David is a Scottish composer, pianist and hyperrealist artist who has made Ireland his home for the past 15 years. A music graduate from the University of Glasgow, he studied piano under Gusztáv Fenyő.  

His broad ranging career has led him to work as a musical director, répétiteur, composer and choral conductor in ballet, opera, musical theatre and, later, as a producer and arranger in commercial music.

In his early career he worked with a variety of ballet and contemporary dance companies including: The Royal Ballet, Scottish Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Singapore Ballet, Wayne McGregor’s Random Dance Company, Mark Morris Dance Company, Jiri Kylian (NDT), and London Contemporary Dance Theatre.  He later moved into opera, taking up a position as Music Director for Scottish Opera’s touring company, where he oversaw a wide range of works from Rossini to Janáček. In conjunction with Scottish Opera’s innovative education programme he composed numerous works for stage and orchestra that have been produced and broadcast both nationally and internationally.  A strong advocate of music education, his operas for children and community groups have been central in his support for greater access to the creative arts at all levels of society. His commission for B.B.C. Radio 4, The Musical Story Book was nominated for a Sony Award in the UK and his children’s operas were nominated for a variety of other UK awards.

David is also a busy arranger and producer having worked with a diversity of artists such as The Celtic Tenors, The Dubliners, Brian Kennedy, Sinead O’Conner, Samantha Mumba, and Hayley Westenra. He has also conducted, collaborated and performed with many orchestras including: The Orchestra Of Scottish Opera, The Royal Scottish National Orchestra, The National Symphony Orchestra (Ireland), The Spokane Symphony Orchestra, The Vancouver SO, The Toronto SO, The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, West Virginia SO, The Pittsburgh SO, The Atlanta SO, The Buffalo Philharmonic & The Nashville SO.

Previously he has worked as musical director with The Celtic Tenors and The Canadian Tenors, (The Tenors), achieving No.1 album successes with both groups. He is currently musical director of Celtic Thunder and has produced the last seven of their albums. Of these albums, Mythology, The Christmas Album, Legacy, Emmet Cahill’s Ireland, Inspirational and Celtic Thunder X, all reached No 1 in the Billboard, Amazon and iTunes World Music Album charts.

David continues to freelance in theatre and performance in a variety of musical roles in Ireland, the UK and internationally. He has recently ventured into the world of film scoring, and was delighted when his score, co-written with Neil Byrne, won the award for Best Original Score in Ireland’s ‘Underground Film Awards’. This was for the short film ‘Deadly’ by Aidan McAteer.

He is also a self taught hyperrealist artist who works primarily with pencil and charcoal. He has developed a collections of works that is focused on hands but more recently has concentrated on portrait drawings.

At a community level David also continues his commitment to encouraging creative education through his involvement in primary school level music education and performance.