David Cleary (b. 1954), composer, critic, cellist, and writer on music, received a D.M.A. degree from the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati; M.M. from the Hartt College of Music, University of Hartford; and B.M. from the New England Conservatory. His composition teachers have included Donald Martino, Malcolm Peyton, Donald Harris, Norman Dinerstein, Thomas Pasatieri, and Mordechai Scheinkman. His cello teachers were Martin Hoherman, Robert Ripley, Michael Rudiakov, and Jack Kirstein.

His music has been performed and broadcast worldwide, including festival performances at Tanglewood, June in Buffalo, New Music North, and Warebrook. Cleary's music has attracted many awards, including prizes from the Harvey Gaul Contest and Cincinnati Composers Guild; grants from the Ella Lyman Cabot Trust, Meet the Composer, National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, and Harvard University; and arts colony residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo, Millay, Djerassi, Ragdale, Tyrone Guthrie Center, Cummington, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Commissions for pieces have come from the American Composers Forum's Continental Harmony program, Alea III, Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble, Northwestern University Trombone Ensemble, Equinox Chamber Players, Duo Renard, and Arcadian Winds, among others. His compositions appear on CD on the Centaur, Vienna Modern Masters, Musicians Showcase, and Arcadian Winds labels. Cleary's piano accompaniments for the method book series The ABCs of Strings are published by Carl Fischer. Formerly associated with the Composers in Red Sneakers as co-director and president, his bio appears in the latest editions of Marquis Who's Who in America and similar publications.

Cleary's writings on musical topics are both numerous and broad based. As a contributing reviewer to the Boston Herald, The Enterprise (Brockton, MA), and Living Music as well as staff critic for the New Music Connoisseur and 21st Century Music, he has critiqued copious amounts of concert music from many eras in live performance and on disc; the All Music Guide to Rock (2nd and later editions) contains many of his pop CD reviews. His article on composing careers is published by Gale Research (Performing Arts Career Directory) and his entries on classical and popular music subjects can be found in Women and Music in America since 1900 (Greenwood Press).