Board of Patrons: David Bloomberg

Years after being instrumental in privatizing the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra  in 1986 and, as its chairman, steering it through the next few years, David Bloomberg is back in Cape Town and back in the orchestral business. He has accepted an invitation to join the CPO’s Board of Patrons, bringing years of expertise and knowledge. Over the years, his career has embraced much – the theatre where he produced many plays and was a leading impresario, the legal profession, business world and twenty years in civic politics. These included being mayor of Cape Town from 1973-5. He was a director of the Cape Performing Arts Board and at the time of the opening of what is now Artscape was vigorously opposed to its original name and to excluding people of colour. Over the last 12 years, he has concentrated on yet another aspect of his diverse career, that of an author, adding to his memoir and his history of the mayors of Cape Town, The Chain Gang. He has now published seven, including his most recent, The Lion and the Thespian about actress Marda Vanne and politician J G Strijdom. In the 1990s he left for London then settled in Lugano and returned last year to “enjoy his Scotch while watching the sun go down!”.