Hugh Canning attended his first opera 50 years ago and started writing about classical music in national newspapers five years later. Over a career of 45 years he has been one of the foremost classical critics, feature and opinion piece writers, contributing to international publications such as Opera, Opéra and Oper! magazines, The Western Mail (1977 – 84)  The Guardian (1983 – 1989), The London Daily News (1987), and The Sunday Times (1989 – 2022), of which he was Chief Classical Critic from 1994, the year he was named Critic of the Year in The Press Awards. He has been an occasional contributor to both The Australian and The New York Times, and is regarded worldwide as a leading classical music writer in the English Language.

 

Hugh studied Modern Languages, French and German, at Pembroke College Oxford (1972 – 76) and began attending opera and concerts in London and abroad as a student. During his year abroad, 1974/75, in Aachen, West Germany, he attended over 150 performances at Theater Aachen, Oper Köln, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper Berlin, Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence, Verona and Bregenz Festival, laying the foundations of a wealth of live performance experience with few rivals among contemporary writers.

 

During the last 40 years, he has interviewed and profiled many of the most prominent musicians of our time for Opera, The Guardian and The Sunday Times.