David Drew
Fulham, 1998

A Short Biography of David Drew

Writer and Broadcaster on Music and Musicians, Publisher, Recording Executive, Editor, Planner

 

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1930
1939 - 43
1944 - 49
1949 - 51
1951 - 54

Born London (Putney) 19 September.
School in Yorkshire (Aysgarth) .
School in Middlesex (Harrow-on-the-Hill) .
National Service .
Cambridge University (Peterhouse) .

1955 - 59

Freelance music-critic, with part-time attachment to Decca Record Company (publicity department). Contributor to The Score, collaborator with its editor, William Glock, on various performance-related projects, and lecturer at his Summer School of Music in Dartington. For several years, in part-time employment with The Decca Record Company and its Publicity Department, writing and editing sleeve-notes and brochures.

1959 - 67 Music Critic, The New Statesman.
1960 Full-time Staff Producer, BBC Music Department (one year only).
1961 - 75 Artistic Director of the (UK) Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's series of recordings of 20th century music, in collaboration with EMI and subsequently Argo (Decca). Advisor to the Holland Festival (1971) and the Berliner Festwochen (1974-75).
1971 - 92 Editor, Tempo, latterly co-editor.
1971 - 80
BBC Music Advisory Committee; Arts Council Music Panel; Chair of the Council's committee responsible for the British Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music. 1971-75, European Representative of The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music.

1975 - 92 Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd - member of the Board, and head of the Contemporary Music department.
1983 - 91 Programme Committee, Mürztal Music Workshop, Austria.
1988 - 95 Chair of Executive Committee, Les amis du compositeur Igor Markevitch, Lausanne and London.
1989 - 99 Trustee, The Britten Pears Foundation, and Board member, The Britten Estate Ltd.
1992-
(to present date) Editorial Board, The Kurt Weill Edition.

1993 - 98 Artistic Director, Largo Records, Cologne.
1999 - 00 Advisor, Weill Centenary Series (South Bank Centre, London).
1999 - 01 Dramaturg, Broomhill Opera at Wilton's Theatre.
2003- International Advisory Board, Tempo.
2005- 2006 Senior Associate, King’s College (Cambridge).

Annual Records gives a year-by-year chronicle of Drew's professional activities, and a sketch of 1930-50.

Music editions:
Roberto Gerhard: The Duenna (Madrid 1992). Kurt Weill: Propheten (Proms 1998); Cry, the Beloved Country (Carnegie Hall 1988)

Books:
The Decca Book of Ballet (1958); Über Kurt Weill (1975); Kurt Weill, Ausgewählte Schriften (1975);Kurt Weill: A Handbook (1987)

Articles:
Several hundred articles and reviews published in the UK, the USA, Germany, and the Netherlands.

Awards:
1995
1996
- Spanish Ministry of Culture, “Silver Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts”, awarded “for services to Spanish music”
- Kurt Weill Distinguished Achievement Award

Material Copyright © 2002 David Drew.