Downes, (Edward) Olin (1886–1955)

US writer on music and critic. As critic for the Boston Post 1906–24 and the New York Times 1924–55, he was an advocate of contemporary European masters (his Sibelius the Symphonist was published in 1956). He was the mainstay of the Metropolitan Opera House broadcast interval quizzes and wrote Symphonic Masterpieces (published in 1935, and revised in 1972). His son, Edward O Downes (1911– ) taught at Queens College, New York, until 1983 and was Metropolitan Opera House quizmaster from 1958. He was an authority on Johann Christian Bach and other early classical opera composers.