Early life
Conway was born in London. His sister was Barbara Conway (journalist), Barbara Conway who became a journalist. He was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, and studied economics and psychology as an undergraduate at King's College, Cambridge. He obtained a PhD degree under the supervision of John Klier at University College London, where he has been an Honorary Research Fellow since 2008.Institute of Jewish StudiesCareer
In the 1980s, Conway and his Czechoslovak-born wife Nadia were elected councillors of the London Borough of Enfield. From 1991 to 2016, he acted as a Senior Expert for the European Commission in development aid projects in the countries of the former Soviet Union. His 2012 book ''Jewry in Music'' was published by Cambridge University Press. It "analyses why and how Jews, virtually absent from western art music until the end of the eighteenth century, came to be represented in all branches of the profession as leading figures – not only as composers and performers, but as publishers, impresarios and critics." The book was positively reviewed by musicologist Tina Frühauf and on the BBC Radio programme ''Music Matters''. Conway is a founder and director of the music festival ''Levočské babie leto'' in Levoča, Slovakia. Since 2018 he has been Chair of the opera company HGO Trust, HGO (formerly Hampstead Garden Opera). In the academic year 2019–20 Conway was a Polonsky Visiting Fellow at Oxford University. He contributes to journals including ''The Slavonic and East European Review, Slavonic and East European Review'', ''The Wagner Journal'' and ''Jewish Renaissance''.Publications
Conway's publications include: *''Jewry in Music: Entry to the Profession from the Enlightenment to Richard Wagner'' (2012). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . *"A New Song" in ''The Cambridge Companions to Music, Cambridge Companion to Jewish Music'', ed. Joshua Walden (2015). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . * "The Real Faust: Heine's Faust Ballet Scenario 1846–1948", in ''The Oxford Handbook of Faust in Music'', ed. Lorna Fitzsimmons and Charles McKnight (2019). Oxford: Oxford University Press. . * "Spontini's Complaint", in ''Judaism in Opera'', ed. I. Schmid-Reider and A. Cahn, Regensburg: Conbrio Verlag (2017)..References
Notes Sources * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Conway, David 1950 births Living people Writers from London British music historians Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Alumni of University College London People educated at Haberdashers' Boys' School Historians of Jews and Judaism Conservative Party (UK) councillors Councillors in Greater London Scholars of Romantic music