Chicago music critic and author.

Robert Charles Marsh was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1924. He graduated from Northwestern University with degrees in journalism and philosophy, later receiving his doctorate from Harvard. He continued his studies, taking courses on music and philosophy at Cornell, the University of Chicago, Oxford and Cambridge. Marsh taught at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago between the years of 1947 and 1968 on a full-time or adjunct basis.

In 1956, Marsh succeeded Felix Borowski as music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times. He retained this position until his retirement in 1991. In addition to Marsh’s work with the Sun-Times, he was also a contributing classical record reviewer for High Fidelity Magazine between 1954 and 1980.

Marsh was a prolific author, writing works on Arturo Toscanini, the Cleveland Orchestra, and James Levine among others. When Marsh died he was nearly finished with a meticulous chronicle of opera in Chicago that he had been working on for over 20 years. Norman Pellegrini completed the work and published it in 2006.

Marsh won a Peabody Award for Broadcasting for his WFMT series on Igor Stravinsky, a collaborative effort with Chicago Daily News music critic, Karen Monson.

Marsh died in 2002 at the age of 77 after a long battle with cancer of the esophagus. He was survived by his wife Anne Noren Marsh and son James MacArgain Marsh.