Hannah Edgar Interview
Hannah Edgar is a Chicago-based culture journalist, researcher, and radio producer. They write music criticism for the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Reader, and regularly contribute to many more outlets, in addition to writing program book materials for various symphonies. In radio, Hannah has produced programs for Sound Opinions and Nerdette. In 2015, they served as the inaugural Andrew Patner Fellow at WFMT, Chicago’s classical station, for whom they still write as a freelancer.
How did you get to where you are today, professionally?
A ballsy email, a tragedy, and a whole lot of unearned kindness.
I figured out I wanted to be a music writer pretty early, like high school—I loved music, but the idea of going to music school and becoming a performer gave me the ick (too shy). I needed to figure out how to make music the centerpiece of my life and be certain I was contributing something marginally useful back to the music(s) and musicians I loved. I’d been writing longer than I’d been playing violin, so that seemed a sensible skill to lean on.