Tom Service was born in 1976 in Glasgow. He has written about music for The Guardian since 1999, where he was Chief Classical Music Critic. He won the inaugural ICMP/CIEM award for Classical Music Critic of the Year in 2005, and was Guest Artistic Director of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival the same year. He has been the presenter of BBC Radio 3’s flagship speech programme Music Matters since 2003, and regularly presents the Proms, Hear and Now and Discovering Music for the network. He is a regular guest on arts shows and discussions on BBC Radio 4 and 5 Live, is a frequent guest on BBC2 and 4’s Proms coverage, and a panelist on BBC2’s The Review Show. His PhD on the music of American composer John Zorn was completed in 2004, and his articles on the Proms and contemporary composers have appeared in books and essays from Penguin, Thames & Hudson, and academic publishers. He has written programme notes and given interviews and talks for all of Britain’s major classical music festivals and many of the country’s major orchestras and ensembles, as well as working as a guest lecturer for the University of York and Trinity College of Music.