R. D. Darrell

American music critic and author (13 December 1903, Newton, MT — 1 May 1988, Kingston, NY). R.D. Darrell was one of the first writers in the US who concentrated on audio records, primarily with classical music repertoire, and established Phonograph Monthly Review and Music Lovers' Guide magazines. He was also a High Fidelity columnist for over 30 years, from 1954 to 1987, and reviewed albums for numerous other publications, including Saturday Review, Gramophone, Opus, Musical Mercury, Opera Magazine and New Masses. Robert Darrell studied at Harvard University (1922) and New England Conservatory Of Music (1923–25) and was a charter member of the Audio Engineering Society since 1951. R. D. wrote several critically-acclaimed reference books on recordings and music collecting, including the 1936 Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Recorded Music, for which the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation awarded him a fellowship in 1939. As the liner notes author, he was nominated for "Best Album Notes" at the 21st Annual Grammy Awards in 1979 for Works of Carpenter, Gilbert, Weiss, Powell LP.