Jessica Duchen

Jessica Duchen is a British music writer, novelist, playwright and opera librettist.

Life
Born in London, Duchen studied music at Cambridge University. She was a classical music correspondent for The Independent for 12 years. She has written on music for BBC Music Magazine, The Guardian, Prospect Magazine, The Jewish Chronicle, The Times, iNews, and classical-music.com.

Duchen's novel Ghost Variations (2016), based on the true story of the Schumann Violin Concerto's rediscovery in the 1930s, was chosen by John Suchet as his Best Read of 2016 for the Daily Mail 's Christmas Books selection and was book of the month in BBC Music Magazine.

Duchen is also a librettist, collaborating with the composer Roxanna Panufnik. She wrote the libretto for Panufnik's community opera Silver Birch (2017), commissioned by Garsington Opera and shortlisted for an International Opera Award in 2018. Dalia (2022) was another opera composed by Panufnik, inspired by global dialogue between war refugee children and British children.

Duchen lives in East Sheen, London with her husband, who is a violinist.

Non-fiction

 * Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Phaidon Press, 1996.
 * Gabriel Faure. Phaidon Press, 2000.
 * (with Dorothy Bohm) Inside London. Lund Humphries, 2000.
 * London Chamber Orchestra: 101 Years of Transformation. Pimpernel Press, 2022. Foreword by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.

Novels

 * Hungarian Dances. Hodder & Stoughton, 2008.
 * Songs of Triumphant Love. Hodder & Stoughton, 2009.
 * Rites of Spring. Hodder & Stoughton, 2012.
 * Alicia's Gift. Hodder & Stoughton, 2012.
 * Ghost Variations: The Strangest Detective Story in the History of Music. Unbound Publishing, 2016.
 * Odette. Unbound, 2018.
 * Immortal. Unbound Publishing, 2020.