Oliver Soden is a writer and broadcaster, and the critically-acclaimed author of Michael Tippett: The Biography (Weidenfeld and Nicolson: 2019). He is currently working on a biography, the first in a quarter-century, of Noël Coward, with the full authorisation of the Coward Estate and unrestricted archival access. His book Jeoffry the Poet's Cat: A Biography, about the cat belonging to 18th-century poet Christopher Smart, will be published in November 2020.
Michael Tippett: The Biography was hailed by Philip Pullman as a "delight to read"; by the Spectator as "the year's stand-out biography"; and by Gramophone as "nothing short of miraculous". A 2019 "Book of the Year" in the Spectator and Times Literary Supplement, it was read (by the author) for BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week, with Sir Derek Jacobi playing Tippett. The book was awarded the 2019 prize for storytelling by the Royal Philharmonic Society; the panel's citation acclaimed "one of the very finest music biographies".
Oliver was educated at Lancing College in Sussex, and at Clare College, Cambridge, where he took a double first in English. For his research on Michael Tippett he was awarded a Fellowship in the Humanities from the University of Texas at Austin. His essays and reviews have appeared in a wide variety of publications, including the Guardian, Spectator, Times Literary Supplement, Literary Review, Gramophone, The Art Newspaper, BBC Music Magazine, and Musical Quarterly, and he is the editor of John Barton's ten-play epic Tantalus. He has appeared as a guest on the Six O'Clock News (BBC Radio 4), Proms Plus, Twenty Minutes, Music Matters, Composer of the Week, and Live in Concert (BBC Radio 3). He serves as a trustee of the Michael Tippett Musical Foundation.
Oliver has worked as assistant producer for a number of award-winning television documentaries, including George III: The Genius of the Mad King and Janet Baker: In Her Own Words (Crux productions); he is part of the team behind BBC Radio 3's long-running programme Private Passions.
Born in 1990, he grew up in Bath and Sussex, and lives in London.
Michael Tippett: The Biography was hailed by Philip Pullman as a "delight to read"; by the Spectator as "the year's stand-out biography"; and by Gramophone as "nothing short of miraculous". A 2019 "Book of the Year" in the Spectator and Times Literary Supplement, it was read (by the author) for BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week, with Sir Derek Jacobi playing Tippett. The book was awarded the 2019 prize for storytelling by the Royal Philharmonic Society; the panel's citation acclaimed "one of the very finest music biographies".
Oliver was educated at Lancing College in Sussex, and at Clare College, Cambridge, where he took a double first in English. For his research on Michael Tippett he was awarded a Fellowship in the Humanities from the University of Texas at Austin. His essays and reviews have appeared in a wide variety of publications, including the Guardian, Spectator, Times Literary Supplement, Literary Review, Gramophone, The Art Newspaper, BBC Music Magazine, and Musical Quarterly, and he is the editor of John Barton's ten-play epic Tantalus. He has appeared as a guest on the Six O'Clock News (BBC Radio 4), Proms Plus, Twenty Minutes, Music Matters, Composer of the Week, and Live in Concert (BBC Radio 3). He serves as a trustee of the Michael Tippett Musical Foundation.
Oliver has worked as assistant producer for a number of award-winning television documentaries, including George III: The Genius of the Mad King and Janet Baker: In Her Own Words (Crux productions); he is part of the team behind BBC Radio 3's long-running programme Private Passions.
Born in 1990, he grew up in Bath and Sussex, and lives in London.