David was born in New Zealand and has been strongly influenced by its rich vibrancy and untouched pristine beauty. The son of a cabinet maker, who began his own apprenticeship in 1930’s London at eleven years old, David grew up working with wood and shows a photograph of himself, nearly two years old, building, nailing and constructing from wood scraps in his father’s shop. Classical music and especially opera, rang through the home from his birth. He began cello studies at eight and at eighteen was found in college pursuing a cello performance degree. With only one professional orchestra in New Zealand and the chances of an available position unavailable for many years, he quit to pursue his passion with wood and the cello as a violin maker and restorer. 

At nineteen he left New Zealand to move to Melbourne, Australia to pursue this passion, accepting a position as a violin repairer with the renowned luthier John Ferwerda. With his talent in wood and his long woodworking study under his father, he opened his own violin repair shop just one year later. Within five years, David operated Australia’s largest violin repair shop with four repair employees catering to Australia’s professional players throughout the country. During this time, led by his inner desire and drive to be the best he could be, he undertook three, three-month sabbaticals to see and study repair and restoration in Europe and the United States. In 1987, this included attending the 1987 trinale of Stradivari’s death with the chance to intimately study 50 of Stradivari’s instruments on display. Through his second sabbatical in 1988 he attended the first ever Violin   Restoration   Course under Vahakn Y. Nigogosian at Oberlin College – a one month restoration course learning the restoration techniques that Nigogosian himself learned whilst working under Sacconi at Rembrandt Wurlitzers. 

Directly after this restoration course, David arrived in New York City where he had been granted permission to spend one month observing gifted craftsmen restoring instruments by Stradivari and other great Italian luthiers at Jacques Francais Rare Violins under Rene Morel. This was the only time Rene had ever allowed someone to observe him in the restoration shop for any period of time. Seeing and studying these great Italian instrument masterpieces and observing the repair and restoration processes in person – while asking questions and gathering information – was an exceptional chance of learning. David then took this great training back to his repair shop in Australia to perform and master the same techniques.   This propelled David’s sound production and restoration to an exceedingly high standard. In David’s third sabbatical, in 1989, David again attended the Oberlin Restoration Workshop under Nigogosian, and then spent a month observing in the workshop of Jacques Francais Rare Violins, again under Rene Morel. It was during this time that Rene asked David if he would like to work for the company as a restorer – as such, in 1990 David moved his family to New York City to work for the world’s most recognized violin sales and restoration house, Jacques Francais Rare Violins where he worked on the famed instruments by Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesu belonging to Issac Stern, Pinchus Zukerman, Itzark Perlman, YoYoMa, Joshua Bell and many others. 

In December 1994, following an invitation to move to Japan from the government’s NHK orchestra, David lived for nine years, calling Tokyo home. This time cemented his professional position with the world’s concertizing soloists and led to years of extensive bi-weekly travel for his clients throughout Eastern and Western Europe, America and throughout Asia. During this period, David opened his own fine instrument sales operation. He soon received clients from around the world looking to purchase the world’s most sought-after violins, violas and cellos. This diversity of travel — working with clients from around the world — while living in four countries opened David’s understandings of people, places, art and life and has been a fundamental influence on his craft and his encompassing view on life. David speaks about taking a shortcut down a back alley in Budapest and being accosted by someone with a drawn knife. Then, 15 hours later, sitting in the very same Vienna Hofburg Palace where Mozart performed in the 1700’s, listening to one of the most memorable concerts he has yet experienced. Both the extremes and underlying basic humanity of us all has vested David with a grace and appreciation for all our facets as human beings. 

David returned to New York City in 2003 and continued his restoration and violin sales business for both concertizing musicians from across the country and around the world. In 2018, David moved to Florida to form a business partnership with Ronald Sachs in order to pursue Sachs’ business model of multiple stores in a single city. In December 2021 David moved to Houston TX to begin this new phase of his business in conjunction with supporting his current clients of touring soloist and professional musicians.