Alex Ross
Classical music critic and author
Alex Ross is an American classical music critic who has written for The New Yorker since 1996, and the author of The Rest Is Noise and Wagnerism.
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American Born 1968 in Washington, D.C., United States
About Alex Ross
Between 1992 and 1996 Ross wrote for The New York Times, before moving to The New Yorker. He studied at Harvard University and with the composer Peter Lieberson. In July 2026 he announced he was leaving the music column, though he is staying at the magazine to cover a wider range of subjects. His first book, The Rest Is Noise, appeared in 2007 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. It also won the Guardian First Book Award and a National Book Critics Circle Award. Wagnerism came out in 2020. Ross was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2008.