Born in Cape Town, South Africa, he studied piano and organ performance, musicology and composition at the University of Cape Town, where he was awarded his PhD. While still a student, he was also assistant organist at Cape Town Cathedral. In London, he has held positions as music critic on The Times (1994–2005) and The Sunday Telegraph (2005–14), and he has written for leading newspapers around the world, including The New York Times. He is a regular contributor to BBC Music Magazine and has published in many academic journals, among them the Cambridge Opera Journal and Studia Chopinowskie. Formerly editor of the Glyndebourne Festival programmes, he now acts in a similar capacity for Wexford Festival Opera. A frequent lecturer, he is the author of two books as well as chapters in several other books, and has contributed articles to the New Penguin Opera Guide and New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. John Allison is Editor of Opera with Opera News, recognized as the world’s leading magazine devoted to all aspects of the operatic art form. He also writes widely about music and has a particular interest in the piano and its literature, and in the music of Central and Eastern Europe. A jury member of several international music competitions, and chair in 2022 and 2025 of the jury of the International Stanisław Moniuszko Vocal Competition in Warsaw, he co-founded the International Opera Awards in 2013.