John Tyrrell (musicologist)

John Tyrrell (17 August 1942 – 4 October 2018) was a British musicologist. He published several books on Leoš Janáček, including an authoritative and largely definitive two-volume biography.

Early life

Tyrrell was born in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe), he studied at the universities of Cape Town, Oxford and Brno. He pursued his Bachelor of Music at the University of Cape Town following which he moved to Oxford University to pursue a doctoral degree under the supervision of Edmund Rubbra

Career

Tyrrell started his career working in an editorial capacity at The Musical Times. He was a Lecturer in Music at the University of Nottingham (1976), becoming Reader in Opera Studies (1987) and Professor (1996). From 1996 to 2000 he was Executive Editor of the second edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001). From 2000-08, he was Research Professor at Cardiff University.

He received numerous awards and honours throughout his career. In 2002, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Masaryk University. Then again in 2012, he was awarded another honorary doctorate by the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts, situated in Janáček’s hometown of Brno. In 2018, he received the Classic Prague Award. Later that year, the Janáček Festival was also dedicated in his honour.

Death

He died on the morning of 4 October 2018 at the age of 76.

Further reading

• Cardiff University faculty profile