David Coit

Lieutenant Commander David Coit, psc, RAN
Officer-in-Charge – Royal Australian Navy Band Sydney

David was born in Brisbane and attended Brisbane State High School followed by acceptance to study Jazz Performance at the Queensland Conservatorium on trumpet under John Hoffman. He continued study completing separate post graduate degrees in Secondary Education, Music Studies (Conducting) under Ralph Hultgren and is a graduate of the Australian Command and Staff course.

David joined the Royal Australian Navy Band Queensland in 1998, in addition to performing professionally in the Queensland music scene as a jazz, big bandand corporate musician including touring with the Australian Frank Sinatra tribute show which incorporated a period as the musical director. As an educator, David worked for Education Queensland and later as the Head of Music Performance at Sheldon College winning several national and international awards for his ensembles. David was also the Musical Director of the Queensland Youth Orchestra Big Band, a session lecturer in conducting at QUT and Elmhurst College (Chicago), a board member of the Australian Band and Orchestra Directors Association (QLD), and conducted the 2000-piece orchestra at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

As a professional trumpet player, David has worked with many of Australia’s top jazz and pop artists including Delta Goodrum, Jackie Love, Paulini, James and John Morrison, Little Pattie, Megan Washington, Don Burrows, Katie Noonan, The Veronicas and international artists such as Chuck Gerard (Beach Boys), Ziggy Marley and band, Tito Puente Jnr, Mitch Frohman (NY) and Maelo Ruiz. He has performed for their Royal Highnesses, the late Queen Elizabeth II, then Prince Charles and Camilla, Princess Anne, Prince Harry, the Prince and Princess of Denmark along with many other world leaders.
Commissioned as a Band Officer in 2013, David has led Royal Australian Navy Bands Sydney and Melbourne and served as Assistant Director of Music for Navy, and has held out-of-category roles at HMAS Penguin and Fleet Headquarters. His operational deployments include ANODE (twice), RESOLUTE, ACCORDIAN, OKRA(A), COVID Assist, FLOOD Assist, Exercise RIMPAC, and led two trips to Malaysia.

David is proud to continue to serve as the current Officer-in-Charge and Musical Director of the Royal Australian Navy Band Sydney.