Bangarra

In the 1980’s David studied saxophone, voice, composition and song at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music (CASM) at Adelaide University. In 1989, he moved to Sydney and teamed up with brothers Russell and Stephen, where he first created music for dance, working with The Aboriginal and Islander Dance Theatre.

David’s career became intricately linked with Bangarra Dance Theatre when he joined the company as resident composer in 1990. He composed scores for Bangarra’s major works: Praying Mantis Dreaming (1992), Ochres (1995), Ninni (1996), Fish (1997), Skin (2000), Corroboree (2001), Bush (2003), Unaipon/Clan (2004) and Boomerang (2005). David performed with Bangarra at WOMAD concerts in Adelaide and Johannesburg in 1999. In 1997 David was invited by his brother Stephen to compose the musical work Alchemy for The Australian Ballet, which marked the beginnings of his collaboration with Stephen Francis. In 2000, they contributed music to the Opening Ceremonies of the Sydney Olympic Games and the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival and, in 2002, The Sydney Dreaming Festival. He contributed to the Indigenous section of the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony. David’s most recent music collaboration for dance is Amalgamate for Bangarra and The Australian Ballet with Elena Kats Chernin. In 2007 David collaborated with Matthew Doyle to create the music for the 75th Harbour Bridge Birthday Smoking Ceremony Celebrations.
David has also contributed music to television, composing for Heartland, Pride (part of the Seven Deadly Sins series) and Poison for the ABC, and writing themes for Songlines, Living Black and Pioneers of Love for SBS. David has collaborated with film directors Pauline Clague, Rima Tamou and Wesley Enoch on short films such as Round Up, Passing Through, Grace and Saturday Night Sunday Morning, all commissioned by the Australian Film Commission (AFC). In 2007 David has composed the music for five of the thirteen Bit of Black Business AFC short film series. He as recently completed the score for short film Jacob, which has been selected for the 2009 Melbourne International Film Festival.

Since 1995, David has won four of the eight Deadly Sound Awards nominations, an ARIA nomination for Heartland in 1996, and was the inaugural winner of the Indigenous Artist Award for The Sidney Myer Foundation in 2000. In 2006 David received the Green Room Award for Best New Australian Play, Page 8.

In 2007 David created the contemporary sounds for X300, Frances Ring’s dance work that was part of Bangarra Dance Theatre’s True Stories double bill. In 2008 David collaborated with brother Stephen to create the unique soundscape for Mathinna (Best Original Score, 2009 Helpmann Awards) performed by Bangarra Dance Theatre.

Also in 2008 David performed in the critically acclaimed world premiere season of Yibiyung, directed by Wesley Enoch for Company B. In 2009 he returned to the Belvoir Street stage alongside Kerry Walker and Max Gillies in The Man from Mukinupin, an Australian classic written by Dorothy Hewitt.