avid Force was born in Kent where he first studied the organ at Dartford Grammar School with Michael Bell. He read music as an organ scholar at the University of Durham, continuing his organ studies with Dr Russell Missin at Newcastle Cathedral. He subsequently gained a PGCE in music and classics, an MA with distinction in musicology, and a PhD for his research into performance practice in seventeenth-century English consort music.

David taught in a variety of prepatory and senior independent schools in Cumbria, East Sussex and Kent as a Head of Academic Music and Director of Music during a career spanning 34 years. Many of his former pupils pursue careers in the music profession as administrators, educators, vocal and instrumental performers, conductors or composers.

David is now a Visiting Fellow at the Open University where he researches seventeenth-century English music and in particular the role of the organ in domestic instrumental and devotional repertoire. He is an English language editor for several European publishers of musicological books and early music editions, and he has published in a range of journals including those of the British Institute of Organ Studies, the Viola da Gamba Society, and the National Early Music Association. He is the author of the book The Consort Organ and its Role in Seventeenth-Century Ensemble Music (Ashgate Historical Keyboard series, 2025 forthcoming).

David’s practical activities include performing as a freelance keyboard continuo player on organ and harpsichord, and as an organist for liturgical work. He plays a variety of medieval and renaissance string and wind instruments with the period instrument ensemble Faronel, and directs the Mayfield Consort.