David started clarinet at age 7 but changed to piano 10 years later. At George Mason University he performed two solo recitals in the Bachelor of Music program, as well as receiving a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. From 1982 to 1992 he studied with GMU Professor Elvin Schmitt, and three of his earlier students, Christine Hagan, Lynn Cruz, and Lee Sumner, and more recently with Natasha Paremski and Eric Himy. He played 12 solo recitals in Fairfax, New York, St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia. He participated in many amateur piano competitions since 1996 and was semifinalist in the WIPAC competition in 2017, finalist in the 2014 Piano Bridges Amateur Piano Competition in St. Petersburg, Russia, and won the Grand Prize in the 2018 Chestnut International Amateur Piano Competition in Kyiv, Ukraine. He also performed in ten New York Piano Society concerts at Merkin Hall, 92Y, and Carnegie Hall. His professional work includes 12 years as electronic designer and 23 years as software engineer on communications applications for the US Armed Forces. He has travelled to Russia, Ukraine, and Crimea many times and is writing a book on the history of Crimea in 1944–54. David has also composed works for solo piano and orchestra.

“When I was performing Chopin’s second scherzo in the Kiev competition, I felt myself becoming distracted. At that point, I remembered some advice that the famous pianist Martha Argerich attributed to her teacher, Friedrich Gulda. He said, ‘Concentrate, or die!’ So I tried to concentrate harder on my performances, and those inspirational words helped me to win the Grand Prize.”