David is currently Director of Music of Oxfordshire Contemporary Opera, having recently returned to the UK from an eight-year-long career in Germany, where he was Kapellmeister and Head of Music at the Mainfranken Theater in Würzburg and Assistant Chorus Master and Repetiteur at the State Theatre in Darmstadt.

He made his German conducting debut with Bellini’s i Capuleti e i Montecchi, for which he was praised by Der Opernfreund for ‘conducting full of colour and spirit, savouring every beat, every note and infecting the orchestra with his joy in the score, as well as the singers on stage.’ He has since conducted several operas, ranging from standard repertoire (Die Zauberflöte, La clemenza di Tito and Les contes d’Hoffmann) to contemporary works, such as Karl und Anna by Christoph Ehrenfellner and Ente und Wolf by Anno Schreier.

David recently participated in the finals of the Erich Bergel Conducting Competition and was also nominated for the critic’s prize ‘Orchestra of the Year’ in German publication Die Opernwelt, when he stepped in as pianist at short notice to replace the orchestra in Janáček’s The Makropulos Case. Recent work includes Britten’s Death in Venice in Heidelberg and a new production of La Traviata, which recently toured to the Regensberg Festival.

David was trained in opera at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he won the James Geddes Award, and the Solti Accademia in Venice, and subsequently worked for Opera Holland Park, Opera North, Dorset Opera, and the Grimeborn festival (Turnage, Greek).

In 2020, David began his blog ‘Opera with a Hot Toddy’ where he invites colleagues and friends from the opera world to discuss their work over a drink. His main series of articles offering practical advice to opera répétiteurs has recently been adapted and published online by Schmopera.