Born in Bendigo country Victoria, David studied bassoon in his hometown with the wine-maker / bassoonist Stuart Anderson (Balgownie Bendigo, pioneers of 1970’s commercial winemaking in Victoria’s central goldfields region).
David toured to Hong Kong and China with the Melbourne Youth Orchestra, and was
Principal with the Australian Youth Orchestra.
David furthered his bassoon studies with Harold Evans (MSO Principal) at the Victorian College of the Arts.
David played a number of seasons with Victoria State Opera under the baton of Richard Divall, including on period instruments.
David considers himself very fortunate to have had his first full-time professional orchestral position playing contrabassoon and second bassoon in Anne Henderson’s WASO section.
David also had periods as WASO’s Acting Principal. This was in the period of the conductor David Measham – as well as the Austrian-Jewish / Czech maestro Albert Rosen. As Hans Swarowsky had been Rosen’s conducting teacher at the Vienna Academy of Music, David enjoyed Rosen’s ‘Old Europe’ directorship immensely.
Perth offered wonderful bodysurfing beaches, the Karri forests / wineries / coast of the Southwest corner, ballet / modern dance classes, Rottnest Island, and scuba diving with David’s WASO contemporaries.
In Perth David met his UK-born wife Hilary Nye.
Moving to a London base, David worked as a free-lance player – including master-classes with Milan Turkovic & Brian Pollard – and was live-in custodian of the Victorian Society’s Lynley Sambourne House museum.
David created Ensemble Australis to perform Australian music with Australian musicians in London.
After a period as Acting Principal of the Stavanger Symfoniorkester in Norway, David was appointed as Orchestra Manager for Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra – a position he held for two decades.
Following the MCO and now living in Bristol England, David retrained as both a person-centred counsellor and a horticultural lecturer. In this period David also founded the performance organisation Bozarts.
After running the City of Bristol College’s Horticulture Department for some years, David is now retired.
He divides his time between founding Cote House – an innovative Bristol cohousing community – and singing with unusual chamber choirs.
Hilary and David’s two children both live in Melbourne – event ticketing entrepreneur Sam and doctor Julia.
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David plays on a Heckel No. 5552 bassoon owned originally by his former teacher Harold Evans. Wilhelm Heckel GmbH is a renowned German woodwind maker and the bassoon’s year of manufacture is 1919. This 5000-series instrument belongs to a highly regarded era of ‘pre-war’ acoustic craftsmanship. Bassoons from this era are celebrated for their small bore design, thinner wall construction, lightweight feel, warm resonance, and highly flexible, ‘golden’ tonal quality.