"David has the gift,
so necessary for film composition,
for translating emotions
on the screen into music
that bears his distinctive,
personal signature"
– Oscar nominated composer Gary Yershon
Being classically trained on the piano, David studied ‘composition for media’ at the University of Arts Utrecht in the Netherlands. After receiving a Bachelor of music with honors and a Master of Arts degree, he continued his study of film scoring at the renowned University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in the US. He later became an intern for Henry Jackman (Captain America: Civil War, Jumanji, Kingsman).
David’s credits include scores for award-winning short movies, documentaries and trailers but also orchestrations for games such as world wide popular “The Elder Scrolls: Online”.
As a composer and orchestrator, David also works with music producer J2 on trailer albums and regularly writes music for Chinese series and feature movies. Among others, he scored the highly popular Chinese drama series “My Journey To You” together with composer He Li.
In 2019, he collaborated with Grammy-nominated cellist Christine H. Kim on the album “Reminiscences” and in 2021, David wrote a composition for acclaimed Grammy-nominated clarinetist Seunghee Lee.
As of 2023, David is a member of the World Soundtrack Academy.
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
For his music for “Lo Que Siembras”, David was the recipient of the Gil Soundtrack Award, the highest film scoring competition prize in the world, with a jury chaired by Oscar winner Alejandro Amenábar, and also won the ‘Best Score’ Award at the Los Angeles Film Awards as well as received a “Hollywood Music in Media Award” (HMMA) in 2023.
The music for the documentary “Light Chaser” (original title: Guang Yu Zhe) that David worked on together with composer He Li, won the Best Music award at the “China Academy Awards of Documentary Film” in 2019. The documentary was also nominated for a Golden Rooster Award, the Chinese equivalent to the Oscars.
In 2018, David received his first HMMA nomination.
In 2016, he received the BMI Jerry Goldsmith Scholarship and was nominated at the international “Transatlantyk Film Music Competition” for his rescoring of the Oscar winning animation “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore”.