Chronological Outline

David began formal piano lessons aged 4 in the Caribbean, but also began improvising from an early age, and was fascinated by the rich harmonies played by Bahamian gospel keyboardists. These three areas of musical interest have remained central to him ever since.

After moving to the UK, his high school compositions showed these interests – you can hear David aged 16-17 playing the piano in his pieces The Butterfly (2000, solo piano, BBC Young Composer of the Year runner up), and Waves (2002, violin, trombone and piano, Purcell Rooms, Music for Youth National Festival).

He studied piano with Aaron Shorr in his final year (his final recital included Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No.5), but also played keyboard in a student jazz quintet in his spare time.  Academically he focused increasingly on composition, and stayed at Cambridge to complete the one-year MPhil in Composition in (2005-6 tutored by Robin Holloway).

Four Etudes (2005, solo piano) were written during his MPhil, premiered by Simon Smith at Kettle’s Yard Cambridge, and premiered in Europe (Brussels) by Peter Donohoe.  They show David’s continued interests in piano, composition and jazz, and were inspired by Chopin, Debussy and Ligeti’s piano études, the annual Bahamian Junkanoo festival, and David’s own free improvisations.

David pursued composition further in Manchester, starting with an MMus in Composition (2006-7 tutored by Adam Gorb) at the RNCM.  Here, he took opportunities to write pieces for various ensembles such as Sound (2007, for brass band), and further explored his budding interest in string quartets.  This had begun in Cambridge with a pastiche quartet in the style of J Brahms (2005), then developed into quartets heavily influenced by Shostakovich such as String Quartet no.3 (2007), and In memory of Timothy Sharpe (2007, commemorating a friend and fellow RNCM student).

David then completed his academic studies with a PhD in Composition (2007-12 tutored by Camden Reeves) at the University of Manchester. Here, his methods of composition changed significantly, resulting in a much more integrated approach, a more assured technique and the composition of larger and more coherent structures. His final three PhD pieces ‘From Different Places’ (2009, large orchestra), ‘Ayla’ (2010, violin and piano), and ‘Newton’s Cradle’ (2011, piano concerto) were awarded the 2012 RPS Composition Prize, and two of these also featured David as solo pianist.

Simultaneously, David pursued his jazz & gospel interests as Musical Director and keyboardist of the University of Manchester’s award-winning Harmony Gospel Choir, also compiling the medleys and arrangements sung by the choir in the BBC Songs of Praise Gospel Choir of the Year televised finals, and for their triple win at University Gospel Choir of the Year.

• at tertiary level, Composition and related disciplines (eg Tonality) at the University of Manchester; 
• at secondary level, Composition and Jazz at the Junior RNCM as well as peripatetic ‘classical’ piano at St Bede’s College; 
• at all levels, private tuition in composition, piano and theory.  Please see the dedicated Teaching page for more information.  

• recently, David was specially commissioned by the ABRSM to write a new piece for their 2023-24 Grade 5 piano exam syllabus entitled “A Distant Star in the Stillness” (2022), and also arranged two of the pieces for the piano Initial Grade and Grade 3; 
• he has subsequently been working on several other ABRSM commissions which will be released soon;
• David also writes to commemorate significant and special life events, such as “Beauty of the Bride” (2020), which David played as his wife walked down the aisle.  This piece will become part of a larger collection soon.

• David has performed a significant proportion of his own compositions, which you can hear on his Soundcloud page.  
• Please see the dedicated Jazz & Gospel page for performances in these styles.