Alex Ross Steps Down as New Yorker Music Critic After 30 Years

Alex Ross, the influential music critic of The New Yorker, has announced his departure from the magazine's music criticism role after three decades. His final column, covering the Ojai Music Festival, marks the end of his tenure as the writer of the Musical Events column, which he contributed to nearly four hundred times, along with over eighty longer essays on composers and performers. Ross cited a desire to avoid overstaying his welcome and a preference for less travel as reasons for stepping down. He will remain a staff writer at The New Yorker, focusing on literature, philosophy, and other topics, while occasionally writing about music in essay form. Ross expressed gratitude to editor David Remnick for granting him creative freedom during a period of declining criticism, and to editor Daniel Zalewski, who has edited his print pieces since 2003. He also thanked Tina Brown, who hired him in 1996, and the magazine's readers. Ross's tenure began in 1996 when he was hired by then-editor Tina Brown.