Autor/-in: Jessica Duchen

Jessica Duchen is a music journalist, critic and author. She grew up in London and studied music at Jesus College, Cambridge, plus piano with Joan Havill. Her previous biographies have included books about Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Gabriel Faure and the London Chamber Orchestra. Her work has appeared in the Sunday Times, the i paper, BBC Music Magazine and specialist periodicals such as Pianist and International Piano. In the 1990s she became the founding editor of Britain's first independent piano magazine and subsequently wrote for The Independent for 12 years. Among her novels on musical topics are Ghost Variations - the story of how the suppressed Schumann Violin Concerto was discovered - and Immortal, about Beethoven's 'Immortal Beloved'. Alicia's Gift, about a child prodigy pianist, was described by the Kanneh-Masons as 'the book that inspired our family'. As a librettist, Jessica has worked extensively with the composer Roxanna Panufnik on the award-winning community opera Dalia, its predecessor Silver Birch, some large-scale choral works and a song cycle. She lives in London with her violinist husband and their cat.