Professor Richard Langham Smith is a musicologist who has written on Debussy and contemporary French music in general. He read music at the University of York, he then pursued further study on the harpsichord and Baroque performance practice at the Amsterdam Conservatory. He has taught at the University of Lancaster, City University, the University of Exeter, and the Open University. Currently, he is Head of the Graduate School at the Royal College of Music, London. He was the Visiting Gresham Professor of Music in 2003.