David Allen Conway (born 17 February 1950) is a British music historian, academic and writer.
Early life Conway was born in London, England. His sister, Barbara Conway, was 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,Thesis precis, University College London. Retrieved 10 May 2017. where he has been an Honorary Research Fellow since 2008.Institute of Jewish Studies, University College London. Retrieved 10 May 2017
Career In the 1980s, Conway and his Czechoslovak-born wife Nadia were elected as councillors for the London Borough of Enfield, representing the Conservative Party. 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.BBC Music Matters, 18 February 2012 (at 27' 25"). Retrieved 9 May 2017.
Conway is a founder and director of the music festival Levočské babie leto in Levoča, Slovakia."About us", Levočské babie leto website. Retrieved 10 May 2017. Since 2018 he has been chair of the opera company HGO (formerly Hampstead Garden Opera)."Hampstead Garden Opera – About Us – People". Retrieved 21 May 2020.
In the academic year 2019–20, Conway was a Polonsky Visiting Fellow at Oxford University."Current Visitors", website of Oxford University Centre of Hebrew and Jewish Studies (on Wayback Machine). Retrieved 21 May 2020."Oxford Seminar: Between Sacred and Profane – Jewish Musical Cultures in Early Modern Europe", academia.eu. Retrieved 21 May 2020. He contributes to journals including Slavonic and East European Review, The Wagner Journal and Jewish Renaissance.Publications list at UCL Discovery. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
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 Companion to Jewish Music, ed. Joshua Walden (2015). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .The Cambridge Companion to Jewish Music, Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 9 May 2017. "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. .The Oxford Handbook of Faust in Music, Oxford University Press. Retrieved 9 May 2017. "Spontini's Complaint", in Judaism in Opera, ed. I. Schmid-Reider and A. Cahn, Regensburg: Conbrio Verlag (2017). .Judaism in Opera, Conbrio Verlag. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
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