David Dempster was born and raised in Scotland and lived in England and then landed in the US. He started learning to read music at the age of four, then went on to play the recorder at 7 and then at 9 took up the clarinet.

While living in London as an adult he conducted a choir and orchestra; founded "Mister Dempster's Musick", a group who performed Baroque music ( from the 17th & 18th centuries). As a clarinetist, his main love was chamber music. His favorite composers were Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Mozart.