David Reaston is an Australian guitarist, composer and academic from Mackay, Queensland. His music—described as “other-worldly” (Jazz Local 32, NZ) and “individual and fresh” (The Music Trust)—reflects a practice that moves fluidly between composition and improvisation. He was awarded his PhD from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney in 2019, where his focus was on exploring issues of identity and authorship that arise when involving performers in the compositional process. Since 2017, he has been based at CQUniversity, where he is a Lecturer in Music and teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

In 2007 he founded the 10 Guitar Project, a Sydney-based ensemble featuring ten electric guitarists, in which critics labelled him a “madman/prophet” (Sydney Morning Herald) and described the music as moving between “metal chaos, lucid telepathy and fluid swing” (Limelight Magazine). In 2010, the group released their self-tilted album 10 Guitar Project. More recently, Reaston has released 10 Guitar Project: Volume 2 (2026) through Made Now Music. As a guitarist and composer, Reaston has contributed to albums including Martin Kay’s Konstellation Vol. 1 (2026), Ensemble Sooon’s Tacet Chronicles (2023), Véronique Serret’s Prima Volta (2022), Armeen Musa’s Being in love with the king of the world: Armeen Musa Live in Sydney (2022), and Song Fwaa’s Sons Of No Guns For We Are Anomalous (2014) and Ligeti’s Goat (2011).