Background
CAIRNS, David was born on June 8, 1926 in Loughton. Son of Sir Hugh and Barbara (nee Smith) Cairns.
CAIRNS, David was born on June 8, 1926 in Loughton. Son of Sir Hugh and Barbara (nee Smith) Cairns.
Winchester College, University of Oxford, Princeton University.
He is a leading authority on the life of Berlioz. From 1967-1972 he worked for the London division of Phonogram. His work in journalism has spanned a number of high profile newspapers and magazines.
He was chief music critic of the Sunday Times from 1983 to 1992, having earlier been music critic and arts editor of The Spectator.
Other publications for which he has been a music critic include the Evening Standard, Financial Times and New Statesman. Before becoming a music journalist, he worked in the House of Commons Library.
Cairns is known for his two-volume biography of Berlioz: Berlioz: The Making of an Artist 1803–1832 and Berlioz: Servitude and Greatness 1832-1869. 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".
The Royal Philharmonic Society"s Music award
The Yorkshire Post "Book of the Year" award
The British Academy"s Derek Allen prize
The Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction
of the year in the Whitbread Book Cairns also translated Berlioz"s autobiography, published by Gollancz in the United Kingdom in 1969.
In 1991, the French government named him an Officier de l"Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his work in promoting Hector Berlioz as a key French composer. In 2013, he was elevated to the position of Commandeur. In Mozart and his Operas (University of California Press, 2006) Cairns stated part of his music"s appeal was its simultaneous embodiment of both "the perfection our souls long for and the sensation of our longing".
Editorial Staff, Times Educational Supplement 195558. Staff. Philips Records, London 1968-1970, Classic Programme Company-ordinator 1970-1973.
Married Rosemary Goodwin 1959.