Edward Downes (quizmaster)

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This article is about the American music critic and quizmaster. For the British conductor, see Edward Downes.

Edward Downes (August 12, 1911 - December 26, 2001) was an American musicologist, music critic, and quizmaster.

Born in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, the son of Olin Downes, at one time chief music critic of The New York Times, Downes was educated at Columbia University and the Manhattan School of Music and received a Ph.D. in musicology from Harvard University in 1958. He taught at Wellesley College, the Longy School of Music, the University of Minnesota and Queens College. He was also a New York Times music critic for two years in the 1950s and wrote programme notes for the New York Philharmonic for eighteen years.

He is perhaps best remembered as the host and quizmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Quiz for most of its existence, on its Saturday afternoon broadcasts from 1958 to 1996.