{{Short description|British writer, broadcaster, academic}} {{Infobox writer | name = Leah Broad | honorific_suffix = FRHistS | occupation = {{Cslist|Author|Radio and television presenter|Researcher}} | nationality = British | alma_mater = University of Oxford | subject = Music history, Women's history | website = {{URL|leahbroad.com}} }} '''Leah Broad''' is a British writer, broadcaster, and researcher at Christ Church, Oxford.<ref>{{cite web |title=Leah Broad| url=https://www.faber.co.uk/author/leah-broad/|access-date=2023-11-19|publisher=Faber and Faber}}</ref> She was awarded the 2015 Observer/Anthony Burgess prize for contemporary British arts journalism<ref>{{cite news | title=2015 Observer/Anthony Burgess prize-winner announced| url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/feb/28/2015-observer-anthony-burgess-prize-winner-leah-broad | publisher = The Observer | author = Robert McCrum | date = 2016-02-28 | access-date = 2023-11-19}}</ref> and was a BBC New Generation Thinker in 2016<ref>{{cite news | title = New Generation Thinkers 2016| url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03wv1y8/p03xg2b4 | publisher = BBC | access-date = 2023-11-19}}</ref> She is a trustee of the William Alwyn Foundation.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/803294/trustees | title = The William Alwyn Foundation | publisher = Charity Commission for England and Wales | access-date=2023-11-19}}</ref> Her writing focuses on the history of women in the arts.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.music.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-leah-broad | title = People: Dr. Leah Broad | author=Leah Broad | publisher = Christ Church, University of Oxford | access-date=2023-11-19}}</ref> Her group biography, ''Quartet'', published by Faber and Faber, won the Royal Philharmonic Society's Storytelling Prize,<ref>{{cite web | url = https://royalphilharmonicsociety.org.uk/rps_today/news/2024-rps-awards-winners-announced | title = 2024 RPS Awards winners announced | website = Royal Philharmonic Society | access-date=2024-05-24}}</ref> won the Presto Music Book of the Year award,<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.prestomusic.com/books/articles/5658--awards-books-of-the-year-winners-2023 | title = Books of the Year - Winner 2023 | website = Presto Music | access-date=2024-05-24}}</ref> was shortlisted for the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography prize,<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.thebookseller.com/news/broad-and-cargill-martin-among-slightly-foxed-best-first-biography-prize-shortlist | title = Broad and Cargill-Martin among Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize shortlist | website = The Bookseller | access-date=2024-05-24}}</ref> and was awarded a Kirkus star.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/leah-broad/quartet-four-women/ | title = Quartet - A stellar work of social and music history sprinkled with emotional dashes of love, sex, and politics | website = Kirkus Reviews | access-date = 2023-11-19}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Broad completed an undergraduate degree in Music at Christ Church, Oxford, where she ran the Christ Church Music Society<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2019/30-august/features/interviews/interview-leah-broad-music-lecturer-oxford | title = Interview: Leah Broad, music lecturer, Oxford | author = Terence Handley MacMath | work = Church Times | access-date = 2023-11-19}}</ref> and founded and edited the Oxford Culture Review.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://theoxfordculturereview.com/contributors/ | title = Contributors | website = The Oxford Culture Review | access-date = 2023-11-19}}</ref> She holds a doctorate in musicology from the University of Oxford on Swedish and Finnish theatre music.<ref>{{cite thesis | url = https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8a2b5571-4bbc-4bed-9b99-4b66dbd1e12d | title = Nordic incidental music: between modernity and modernism | author = Leah Broad | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2017 | access-date = 2023-11-19}} </ref>
==Writing and presenting== Broad's debut group biography, ''Quartet'', covers the lives of women composers Ethel Smyth, Rebecca Clarke, Doreen Carwithen, and Dorothy Howell.<ref>{{cite magazine | url = https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/10/05/where-are-the-women-composers-quartet-leah-broad | title = Where Are the Women Composers? | author = George B. Stauffer | magazine = The New York Review | date = 2023-10-05 | access-date = 2023-11-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/quartet-leah-broad-book-review-flora-willson/ | title = The Muses at a football match | author = Flora Willson | date = 2023-03-10 | access-date = 2023-11-19 | work = Times Literary Supplement}}</ref><ref>{{ cite news | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/classical-music/quartet-leah-broad-review-did-four-women-composers-really-change/ | title = Did these four female composers really change music history? | author = Ivan Hewett | date = 2023-02-27 | newspaper = The Telegraph | access-date = 2023-11-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.ft.com/content/e2c851be-369d-463f-8740-36f098d0a209 | title = Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Musical World | author = Annalena McAfee | date = 2023-02-21 | newspaper = Financial Times | access-date = 2023-11-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/quartet-by-leah-broad-the-four-female-composers-that-history-forgot-djp678clq | title = Quartet by Leah Broad: The four female composers that history forgot | newspaper = The Sunday Times | date = 2023-02-05 | access-date = 2023-11-19 | author = Alexandra Cochlan}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/01/quartet-by-leah-broad-review-britains-great-female-composers | title = Quartet by Leah Broad review - Britain's great female composers | date = 2023-03-01 | author = Erica Jeal | newspaper = The Guardian | access-date = 2023-11-19}} </ref> The book argues that women have had important influences on classical composition, but that this progress is not linear and can be erased and forgotten.<ref>{{cite magazine | url = https://thelondonmagazine.org/interview-qa-with-leah-broad-author-of-quartet/ | title = Interview Q&A with Leah Broad Author of Quartet | magazine = The London Magazine}}</ref> Broad has discussed the book at festivals including the Hay Festival<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.hayfestival.com/p-20239-leah-broad-and-alice-farnham-talk-to-gavin-plumley.aspx | title = Leah Broad and Alice Farnham talk to Gavin Plumley | date = 2023-06-04 | publisher = Hay Festival | access-date = 2023-11-19}}</ref> and Edinburgh International Book Festival.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/leah-broad-singing-women-s-praises-18695 | date = 2023-08-24 | publisher = Edinburgh International Book Festival | access-date = 2023-11-19 | title = Leah Broad: Singing Women's Praises}}</ref> Alongside violinist Fenella Humphreys and pianist Nicola Eimer, Broad presented performances of works by the composers covered in the book at venues including the Barbican Centre.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2023/event/fenella-humphreys-leah-broad | publisher = The Barbican | title = Fenella Humphreys & Leah Broad Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Musical World | date = 2023-11-05 | access-date = 2023-11-19}}</ref> She has a second book under contract with Faber and Faber.<ref>{{cite magazine | url = https://www.thebookseller.com/rights/faber-bags-feminist-history-trailblazing-composers-1228096 | title = Faber bags feminist history of trailblazing composers | date = 2022-12-02 | author = Ruth Comerford | magazine = The Bookseller | access-date = 2023-11-19}}</ref>
Broad has presented for BBC Radio 3 including appearances on ''Record Review'', ''Composer of the Week'', ''Music Matters'', ''the Sunday Feature'', and the BBC Proms.<ref>{{cite AV media | url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000pw07 | title = Copland's Clarinet Concerto with Mark Simpson and Andrew McGregor | publisher = BBC Radio 3 | access-date = 2023-11-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media | url = https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/proginfo/2022/47/composer-of-the-week-doreen-carwithen | title = Composer of the Week: Doreen Carwithen | publisher = BBC Radio 3 | date = 2022-11-21 | access-date = 2023-11-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media | url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001jlbl | title = International Women's Day Celebrations | publisher = BBC Radio 3 | date = 2023-03-04 | access-date = 2023-11-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media | url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0013xsm | title = Hidden Women and Silenced Scores | publisher = BBC Radio 3 | date = 2023-08-13 | access-date = 2023-11-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media | url = https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/proginfo/2022/30/proms-2022-the-wreckers | title = BBC Proms 2022 - Prom 13: Ethel Smyth's The Wreckers | date = 2022-07-24 | access-date = 2023-11-19 | publisher = BBC Radio 3}}</ref> Broad's journalistic work covering music and the arts has featured in newspapers including ''The Guardian'', the ''Financial Times'', and the ''London Review of Books''.<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/apr/19/fashion-fabrics-and-fishtails-why-we-need-to-talk-about-what-female-classical-performers-wear | title = Fashion, fabrics and fishtails – why we need to talk about what female classical performers wear | author = Leah Broad |work = The Guardian | date = 2022-04-19 | access-date = 2022-11-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url = https://www.ft.com/stream/db1acab4-9c13-45b7-8036-1bc194d3d0a6 | title = Leah Broad | newspaper = Financial Times | access-date = 2023-11-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.lrb.co.uk/contributors/leah-broad | title = Leah Broad | website = London Review of Books | access-date = 2023-11-19}}</ref> Broad's academic work has been published in the ''Journal of the Royal Musical Association'', ''Music & Letters'', ''Tempo'', and ''Music and the Moving Image'' as well as collected volumes from the Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Routledge, and Boydell and Brewer.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://hiddennotes.co.uk/leahbroad | title = Leah Broad: Quartet | date = 2023-09-24 | website = Hidden Notes | access-date = 2023-11-19}}</ref>
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://www.leahbroad.com/ Official website]
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Broad, Leah}} Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:21st-century British women writers Category:21st-century British historians Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Category:Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Category:British women historians Category:Women's historians