David Maw is Fellow and Director of Music at Oriel College and a Lecturer in Music at Christ Church, holding the title of Associate Professor in Music at the University of Oxford. He is active in musical scholarship, composition and performance and has won prizes in each of these domains.

His scholarly publications have ranged widely across the history of music, with significant work on polyphonic composition and theory in the fourteenth century and on chamber music and improvisation in the twentieth century. He is currently engaged in the creation of an online edition of the musical works of Guillaume de Machaut.

As a performer, he has directed choirs and vocal groups and worked as a keyboard player in solo and ensemble contexts, developing particular specialisation in various genres of improvisation. His output of compositions includes works for a variety of genres, solo and ensemble.