About Me
© Monika Tomiczek
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In the very male world of classical music and classic music writing, Dr Leah Broad is a breath of fresh air. Leah is an award-winning music writer, historian, and broadcaster. She holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford and writes about twentieth century cultural history, particularly women in music. Quartet, Leah's award-winning first book, is a group biography of four women composers: Ethel Smyth, Rebecca Clarke, Dorothy Howell & Doreen Carwithen. Her second, on women and music in World War II, is slated for publication in 2026 with Faber & Faber. Leah regularly works with performers and institutions to reach out to new audiences, using storytelling to bring classical music to life. You can follow Leah on Substack here.
A sincere advocate who might just be what the classical music industry didn't realise it needed most right now. |
WRITING AND PRESENTING
Leah is the author of Quartet: How Four Women Challenged The Musical World, which won the Royal Philharmonic Society's Storytelling Award 2024, a Presto Books of the Year Award 2023, and was shortlisted for the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography 2023. Her forthcoming second book, on women and music in World War II, was awarded a 2024 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant. Her writing is represented by John Ash at CAA.
Winner of the 2015 Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism, Leah's journalism has appeared in outlets including the Guardian, Observer, New Statesman, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, London Review of Books, BBC Music Magazine, London Magazine, Opera Now, VAN Magazine, Bachtrack, Huffington Post, and The Conversation. Leah has written articles and programme notes for Glyndebourne, the London Symphony Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra, Longborough Festival Opera, Houston Grand Opera, the Wigmore Hall, Oxford Lieder Festival, Birmingham Symphony Hall, and the Elgar Festival among others. You can read more on her Writing and Programme Notes pages.
Leah was selected as a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker in 2016, so is frequently on air discussing music and history. You can hear more on the Broadcasting page, which has links to radio and TV recordings. As a public speaker, Leah has appeared at events and venues including the BBC Proms, Hay Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Charleston Literary Festival, Buxton International Festival, Harrogate International Festivals, Elgar Festival, Oxford Lieder Festival, Charleston Literary Festival, Seamus Heaney Home Place, Snape Maltings, Being Human Festival, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, and Free Thinking Festival.
For 2025, Leah is a judge of the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction.
Leah is the author of Quartet: How Four Women Challenged The Musical World, which won the Royal Philharmonic Society's Storytelling Award 2024, a Presto Books of the Year Award 2023, and was shortlisted for the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography 2023. Her forthcoming second book, on women and music in World War II, was awarded a 2024 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant. Her writing is represented by John Ash at CAA.
Winner of the 2015 Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism, Leah's journalism has appeared in outlets including the Guardian, Observer, New Statesman, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, London Review of Books, BBC Music Magazine, London Magazine, Opera Now, VAN Magazine, Bachtrack, Huffington Post, and The Conversation. Leah has written articles and programme notes for Glyndebourne, the London Symphony Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra, Longborough Festival Opera, Houston Grand Opera, the Wigmore Hall, Oxford Lieder Festival, Birmingham Symphony Hall, and the Elgar Festival among others. You can read more on her Writing and Programme Notes pages.
Leah was selected as a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker in 2016, so is frequently on air discussing music and history. You can hear more on the Broadcasting page, which has links to radio and TV recordings. As a public speaker, Leah has appeared at events and venues including the BBC Proms, Hay Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Charleston Literary Festival, Buxton International Festival, Harrogate International Festivals, Elgar Festival, Oxford Lieder Festival, Charleston Literary Festival, Seamus Heaney Home Place, Snape Maltings, Being Human Festival, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, and Free Thinking Festival.
For 2025, Leah is a judge of the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction.
It was a stroke of genius to have invited Leah Broad...her enthusiasm for the subject was palpable and she was entertaining and knowledgeable.
- KT BRUCE, Rye News
ACADEMIC RESEARCH
Academically, Leah has writing published in journals including the Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Music & Letters, TEMPO, and Music and the Moving Image. Chapters are published and forthcoming in books for Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Routledge, and Boydell & Brewer. Leah is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and academic profiles are available on the Christ Church and Oxford Faculty of Music websites, academia.edu, and LinkedIn.
Academically, Leah has writing published in journals including the Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Music & Letters, TEMPO, and Music and the Moving Image. Chapters are published and forthcoming in books for Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Routledge, and Boydell & Brewer. Leah is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and academic profiles are available on the Christ Church and Oxford Faculty of Music websites, academia.edu, and LinkedIn.
Music historian Broad redefines whom musicians could be and what they could do.
- Kirkus Reviews