David Arthur Skinner is a British/Norwegian jazz pianist, living in Oslo, Norway. In addition to a wide variety of freelance work, he runs his own monthly swingjazz night, Café Society Oslo (established 2019) with support from the Norwegian Arts Council. In the course of a 25-year career as a professional musician, Skinner has played concerts in many countries in Europe, as well as six tours in Japan.
He is a specialist in solo piano performance. The music is mainly inspired by jazz styles from the first half of the previous century, mixed with a strong influence from the classical tradition.
Skinner leads the well-known swing band Jazzombies, a favourite of swing dancers in Norway. The band has been a fixture at Norway's biggest swing dance festival Winter Jump since 2013, and Skinner has also organised and performed music for many other dance festivals in Norway and abroad, especially with the group Skinner Swing Five. He was one of the founders and producer of the first two editions of Oslo Swingjazz Festival, 2025/26.
He works at the Norwegian Academy of Music as an Assistant Professor in Applied Piano. He has also held workshops and masterclasses at several other universities in Norway, as well as being a visiting teacher at the National University of Music in Bucharest, Romania, and three times at the State Conservatory in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Skinner also plays Rhodes electric piano, and jazz guitar. He has a Bachelor's degree in contemporary classical composition from The Grieg Academy (Bergen), and a Master's degree in jazz/improvised music from The Norwegian Academy of Music (Oslo).