David McCaulley

David McCaulley is a pianist and composer with a lifelong love of orchestral film music. He began playing the piano at a young age, and it was there that he discovered his fascination with film scores — encouraged by his piano teacher, he started playing arrangements of his favorite cues, an experience that sparked a lasting passion for composing at the piano.

He soon began creating score reductions and analytical breakdowns of iconic film scores and sharing them on his YouTube channel Film Score Analysis. Over the years he has produced well over 150 of these reductions, absorbing the techniques of the film music masters and gradually integrating them into his own musical language.

David studied composition and piano at the University of North Texas, where he wrote for small and large ensembles, performed new music and played with internationally acclaimed groups such as the North Texas Wind Symphony. He studied piano with world-class pianists and composition with respected composers including Bruce Broughton, Sungji Hong, Jeffrey Hepker and Drew Schnurr.

He has written a wide range of concert music and scored numerous media projects, all anchored by the piano. At Master The Score he teaches The Piano Composer, a course on turning ideas born at the piano into fully developed compositions, created in collaboration with Nikolaus Daim.

David also presents Orchestral Footprints, a course series developed together with Benny Oschmann and Nikolaus Daim that teaches the principles of composition and orchestration through original music. Its first edition, Expedition Nautilus, takes students into the underwater world of Atlantis, from the first piano sketch to the full orchestral score.