"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) and worked in the music department of movies such as Sony’s third Smurfs feature animation .
David’s credits include scores for award-winning movies, documentaries, and trailers but also orchestrations for games such as the world-wide popular The Elder Scrolls: Online. As a composer at J2Entertainment, he has worked on music for trailers of productions such as 20th Century Fox’ Alita: Battel Angel, Ballers (starring Dwayne Johnson) and You (Netflix), Love Island (Peacock), America’s got talent and many more.
As a composer, David is also regularly involved in Chinese productions streaming on Iqiyi, one of the biggest streaming platforms in the world. Among them the Chinese Drama hit series My Journey to You.
In 2019, he collaborated with Grammy-nominated cellist Christine H. Kim on the album “Reminiscences” and in 2021, David wrote a composition for world-wide acclaimed clarinetist Seunghee Lee.
As of 2023, David is a member of the World Soundtrack Academy and as of 2024 also a Grammy voting member of the Recording 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” (LAFA) as well as received a “Hollywood Music in Media Award” (HMMA) nomination in 2023.
The music for Light Chaser (original title: Guang Yu Zhe), written together with Chinese composer He Li, won the Best Music award at the “China Academy Awards of Documentary Film” in 2020.
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.
Additionally, David has received two Global Music Awards over the years.