Culshaw, John (Royds)
Culshaw, John (Royds)
Culshaw, John (Royds) , English recording producer; b. London, May 28, 1924; d. there, April 27, 1980. He studied music while serving in the British army. From 1954 to 1967 he was manager and chief producer with the Decca Record Co.; from 1967 to 1975 he held the same post with the BBC. He was awarded the rank of Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1966. He made a mark in the recording industry by introducing the stereo-reproduction process, which created a three-dimensional effect. His principal achievement was the stereophonic recording of Der Ring des Nibelungen, issued by Decca under the direction of Solti. Culshaw related the background of this undertaking in his books Ring Resounding (London, 1967) and Reflections on Wagner’s Ring (London, 1976). His other publications are Sergei Rachmaninov (London, 1949) and A Century of Music (London, 1952). He also publ. an autobiography, Odyssey of a Recording Pioneer: Putting the Record Straight (N.Y., 1981).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire