David Cairns (writer)
David Adam Cairns CBE (born 8 June 1926, Loughton, Essex) is a British journalist, non-fiction writer and musician.[3] During the early 1960s, Davis conducted the COG in concert performances of several of Berlioz's large-scale works, including La Damnation de Faust, Roméo et Juliette, Les Troyens and Benvenuto Cellini.Other publications for which he has been a music critic include the Evening Standard, Financial Times and New Statesman.Reviewing the second volume for Opera magazine, Michael Kennedy described it as "one of the finest of all biographies of a composer" going on to praise his depiction "of Berlioz's lifelong struggle against the philistinism of Parisian musical life", and proclaims that "he has given Berlioz the literary memorial he deserves".In 1983, he founded the Thorington Players,[1] a London-based orchestra that he conducted regularly in St Mary's Church, Putney, and at St. John's, Smith Square.