Martin Bernheimer (born September 28, 1936, in Munich, Germany) is an American music critic. He studied at Brown University and the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, along with the famous musicologist Gustave Reese at New York University.
His career writing about music began in New York City, writing for the New York Herald Tribune, working as an assistant to Irving Kolodin at the Saturday Review, and landing the position of music critic at the New York Post. In 1965, he moved to Los Angeles where he worked as the chief music and dance critic for the Los Angeles Times. He was twice the recipient of ASCAP's Deems Taylor Award (1974 and 1978) and in 1982, won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
Since 1996, several publications have published Bernheimer's writing on opera, including Opera News and the Financial Times of London. He also lectures frequently and provides commentary for opera broadcasts.