John Deathridge

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John Deathridge (born in Birmingham, 21 October 1944) is an English musicologist, regarded as one of the world's foremost Wagner experts and a noted authority on Beethoven. He is King Edward VII Professor of Music at King's College London as well as the Head of the prestigious Department of Music, and has been active as a conductor, organ recitalist and piano accompanist; as a radio and television broadcaster; and as a reviewer for scholarly music journals in Germany and Britain. From 2005 he has been the President of the Royal Musical Association, Britain's foremost learned music society.

After studying at Oxford University, culminating with a dissertation on Wagner's sketches for Rienzi, he was full-time director of music at St Wolfgang, Munich, where he continued his research on Wagner and acted as a conductor and broadcaster. Deathridge has also taught at Princeton University and the University of Chicago; and worked as an editor of the Wagner complete edition. Before arriving at the King's (London) Department of Music, he was fellow and director of studies in music at King's College, Cambridge.

Music and social theory is a keen research interest of Deathridge, in particular Adorno. His main area of research, however, remains 19th and 20th-century German music, especially Wagner.