David was born and raised on Auckland's North Shore and educated at Westlake Boys High School. After completing a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Auckland, he picked up holiday work preparing secondhand pianos for sale and has worked with pianos ever since.
- Concert and Artist Department London Steinway 2009
- Graduate Steinway Concert Academy Technician programme 1998
- Steinway technician programme 1996
- Eidg. Dip. Klavierbauer, Switzerland 1982
- B Mus. University of Auckland 1978
- Piano Disc technician
- S.V.K.S Switzerland
- A.R.P.T. (Australasian Registered Piano Technician)
In the early 1980s, David moved to Switzerland and qualified as a piano tuner / technician and builder while working for Piano Eckenstein in Basel. He returned to New Zealand in 1985, setting up his own piano tuning and repair business from his Birkenhead home. David has since completed additional training in the USA and Italy and is one of few technicians worldwide to have been invited to the coveted Steinway Concert Technician Academy course in Hamburg, Germany, where he trained under technician extraordinaire Stephan Knüpfer, celebrated in the film Pianomania. In 2009 David spent time gaining additional training with Ulrich Gerhartz in the Concert and Artist department at Steinway London.
In 1996, after training two apprentices, David moved Jenkin Piano Service to larger premises. The spacious Sunnybrae Road workshop from which the company now operates also has a showroom and a cabinet refinishing area meaning all restoration work can be carried out under one roof.
David is very active in the New Zealand Piano Tuners' and Technicians' Guild and the Australasian Piano Tuners' and Technicians' Association. He continues to make regular contributions to their workshops. He has given presentations for the Victorian Guild, and the Australasian Association at its Auckland, Sydney 2000 and 2013, Perth 2002 and 2015, Adelaide and Gold Coast conventions, and at the 2009 IAPBT convention in Brisbane.
After a lifetime in pianos, and the pressures, joys and and challenges working with a team of technicians David is enjoying working by himself, tuning, taking on one rebuilding project at a time and assisting with training.
When he is not working David enjoys travel, wood turning, building furniture, a glass of wine, gardening, reading, particularly history and biographies, tramping with his sons - especially if it's challenging - live music and theatre.