David Cairns

David Cairns (born June 8, 1926) is a British music critic, journalist, and non-fiction author best known for his authoritative two-volume biography of Hector Berlioz, Berlioz: The Making of an Artist 1803–1832 (1989) and Berlioz: Servitude and Greatness 1832-1869 (1999), which won awards including the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award, Yorkshire Post Book of the Year, and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. Penguin. He has also translated Berlioz's Mémoires, written Mozart and his Operas (2006), and received the CBE (1997) and Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2013) for his contributions to French music.