David Hobson is an Australian opera singer and composer. Born in Ballarat, Australia, Hobson sang with church and school choirs and local music groups as a child, but he was still vocally untrained when he performed as lead singer and bass guitarist with rock bands while studying at the University of Melbourne.

However, despite this lack of formal training, after his voice was heard on a demonstration tape of Macbeth he was invited to join the Victoria State Opera, understudying the role of Frederic in the VSO’s Joseph Papp version of The Pirates of Penzance in 1986.