Born in Melbourne on the 6th January, 1960, David Horowicz began studying the piano and composing at the age of eleven. He enrolled at the University of Melbourne in 1978, where he studied composition with Barry Conyngham, Brian Howard, Peter Tahourdin and David Worrall, and piano with Ronald Farren-Price and Alexander Semetsky. He graduated with his Bachelor of Music degree in 1981.
Horowicz received a Commonwealth Postgraduate Research Award in 1983, and embarked upon an M.Mus. in composition, also from the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1993. During his years of study Horowicz was a frequent performer, not only for the performance component of his undergraduate degree, but also several times as a pianist in his own compositions (such as hisConcerto for piano and orchestra, which he performed with the faculty orchestra in 1981), and as a bassoonist (1978) and violinist (1979-81) in the faculty orchestra, which included tours with the Victoria State Opera as well as concerts at the University.
He received his Graduate Diploma in Education from the University of Melbourne in 1995.
Horowicz has received numerous commissions from such performers, ensembles and organisations as Daryl Buckley, Merlyn Quaife, Elision Ensemble, the Australian Musicians Guild, and the Dorian Le Gallienne Society. He attended the National Young Composers School in Hobart in 1986 as a participant, and was selected to be an invited observer at the 1994 National Orchestral Composers' School, also held in Hobart.
Horowicz taught at the University of Melbourne between 1987 and 1989, at La Trobe University between 1990 and 1994, and at MLC Melbourne in 1995. He has been a member of the Ariel and New Audience Ensembles.