'Washington Post' Hires New Classical Music Critic

By: E&P Staff The Washington Post today announced the hiring of Anne Midgette as the paper's new classical music critic. Midgette is now the Post's official full-time classical music critic, having done the job on a temporary basis since January.

A graduate of Yale University, Midgette spent 11 years living in Munich, Germany, reviewing music, opera and art for a variety of publications including the Wall Street Journal. In 2001, she became the first woman to review classical music for the New York Times. Midgette remained at the paper until 2007.

In January of 2008, she became the interim classical music critic at the Washington Post, filling in for regular critic Tim Page, who was then on sabbatical and teaching at the University of Southern California. Page was offered, and then accepted, a buyout package from the Post in May.

Shortly thereafter, Page spoke to E&P editor Greg Mitchell about his reasons for accepting the Post's buyout offer. The article can be found here.