Christopher Dingle lectures at Birmingham Conservatoire and is the author/editor of several books on the French composer Olivier Messiaen, notably the acclaimed The Life of Messiaen (CUP) and Olivier Messiaen: Music, Art and Literature. He writes for BBC Music Magazine and was a member of the jury for the BBC Music Magazine 2008 CD awards. He conceived and organized the Messiaen 2008 International Centenary Conference, and is in demand as a speaker, including at The Proms, the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music, Yale University (at the Forum on Music and Christian Scholarship) and at events in Norway, Canada and Hawaii.