the Royal College of Music, and spent a fascinating year in commercial music, where he rose to the dizzy heights of scoring the music for a TV cat-food advertisement.  After an abortive attempt to set up a music festival, he started working in arts television, researching Granada TV's 'Man and Music' series, and helping to bring Jonathan Miller's dramatisation of Bach's St. Matthew Passion to the screen.  By then he'd already started presenting on BBC Radio 3, and in 1993 was entrusted with Radio 3's weekly magazine show 'Music Matters'.  Through the 80s and 90s he was a regular contributor to the Musical Times, Prospect and other magazines.  Since the late 90s he's taught at the Royal College of Music, and in 2003 published a very personal view of 20th century music, entitled Music: Healing the Rift (pub. Continuum). 

Nowadays he writes on music and blogs on culture for the Daily Telegraph, and from time to time presents BBC Radio 3's new music series 'Hear and Now'. 

 Related Sessions

Tuesday 29 July 2008, 7.00pm Vibe Live
Who gives a folk?

Sunday 2 November 2008, 4.00pm Student Union
We are the world: what is world music?


 Publications

Music: healing the rift (Continuum, 2005)


 Festival Buzz

"For one weekend in the year, in the centre of London, it's as if ideas matter, it's as if the world really can be made a better place through the free and energetic exercise of reason."
Austen Ivereigh, Catholic commentator