Currently based in Berlin, David Robert Coleman was born into a German-English family in London in 1969. He studied at the Royal College of Music and King’s College, Cambridge, and privately with George Benjamin and Wolfgang Rihm.
He initially worked as an assistant conductor at the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden, then with Pierre Boulez at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and with Kent Nagano at the Bavarian State Opera. He has also assisted Daniel Barenboim at the Berlin State Opera. He has received invitations to guest conduct orchestras such as the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal.
He has been commissioned to write works for Oper Frankfurt and Ensemble intercontemporain as well German regional orchestras. His works have been performed mainly under his direction by the Ensemble Modern, the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, among others. His work for soprano and orchestra Looking for Palestine was premiered by Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra to critical acclaim at the Salzburg Festival 2018.