Daniel Snowman

Snowman was born and raised in London, his parents coming from Anglo-Jewish families with roots in 19th-century Eastern Europe. He was educated at Cambridge (Double First-class degree in History) and Cornell (MA in Government) and from 1963–7 was a lecturer in Politics and American Studies at the University of Sussex. In 1967, he went to the BBC for a 6-month stint as a radio producer, rejoining as a full-time staff member in 1970. In 1967, too, Snowman joined the London Philharmonic Choir, an ensemble with whom he sang for 48 years, and whose history he has written.[1]

At the BBC, Snowman was responsible for a wide variety of radio programmes on cultural and historical subjects, working with such established broadcasters as Bernard Crick, Robin Day, Bill Grundy, Lord Hailsham, William Hardcastle and John Vaizey while also helping develop the broadcasting careers of such younger figures as Susan Hill, Aled Jones, Norman Lebrecht, Roy Porter, Edward Seckerson and Lucie Skeaping. Snowman tended to specialize in ambitious series such as The Long March of Everyman,[2] Whatever Happened to Equality?, A World In Common (world development issues), World Powers in the Twentieth Century, Northern Lights (a Radio 4 festival about the Arctic) and Fins de Siècle,[3] an attempt to enter and recreate the sound world of the final years of each of the past six centuries. Many of these later appeared as books which Snowman helped edit.[4] After leaving the BBC at the end of 1995, Snowman turned increasingly to writing and lecturing. From 2004 he has held a Senior Research Fellowship at London University's Institute of Historical Research;[5] in 2010 he delivered the IHR Annual Fellows’ Lecture.[5]

Snowman was briefly married to Alice Harris (1964–66). In 1975, he married Janet Levison and they have two children, Ben and Anna. The marriage ended in divorce in 2014.

The Hitler Émigrés: The Cultural Impact on Britain of Refugees from Nazism concerned those who, having escaped the shadow of Nazism, found refuge in Britain and made a lasting mark on the nation's intellectual and cultural life, among them some of Britain's most celebrated artists, architects, musicians, choreographers, film makers, historians, philosophers, scientists, writers, broadcasters and publishers.[6]

Historians, based on a long-running series of quarterly essays in the magazine History Today.[7] Snowman examined the so-called ‘History Wave’, proposed some reasons for this, and suggested that, as people sought a usable ‘Heritage’ from the past as an aid to their own self-definition, the historian – who mediates between past and present – took on something of the function of the priest of earlier times. In Historians, he wrote about the life and work of some thirty of the most influential, including Asa Briggs, Peter Burke, David Cannadine, Natalie Zemon Davis, Richard J. Evans, Niall Ferguson, Roy Foster, Antonia Fraser, Eric Hobsbawm, Lisa Jardine, Ian Kershaw, Simon Schama and David Starkey.

The Gilded Stage: A Social History of Opera was a pioneering attempt to place the history of opera in its widest historical perspective. Thus, Snowman explored not only the traditional trio of composers, works and artists but also the financing and patronage of opera over the centuries, the changing nature of those in the operatic professions and their audiences, the history of theatrical architecture and of stage design, the impact of new technologies (gas, electric lighting, recording, photography, film etc.), and the globalization of opera in the 20th century.[8]

Articles and reviews by Daniel Snowman have appeared in: BBC History Magazine, BBC Music Magazine, Daily/Sunday Telegraph, Economist, English Historical Review, Gramophone, Guardian, Historical Research, Historically Speaking, History Today, Homes & Gardens, Independent, Jewish Chronicle, Jewish Renaissance, Journal of American Studies, Listener, Literary Review, Living History, Music and Musicians, Musical Times, New Society, New Statesman, Opera, Opera Now, Political Studies, Radio Times, Standard, Sunday Times, Times, Times Literary & Higher Education Supplements, Tribune.

His 'Short History of Opera' (and pages about voice types, etc.) was used on the official website of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and in spring 2011 he was commissioned by the ROH to undertake an academic assessment of their Archives and historical Collections.

Snowman is a Frequent Lecturer[9] at British arts festivals, academic and cultural institutions, luncheon clubs etc, and in a typical year delivers some 40–50 illustrated talks and lectures across the UK and abroad. Since 1999 he has delivered over 600 illustrated lectures to members of The Arts Society (formerly NADFAS).[10] In 2002 and again in 2006 he undertook a two-month, round-the-world lecture-and-research tour, including visits to various parts of Australia, New Zealand and North America. Daniel has also lectured for the Royal Opera (Covent Garden), Glyndebourne, English National Opera, the New York Metropolitan Opera Guild and Los Angeles Opera.  In winter 2010/11, he delivered a six-part series of public lectures at the Royal Academy of Music on the Social History of Opera, and in 2017 presented a 12-week (36-session) course at the Victoria and Albert Museum[11] to accompany their major exhibition on the subject – a lecture series he repeated at the V&A in 2018.

Lectures and public events have included:

• The Yerushah Lecture (University of Cambridge, 14 May 2003)
• The Scouloudi Lecture (University of London, Institute of Historical Research, 12 June 2003)
• The Leo Baeck Lecture (Imperial War Museum, London, 3 November 2004)[12]
• Paper on 'Why the Public Loves History' (London University, Institute of Historical Research, winter conference: 13 February 2006)
• The 2010 Annual Fellows’ Lecture (London University, Institute of Historical Research, 1 June 2010)[13]
• Paper on 19thC opera history (Royal Musical Association annual conference, London, 15 July 2010)
• 2010/11: Six Lectures on the Social History of Opera (Royal Academy of Music, London; monthly, from September 2010 to March 2011)[14]
• Paper on the Social History of Opera (University of Western Ontario, Canada, 9 March 2011)
• Speech on the Social History of Opera (University Club, New York, 15 March 2011)
• Paper on 19thC opera politics to the 'Music in Britain' social history seminar (University of London, Institute of Historical Research, 9 May 2011)
• Introduction to Die Meistersinger: Education Day at Glyndebourne (15 May 2011)
• Paper to the Anglo-American Conference of Historians, Senate House, London (6 July 2012)
• Paper to the Institute of Musical Research (Senate House, London; 22 October 2012)
• Chaired presentation at Jewish Book Week, King's Place, London: launch of books on Jews and the Fashion Industry in pre-Nazi Berlin and postwar London (March 1, 2020).
• Spoke at conference 'Cambridge: City of Scholars, City of Refuge, 1933-1945' (Trinity College, Cambridge: 5-6 March 2020).

• Lecture on 'Puppetry and Opera': Puppet Centre conference (Barbican, London; 9 November 2012)
• Lecture on opera history at the Juilliard School of Music, New York (31 January 2013)
• Lectures to the New York Metropolitan Opera Guild ( 1 and 2 February 2013)
• Lecture (Verdi and Victoria) for the "Viva Verdi!" festival at the Italian Cultural Institute, London (7 February 2013)
• Martin Miller and Hannah Norbert-Miller Memorial Lecture: The Hitler Emigres Re-visited (Senate House, London; 21 February 2013)[15][16]
• Chaired final plenary session, Institute of Historical Research annual Winter Conference ('History and Biography', Senate House, London; 8 March 2013)
• Delivered pre-concert talk about Michael Tippett's: A Child of our Time (London Philharmonic Orchestra), and sang in the performance: Royal Festival Hall, London (1 May 2013)
• Lecture to the 120th annual conference of the Jewish Historical Society of England (28 August 2013)
• Lecture at National Gallery (London) to introduce their exhibition Facing the Modern: Vienna 1900 (Study Day: 30 November 2013)
• Lecture at Royal College of Music (London) to introduce their 3-day international Symposium "Singing A Song in a Foreign Land" (21 February 2014)
• Lecture (War and the Arts) at Barber of Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham re: their exhibition, "Rebel Visions" (26 November 2014)
• Delivered pre-concert lecture for Classical Opera's inaugural 'MOZART 250' weekend, Milton Court, London (21 February 2015)
• Chaired panel at Institute of Historical Research conference on 'London and the First World War' (20 March 2015)
• Speaker: 'Cities of Modernity: European Arts and Architecture 1880-1914': Royal Institute of British Architects (21 April 2015)
• Organised and chaired two 6-part series of public Seminars at the Institute of Historical Research with leading historians debating how we use and abuse the past. These were held at Senate House (London) during the academic years 2015/16 and 2016/17.[17]

1. 'History, History Everywhere...' 14 October 2015. Panellists (l to r): Ronald Hutton, David Reynolds, Paul Lay and Pat Thane. Video YouTube.[18]

2. 'History as Heritage' 11 November 2015. Panellists (l to r): Roger Bowdler, Robert Hewison, Anna-Maria Misra and Simon Thurley. Video on YouTube.[19]

4. 'Re-writing the Past' 13 January 2016. Panellists (l to r): Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Jonathan Steinberg, Ian Kershaw and Penelope Video on YouTube.[20]

5. 'Pictures of the Past' 10 February 2016. Panellists (l-to r): Marion Kant, Simon Goldhill Vic Gatrell and Simon Shaw-Miller. Video on YouTube.[21]

6. 'Uses and Abuses of the Past' 9 March 2016 Panellists (l-to-r): Paul Preston, Donald Sassoon, Peter Hennessy and Lawrence Goldman. Video on YouTube.[22]

• Lecture (The Gilded Stage: A Social History of Opera) at Royal College of Music, London (14 January 2016)
• Chaired final session of Anglo-French History Conference, London University, Institute of Historical Research, Senate House (18 March 2016
• Pre-performance talk (Hänsel und Gretel) at Royal College of Music, London (2 July 2016)
• Pre-performance talk ('The Amadeus Quartet') at Martin Lovett tribute event, Royal College of Music, London (5 March 2017)
• Chaired opening two sessions of conference on 'History Heritage and Ideology: Universities and the Commemoration of Benefactors' at Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, London (24 March 2017)
• Presented a 12-week (36-session) course at the Victoria and Albert Museum to accompany their major exhibition on the history of opera (September – December 2017, and again in autumn 2018).
• Addressed All-party Parliamentary Group on history of opera (29 November 2017).
• Gallery Talk ('Verdi and Victoria') at Victoria and Albert Museum (15 February 2018).
• Presented ‘Introduction to Salome’ evening at English National Opera (18 September 2018)
• Chaired Symposium on ‘Operetta’ evening at English National Opera (24 January 2019)
• Presented 'Introduction to 'Jack the Ripper' evening at English National Opera (5 March 2019)
• Spoke at Jewish Book Week, King's Place, London (launch of Insiders/Outsiders book: 6 March 2019). [23]
• Spoke (twice) at Oxford Literary Festival (2 April 2019)
• Gave two lectures about  'Musical Life in Victorian Britain' to mark the bicentenaries of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (V&A Museum, 7 June 2019)
• Presented 'Introduction to Orpheus and Eurydice' evening for English National Opera (4 September 2019)
• Presented 8-lecture course on the history of opera at Victoria and Albert Museum (12/13 October 2019)
• Presented 'Verdi and Victoria: Two of a Kind': Opera Prelude (with Alex Aldren, tenor) at Cadogan Hall, London (29 October 2019)
• Chaired presentation at Jewish Book Week, King's Place, London: launch of books on Jews and the Fashion Industry in pre-Nazi Berlin and postwar London (March 1, 2020).
• Spoke at conference 'Cambridge: City of Scholars, City of Refuge, 1933-1945' (Trinity College, Cambridge: 5-6 March 2020).

Zoom lectures during Coronavirus Lockdown:

• What Do You Do When Your Theatre Burns Down? The destruction of the Royal Italian Opera at Covent Garden in 1856" (to IHR Junior Research Fellows, 11 June 2020).
• The Impact of the 'Hitler Emigres' on British Musical Life" (for Insiders/Outsiders project, 20 July 2020).
• The Gilded Stage: A Social History of Opera" (two lectures to students in China for the Oxford Prospects and Global Development Institute, Regent's Park College, 30 and 31 July 2020).

He has also lectured on cruise liners, and between 2001-2014 he led over fifty music and opera tours for ACE, Cox & Kings, Martin Randall and other travel companies to many of the world's great cultural capitals, among them: Aix-en-Provence, Barcelona, Berlin, Bregenz, Budapest, Cracow, Dresden, Halle, Leipzig, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Naples, New York, Paris, Prague, Riga, Rome, Salzburg, Savonlinna, Seville/Andalucia, Stockholm, Torre del Lago, Turin, Valencia, Venice, Vienna and Warsaw.

• Official website