John Deathridge is a writer and a leading authority on the life and works of Wagner.

His many publications about him include the 1984 New Grove Wagner with Carl Dahlhaus, the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis: WWV (edited and written in collaboration with Martin Geck and Egon Voss) and his book Wagner Beyond Good and Evil.

His career as musician and teacher began in Munich with a full-time post as organist and choirmaster and continued in the UK when he was made a Fellow of King’s College Cambridge. He has also been Reader in Music at the University of Cambridge and is now Emeritus King Edward Professor of Music at King’s College London.

He has lectured widely on music in Europe and the US and participated in many broadcasts, among them three BBC television series as consultant and contributor: The Great Composers, The Genius of Beethoven, and Symphony.

His reading translation of The Ring was published by Penguin Random House in 2018 and his new singing translation for ENO was begun in 2020. His next book will be about Beethoven and late Enlightenment thought.