Alex Ross Wins MacArthur

Music critic Alex Ross ’90 has just been named a MacArthur Fellow for his encyclopedic first book...

Music critic Alex Ross ’90 has just been named a MacArthur Fellow. Ross is a regular columnist for the New Yorker and his encyclopedic first book, The Rest Is Noise, chronicles twentieth-century music from Gustav Mahler to John Cage. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism and made numerous best-of-the-year lists, including those of the New York Times and Washington Post. In awarding him the fellowship, the foundation said:

"In an era when many proclaim the imminent demise of concert halls due to waning attendance, Ross offers both highly specialized and casual readers new ways of thinking about the music of the past and its place in our future."

Read more about Ross and his criticism in this article from the July-August 2008 issue of Harvard Magazine.

You might also like

Reese Witherspoon Visits Harvard—and Talks Women, Media, and AI

Reese Witherspoon discusses female-driven content at Harvard Business School. 

A (Truly) Naked Take on Second-Wave Feminism

Playwright Bess Wohl’s Liberation opens on Broadway.

‘Passengers’ at A.R.T. Blends Acrobatics with Einstein’s Relativity

Review: Quantum mechanics meets circus arts at the American Repertory Theater’s performance

Most popular

What Trump Means for John Roberts’s Legacy

Executive power is on the docket at the Supreme Court.

Harvard Faculty Discuss Tenure Denials

New data show a shift in when, in the process, rejections occur

Explore More From Current Issue

Aisha Muharrar with shoulder-length hair, wearing a green blazer and white shirt.

Parks and Rec Comedy Writer Aisha Muharrar Gets Serious about Grief

With Loved One, the Harvard grad and Lampoon veteran makes her debut as a novelist.

Students in purple jackets seated on chairs, facing away in a grassy area.

A New Prescription for Youth Mental Health

Kenyan entrepreneur Tom Osborn ’20 reimagines care for a global crisis.