Gavin was educated at Keble College, Oxford, where he was the organ scholar.

There he began his studies on Janáček and has since written and broadcast widely about the composer for a number of opera houses, orchestras and festivals. Gavin interests extend to the music and culture of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Gustav Mahler, the cultural history of Vienna, Russian opera, 20th Century Musical Theatre and English Choral Music. He is currently working on a new book about Viennese Culture at the fin de siecle. He has written for The Guardian, Opera and Opera Now and is a theatrical and literary agent for Macnaughton Lord 2000 Ltd.

Please visit his blog at
mrnorrischangestrains.blogspot.com

Gavin has broadcast and written widely, including work on the following composers:

• Bach - St Matthew Passion (Pre-performance talk for Glyndebourne 8/07)

• Bartók – Duke Bluebeard’s Castle (Pre-performance talk for Covent Garden 6/06, Grand Théâtre de Genève Programme Note, Liceu Barcelona Programme Note)

• Berg – Wozzeck (Liceu Barcelona Programme Note)

• Britten – Peter Grimes (Opera North Programme Note), Death in Venice (Liceu Barcelona Programme Note)

• Debussy – Pelléas et Mélisande (Box Office Film for Covent Garden 11/06), Cinq poèmes de Baudelaire (Pre-performance talk for Covent Garden 11/04, Covent Garden Programme Note)

• Dvořák – ‘My Country’ (Documentary for BBC Radio Three 7/04), ‘Infuriating Furiants’: talk on Dvořák’s life and works (Wigmore Study Day 5/04), Symphony No. 8 (LSO Programme Note), The Golden Spinning Wheel (LSO Programme Note), Suite in A major, ‘American’ (BBC Symphony Orchestra Programme Note), Rusalka (Covent Garden Programme Synopsis)

• Janáček – Janáček Day (BBC Radio Three 7/04), The Excursions of Mr Brouček (BBC Symphony Orchestra Study Afternoon 2/07, Grand Théâtre de Genève Programme Note), Kaťa Kabanová (Grand Théâtre de Genève Programme Note, Opéra de Lyon Programme Note, Insight Evening for Covent Garden 6/07, Covent Garden Programme Note, De Vlaamse Opera Programme Note, San Diego Opera Programme Note), The Diary of One Who Disappeared (Pre-performance talk for Covent Garden 11/04, Covent Garden Programme Note, Lectures and Seminar at the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon), Our Father (BBC Proms 2004 Programme Note, Warner Classics Liner Note), Jenůfa (Opera Holland Park Programme Note, Liceu Barcelona Programme Note, Norrlands Opera Programme Note, WNO Programme Note, Opera Ireland Programme Note), The Cunning Little Vixen (Covent Garden Performance History Programme Note, Grand Théâtre de Genève Programme Note, De Nederlandse Opera Programme Note), From the House of the Dead (Grand Théâtre de Genève Programme Note, Teatro Real Madrid Programme Note, Wiener Festwochen Programme Note, Holland Festival Programme Note), Osud (Teatro Real Madrid Programme Note, Wiener Staatsoper Programme Note), The Eternal Gospel (BBC Proms 2004 Programme Note), Piano Music (Flanders Festival Programme Note), Chamber Music (Flanders Festival Programme Note), Sinfonietta (Théâtre du Capitôle du Toulouse Programme Note), editor of www.leosjanacek.com 

• Korngold – Die tote Stadt (Liceu Barcelona Programme Note), Film Music (LPO Programme Note), Violin Concerto (LPO Programme Note)

• Mussorgsky – Khovanshchina (Liceu Barcelona Programme Note)

• Pärt – Symphony No.3 (Box Office Film for Covent Garden 2/06)

• Puccini – Gianni Schicchi (Box Office Film for Covent Garden 11/06), La rondine (San Francisco Opera Programme Note)

• Rossini – La Cenerentola (Pre-performance talk for Glyndebourne 6/07)

• Schoenberg – Erwartung (Pre-performance talk for Covent Garden 6/06)

• Schreker – Die Gezeichneten (De Nederlandse Opera Programme Note)

• Shostakovich – Symphony No. 6 (LPO Programme Note)

• Smetana – ‘My Country’ (Documentary for BBC Radio Three 7/04), The Bartered Bride (Pre-performance talk at Glyndebourne 6/05)

• Strauss, R – Ariadne auf Naxos (Grand Théâtre de Genève Programme Note), Elektra (Liceu Barcelona Programme Note)

• Stravinsky – The Rake’s Progress (Talk at Tate Britain for ‘Hogarth’ Exhibition 2/07, 'Review' Article for The Guardian, Talk at the Windsor Festival, Programme Note for Opera East, Programme Note for Ilford Opera), Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra (Covent Garden Programme Note)

• Tchaikovsky – Eugene Onegin (Box Office Film for Covent Garden 2/06), Symphony No. 3 (Programme Note for Covent Garden)

• Verdi – Un ballo in maschera (Box Office Film for Covent Garden 2/05)

• Zemlinsky – Sinfonietta (LPO Programme Note)