David Sonin, the music critic of the Ham&High (Hampstead and Highgate Express), and a former arts editor of the Jewish Chronicle, must have been one of the very few employees of that journal to have been educated by the disciples of St Ignatius Loyola. Give them a child at the age of 7, so the saying goes, and he is theirs for life. This was not quite so with Sonin; but his early education at the primary school of a Jesuit college in Sydney left him with a passionate and lifelong interest in Gregorian plainchant, medieval church history and architecture — subjects in which he was a formidable autodidact.

David Sonin was born in Whitechapel, East London, in 1935, to Isidore and Natalie Sonin. Soon after his birth his father, who was of Russian ancestry, went off to fight against Franco’s Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War and, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, moved with his family to Australia. After education at the Jesuit primary and at Sydney Grammar School, Sonin read mathematics and physics at the University of Sydney. On completion of his National Service in the Australian Army, he began his journalistic career at the Australian Broadcasting Company. He was a newsreader and made a doc- umentary about life on Pitcairn Island.

In 1963 he took a holiday in London where he met the pianist and teacher Gillian Sack. Within a month he had cancelled his return ticket to Australia, and within a year they were married. Sonin joined VisNews as an editor, international affairs. He then moved to ITN’s international newsdesk where he stayed for two years before becoming publicity director for the Jewish National Fund and the Joint Israel Appeal. He travelled widely working on behalf of World ORT, the non-governmental organisation for educational and vocational training for Jewish and non-Jewish communities. He focused on publicity for their work in Bombay.

Sonin returned to journalism in 1978, writing for Syndicated National News, a bulletin for subscribers to the Jewish Chronicle, before being appointed assistant editor, supplements and finally arts editor. This was where his heart lay and, until his retirement in June 2000, he made the post very much his own, securing a place for the regular coverage of classical music, initiating in-depth arts features, and appointing Charles Osborne as opera critic. Sonin acted as mentor to many a young writer, inspiring colleagues and readers with a palpable energy and enthusiasm for almost all aspects of classical music and its performance.

Sonin was passionate about the place of music in the local community, supporting the Hampstead and Highgate Music Festival, the Proms at St Jude’s and the Highgate Choral Society, with whom he toured to Venice and Prague. He also worked in a consultative role for the Jewish Music Institute (now part of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London), and, since its inception, for its music festival, researching neglected areas of the repertoire.

Always eager to find the human story behind any cultural event, and to research its broader context, Sonin wrote his last review in March on the world premiere at Wigmore Hall of Ronald Corp’s string quartet evoking the flight and cry of the bustard. Although frail and in considerable pain, Sonin was determined to track down the creature in a bird reserve on Salisbury Plain; but it was not to be.

He is survived by his wife, Gillian, and son.

David Sonin, music critic, was born on November 14, 1935. He died of cancer on May 13, 2008, aged 72