Dr. Leah Broad

Leah Broad is a multi-award-winning writer and historian. Currently a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, she specialises in twentieth century music and particularly women in music. Her first book, Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Musical World, is a group biography of four women composers — Ethel Smyth, Rebecca Clarke, Dorothy Howell, and Doreen Carwithen. It won a Presto Books of the Year Award 2023, and has been praised as “pioneering” (Andrew Motion), “magnificent” (Kate Mosse), “riveting” (Antonia Fraser), “inspiring” (Debbie Wiseman), and “a blast of fresh air” (Kate Molleson).

Winner of the 2015 Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism, Leah’s writing has appeared in outlets including the Guardian, New Statesman, Financial Times, Observer, London Review of Books, BBC Music Magazine, Huffington Post, and The Conversation. She has written articles and programme notes for institutions including Glyndebourne, London Symphony Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra, Houston Grand Opera, Longborough Festival Opera, the Wigmore Hall, Oxford Lieder Festival, Birmingham Symphony Hall, and the Elgar Festival.

Leah was selected as a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker in 2016, so is frequently on BBC radio discussing topics from Nordic music to women composers. As a public speaker, she has appeared at events including the BBC Proms, Hay Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Charleston Literary Festival, Buxton International Festival, Oxford International Song Festival and Harrogate International Festivals.

Academically, Leah has writing published in journals including the Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Music & Letters, TEMPO, and Music and the Moving Image. She has chapters published and forthcoming in books for Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Routledge, and Boydell & Brewer. 

In her spare time Leah enjoys painting, running, and walking her chaotic dog.