Jeremy Eichler | |
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| Born | Jeremy Adam Eichler August 13, 1974 Boston, Massachusetts |
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| Known for | Time's Echo (2023) |
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| Awards | Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize Other awards |
| Website | jeremy-eichler |
Jeremy Eichler (born August 13, 1974) is an American author, cultural historian and music critic. [1] He teaches at Tufts University, [2] and from 2006 to 2024, he was the chief classical music critic of The Boston Globe. [3]
Eichler’s book Time’s Echo: Music, Memory, and the Second World War (2023) has garnered wide recognition. Named “History Book of the Year” by the Sunday Times, [4] it also received the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize [5] and three National Jewish Book Awards. [6]
Jeremy Adam Eichler was born on August 13, 1974. [1] [7] Growing up in Newton, Massachusetts, he played violin and viola in his youth, playing the latter in youth orchestras. [8] He received an undergraduate degree from Brown University, [8] where he co-founded the Nahanni String Quartet. [1]
"Here is where critics can and must contribute. In such a fiercely capitalist society, one now endlessly addled by digital distraction, critics can strive... to help make the gift [of art] legible, make it tangible, make it real, understood, and felt. Adapting a phrase from the violinist Isaac Stern, they can explore not only how we listen — but why."
Eichler worked as a freelance journalist in New York, contributing to numerous publications including The New Republic , The Nation and The New Yorker , [10] and in 2003 began writing music criticism for The New York Times . [8] He then succeeded Richard Dyer as chief classical music critic of The Boston Globe in 2006, where Eichler wrote about local, national and international events for nearly two decades. [1] [11] His column, titled "Third Ear", connected "music with broader worlds of history, politics, and culture." [12] The historian Lizabeth Cohen said of Eichler’s criticism, “In his hands, cultural history and music criticism become entryways to better understandings of the past and the present.” [13]
Eichler is also a cultural historian. [10] [14] He earned a doctorate in history from Columbia University; his doctoral dissertation was on the composer Arnold Schoenberg. [8] [14] Published in 2015, the topic in discussion was Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw , a large-scale cantata that was the earliest Holocaust musical memorial from a major composer. [8] [15] His dissertation won Columbia's Salo and Jeanette Baron Prize for Jewish Studies. [8]
Eichler's 2023 book Time's Echo explores "how music acts as a witness to history and a medium of cultural memory." [16] According to Eichler, it invites readers to consider how "classical music in particular can serve as a gateway to the past, deepening our sense of understanding, empathy, and felt contact with history." [17] The narrative focuses on the era of the Second World War and the Holocaust, and among the works discussed are Benjamin Britten's War Requiem , Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13, Babi Yar and Metamorphosen by Richard Strauss. [14] It was published by Alfred A. Knopf and Faber and Faber in North America and the United Kingdom respectively, [18] and has been translated into ten languages. [19] In 2024-25, Eichler served as the first Writer-in-Residence of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which devoted its season to exploring the relationship between music and memory. [20]
ASCAP awarded Eichler the Deems Taylor Award for Music Criticism in 2013. [21] He has received fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies of Harvard University and the National Endowment for the Humanities. [10]
In addition to receiving the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize [5] and three National Jewish Book Awards, [6] Time's Echo was named “History Book of the Year” by the Sunday Times [4] and described as “the outstanding music book of this and several years” by the Times Literary Supplement. [22] It was shortlisted for the 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize, considered the UK's premier annual prize for non-fiction books. [23]
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