I’m a bit sad today. Alex Ross, who I think is the best music writer working today, has announced his retirement as Music Critic of The New Yorker, after more than three decades on the job. It’s not all sad though: the sweet part is that he will continue as a staff writer at the venerable cultural weekly, writing “on literature, philosophy, film, émigré stories, California, ancient landscapes … and still touch on music periodically in essay form”.
In appreciation and tribute to Alex for 34 years of brilliant writing, allow me to share some music he has brought to my attention in past years, writing with passion and incomparable knowledge + insight:
Above is Julius Eastman’s Vol. 5 Gay Guerrilla, a minimalist suite just released in April on New Amsterdam Records. Alex Ross wrote about Julius Eastman in January 2017: “Julius Eastman’s Guerrilla Minimalism” [The New Yorker, subscription required]. He wrote of Eastman producing “music that commands attention: wild, grand, delirious, demonic, an uncontainable personality surging into sound”, working in the shadow of better-known contemporaries like Steve Reich and Philip Glass, La Monte Young and Terry Riley. Ross’s erudite and deeply knowledgeable enthusiasm brought Eastman’s nearly forgotten music to my attention, and to the attention of a whole horde of readers who drew regular inspiration from Ross’s advocacy. Eastman’s music is about as widely appreciated today as Glass and Reich.
Ross has not been writing only, or even mostly, about the New York scene all these years. He has also been a sharp and influential voice covering a broad swath of concert music-making throughout the Americas and Europe. Two weeks ago, his Musical Events column was “Gustavo Dudamel and James Conlon Bid L.A. Goodbye” [The New Yorker, June 15 2026, subscription required]. In typical Alex Ross fashion, it was part review of several recent L.A. Phil concerts with Dudamel on the podium; part appreciation and critique of Dudamel’s accomplishments and legacy over nearly 20 years in Los Angeles; and over all, a broader portrait of the city’s cultural and musical life over these two decades. Like most of Ross’s writing, it’s a “long read,” and the breadth of experience, vision and insight he brings to the subject means so much more than a standard review or critique.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every major musical city had a writer of Alex Ross’s stature to shake things up?
Above you see and hear Dudamel early in his L.A. tenure, rehearsing Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Suite with the Philharmonic. And below, here is their latest album release, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet (the complete ballet) on Deutsche Grammophon.
