View source for Nicholas Kenyon

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{{Listen|filename = Sir Nicholas Kenyon voice.ogg |title = Kenyon's voice |type = speech |description = recorded 2012, as part of an [[:File:Sir Nicholas Kenyon on Watts Memorial, Postmans Park.oga|audio description of Postman's Park]] for [[VocalEyes]] }}
'''Sir Nicholas Roger Kenyon''', [[Order of the British Empire|CBE]] (born 23 February 1951, [[Cheshire]]), is a British music administrator, editor and writer on [[music]].

Responsible for the [[BBC Proms]] 1996–2007, he was then appointed [[Managing Director]] of the [[Barbican Centre]], before stepping down in September 2021 to become opera critic of ''The Telegraph'' and a Visiting Scholar in the Faculty of Music at the [[University of Cambridge]].

==Education and career==
Educated at [[St Bede's College, Manchester]], Kenyon played [[bassoon]] with [[Stockport Youth Orchestra]], before going up to read history at [[Balliol College, Oxford|Balliol College]], [[University of Oxford|Oxford]].

After [[Oxford University|university]], he worked for the English Bach Festival, and as a freelance writer on music. From 1979 to 1982 he was a [[music critic]] for ''[[The New Yorker]]''. He then returned to the UK as the music critic for ''[[The Times]]'', then [[List of chief music critics|chief music critic]] of ''[[The Observer]]''. He was music editor of ''[[The Listener (magazine)|The Listener]]'' and editor of the journal ''[[Early Music]]''.

In 1992, he was appointed Controller, [[BBC Radio 3]] and Director of the BBC [[The Proms|Proms]] from the 1996 season, his title changing in 2000 to Controller BBC Proms, Live Events and Television Classical Music. In February 2007 he was announced as the new managing director of the [[Barbican Centre]] in the [[City of London]], in succession to [[Sir John Tusa]], a post he took up in October 2007, remaining until September 2021, when he became opera critic of ''[[The Daily Telegraph| The Telegraph]]'' and a Visiting Scholar at the Faculty of Music of Cambridge University.

Kenyon has been a member of the Board of Arts Council England, and previously of the Board of [[English National Opera]], a Governor of the [[Guildhall School of Music and Drama]], a member of the [[Arts and Humanities Research Council]], a member of [[English Heritage]]'s [[Blue Plaque]]s Panel, a [[Trustee]] of the [[Dartington Hall]] [[Charitable trust|Trust]], a member of the [[Dartington International Summer School|Dartington International Summer School Foundation]] and a Patron of Spode Music Week.<ref>[http://www.spodemusicweek.co.uk/ www.spodemusicweek.co.uk]</ref> He is also a [[Fellow]] of the [[Radio Academy]] (FRA).<ref>The Radio Academy [http://www.radioacademy.org/about/fellows/ "Fellows"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141024171034/http://www.radioacademy.org/about/fellows/ |date=24 October 2014 }}</ref>
[[File:Knights Bachelor Insignia.png|thumb|right|100px| [[Insignia]] of a [[Knight Bachelor]]]]

==Honours==
Appointed a [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (CBE) in the [[2001 New Year Honours]], for services to music and millennium broadcasting,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=56070|pages=7–8|supp=y |date=30 December 2000}}</ref> he was promoted [[Knight Bachelor]] in the [[2008 New Year Honours]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=58557|page=1|supp=y |date=2007-12-29}}</ref>

Awarded the [[President's Medal (British Academy)|President's Medal]] by the [[British Academy]] in 2011,<ref>{{cite web|title=The British Academy President's Medal|url=http://www.britac.ac.uk/british-academy-presidents-medal|website=British Academy|access-date=23 July 2017}}</ref> Sir Nicholas is a member of the [[Worshipful Company of Musicians]].<ref>[https://wcom.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/WCOM-PH47-WEB.pdf www.wcom.org.uk]</ref>

==Publications==
Amongst Kenyon's publications are ''The BBC Symphony Orchestra: the first 50 years'' (1982), the biography ''Simon Rattle: from Birmingham to Berlin'' (2001), and the ''Faber Pocket Guide to Mozart'' (2005) and Faber Pocket Guide to Bach (2011).  He edited the influential ''Authenticity and Early Music'' (1987), and the BBC Proms Guides to Great Symphonies, Great Concertos, Great Choral Works and Great Orchestral works. In 2021 he published ''[https://www.yalebooks.co.uk/display.asp?K=9780300223828&nat=false&sort=%24rank&sf1=keyword&st1=the+life+of+music&m=10&dc=168 The Life of Music]: New Adventures in the Western Classical Tradition'' (2021).

==“Rule Britannia” discussion==
In 2020 Kenyon commented on a controversy about whether ''[[Rule, Britannia!]]'' should be sung at the [[Last Night of the Proms]]. In recent years the inclusion of the song has been criticised because of its jingoistic words, for example by [[Leonard Slatkin]], the second non-British person to conduct the Last Night of the Proms.<ref>{{cite web| url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/2078500.stm| title =Proms conductor derides Britannia | access-date = 3 April 2007| work=BBC News | date=1 July 2002}}</ref> In 2020 the BBC proposed to perform the music in the Royal Albert Hall without the words, citing the difficulties the traditional arrangement posed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kenyon dismissed the criticism of this decision as "kneejerk" BBC bashing.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Tapper |date=August 2020 |title=Rule, Britannia! row is ‘a laughable irrelevance’, says former Proms chief |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/aug/30/rule-britannia-row-is-a-laughable-irrelevance-says-former-proms-director-nicholas-kenyon}}</ref> In the end, there was a u-turn and the lyrics were sung after all.<ref>{{Cite news |date=3 September 2020 |title=Rees-Mogg plays Rule, Britannia! in Commons |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/03/rees-mogg-plays-rule-britannia-commons-celebrate-proms-u-turn |access-date=3 September 2020}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,,1414659,00.html ''Guardian'' article by Kenyon on the influence of recording and broadcasting on musical tastes]

{{Chief classical music critics}}
{{BBC directors of music}}
{{portal bar|Classical music|Biography|Music}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kenyon, Nicholas}}
[[Category:1951 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People educated at St Bede's College, Manchester]]
[[Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford]]
[[Category:BBC music executives]]
[[Category:English music journalists]]
[[Category:People associated with the BBC Proms]]
[[Category:BBC Radio 3 controllers]]
[[Category:British music critics]]
[[Category:Opera critics]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:Recipients of the President's Medal (British Academy)]]
[[Category:Honorary members of the Royal Academy of Music]]