Zachary Woolfe is an American
music critic
'' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of m ...
who specializes in
classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...
. Since 2022 he has been
chief classical music critic for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''.
Education and career
As a teenager in the 1990s, Woolfe discovered the online
opera
Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
magazine ''
Parterre Box'' by
James Jorden, whose pages he "returned to again and again". Woolfe later studied at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
.
Although he "had written a little bit for newspapers in college", he had not anticipated a career in journalism.
In 2008, however, a friend at ''
The New York Observer
''The New York Observer'' was a weekly newspaper established in 1987. In 2016, it ceased print publication and became the online-only newspaper ''Observer''. The media site focuses on culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainment ...
'' asked Woolfe to assist in coverage of the
2008 US Open tennis tournament.
After additional writing for the paper, Woolfe was offered a regular column in 2009, devoted to opera.
In 2011 Woolfe started working as a freelance music critic for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', reporting on opera festivals in the US and internationally. In 2015 he became classical music editor, before being appointed as
chief classical music critic in 2022.
Selected writings
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Articles
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References
Further reading
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External links
Articles by Zachary Woolfein ''The New York Times''
Articles by Zachary Woolfein ''The Observer''
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Woolfe, Zachary
Living people
Princeton University alumni
Opera critics
The New York Times journalists
American classical music critics
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American journalists
21st-century American male writers
American male journalists