David’s awareness of the power of the arts to bridge boundaries and of the cultural responsibilities of government have led him to promote cross-cultural activity across the world.
South Africa
In South Africa (1984–86), during apartheid, his report ‘The Cape Town Symphony Orchestra: Function and Role’ led to his appointment to advise the Council. Together with Alderman David Bloomberg, he made the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra (CTSO) the first arts organisation in South Africa to be constituted as independent of government, municipal or national. He also introduced multi-racial music workshops for children, using the CTSO. Unfortunately, these led to altercations with African political activists: the workshops had to be abandoned.
In 1985, CTSO Chairman Bloomberg requested David to go to Taiwan to prepare locally for the CTSO’s visit for the opening of the Taipei International Arts Centre. This was the orchestra’s first and only visit abroad during apartheid.
Educational & cultural organisations
In 1979, the British Council called on David to make a specialist youth music visit to Colombia. In the same year he was invited by Salvador Itriago, president of Artes Integrales in Caracas, Venezuela, David was called on to advise on their initiative for integrated arts education; he was also involved very briefly with the new opera and ballet complex under the auspices of the Fundación Teresa Carreño.
https://www.centrodeartesintegradas.org
In 1992, through the agency of the UNHCR, acting for the United Nations, he created an extensive plan advocating an international cultural complex to be built on the Green Line, Cyprus, to encourage artistic collaborations across the whole of the island. The plan was to be implemented by the Cyprus Government. The strategy, featuring an artistic symbol of cooperation, was intended to aid the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 550 of 1984 to achieve unification. (The project was agreed by the then Cyprus president, though set aside due to an unexpected change of president.)
In 1993 David wrote the Cultural Masterplan for the Foundation of the Hellenic World complex. The Foundation’s mission was to develop an approximately 62,000m2 site in central Athens to promulgate Hellenism through performances, exhibitions, and educational work. During his six-month extended residency in 2000 David was also intimately involved in the early planning stages of the facilities of Hellenic Cosmos, which currently makes a significant contribution to Athenian cultural life.
https://www.ime.gr/fhw/index.php?lg=2, https://www.hellenic-cosmos.gr/en
He was instrumental in the Jewish Music Heritage Trust becoming the Jewish Music Institute, resident at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and he was the Inaugural Chief Executive (1998) of the Oxford Philomusica (now the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra).
Festivals & events
He was Festival Director for a number of international festivals and event director, including tours, for several performing companies: Thai: Portrait of a Kingdom, the Festival of Thailand in London (1987), under the patronage of HRH Princess Galayani Vadhana and HRH Princess Alexandra, celebrating the King of Thailand’s 60th birthday and the two longest-established monarchies (Barbican Centre: five exhibition galleries including a Thai house and craftspeople working, rare orchid exhibition, a floating market, large model of Thai royal barge; Sadler’s Wells Theatre Royal Thai Dancers); the Cape Town City Ballet Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London (1984), the first visit of a South African performing arts company after the collapse of apartheid; UK tour of Chang Mu Korean Dance Company Post-Olympic Cultural Mission; as inaugural administrator of the Cross-Channel Arts Association, David conducted an 80th birthday concert for Lord Menuhin (1996) (with an Anglo-French student orchestra in Boulogne); ‘Holocaust Commemoration Concert’, Royal Opera House, London (1988); The Dolmetsch Years (1991), celebration of the first 100 years of the early music movement, St John’s Smith Square, London; 12 concerts and an exhibition); as Artistic Director of the Metropole Arts Centre, Folkestone, Kent Literature Festival (annually 1991–1995), 200+ events across Kent. As initial director, he created over 100 events across the UK for The Festival of Switzerland in Britain (1991), marking the 900th anniversary of the foundation of the Swiss Confederation.
For Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council, Halifax, David’s report ‘Square Deal: Halifax Square Chapel Complex as a Focus for Calderdale’s Arts’ (July 1984) advocated the regeneration of the Square Chapel by transforming it into a flexible venue for performances and exhibitions linked to the Piece Hall Market and forming an arts and tourism unit, a concept implemented some years later.
During his Hong Kong tenure, David was instrumental in procuring Maxim Shostakovich’s first conducting engagement in the West after he left Russia (Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, 1981). He was also instrumental in the visits to Hong Kong of the London Bach Choir and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Conferences
David was rapporteur for the UNESCO-Hong Kong Government Symposium ‘East–West Exchange in Music and the Performing Arts’ (Hong Kong, 1982), for some 300+ delegates from around the world (members of arts councils and arts institutions, composers, performers, entrepreneurs, impresarios), with all-day meetings and plenary and break-out sessions, over four days; rapporteur for the Third Commonwealth Arts Administrators’ Conference (Hong Kong, 1983); a keynote speaker at the pan-Pacific conference ‘The Economics of the Arts and Tourism: 2000’ (University of Oregon at Eugene, 1992).