Swed Named The Times’ Classical Music Critic

Mark Swed, a music critic for the Wall Street Journal, has been named classical music critic for the Los Angeles Times.

Swed--editor of 20th century music for the Musical Quarterly, America’s oldest music journal--has been a frequent contributor to The Times since 1988. He is currently completing a biography of the late composer John Cage. Swed wrote music criticism for the now-defunct Los Angeles Herald Examiner from 1978 to 1984, and was its chief music critic from 1984 to 1987.

Swed has a master’s degree in music history from Mills College in Oakland and a bachelor’s degree in music from UC Berkeley. He was born and raised in Pasadena.

Swed, who will join the staff in late May, replaces Martin Bernheimer, longtime music and dance critic, who left the newspaper in March.

Lewis Segal, The Times’ dance writer since 1984, has been named dance critic. Segal, who is on the board of the national Dance Critics Assn., recently co-edited the anthology “Looking Out: Perspectives on Dance and Criticism in a Multicultural World.”