Christopher Morley
 Chief music critic of the Birmingham Post, Christopher Morley
was born in Brighton, going to Birmingham University in 1966, from where
he took the degree of BMus with honours.
Upon graduating he began nearly two decades' work as Head of Music in
several West Midlands Schools, during which time he wrote for the Post
(Deputy Music Critic), the Birmingham Evening Mail, Music &
Musicians (for which he was Midlands Correspondent) and West Midlands
Arts Report.
During this period Christopher Morley also kept himself active as musical
director of three amateur operatic societies, but his appointment as chief
music critic on April Fool's Day 1988 meant an end to such commitments.
He now combines a very full timetable writing for the Post with lecturing
in history, performance theory and contemporary music at Birmingham Conservatoire.
He also writes on Midlands events for Opera magazine.
Though he has a very wide range of musical interests, his special sympathies
are for Mozart, opera, the half-century before the Great War, English music
of all periods (but especially contemporary) ... the list goes on!
Christopher Morley is currently working on a book about the première
of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius. Any spare time is spent enjoying
literature, history, cricket, gardening, drinking - and his beloved cats. | 
