David Kenedy was born in Belfast in 1956, of Hungarian parents. He studied the 'cello with William Pleeth from the age of 11, becoming his youngest pupil, before gaining Masters degrees from Cambridge (Languages and Literature) and Yale (Music), where he was a pupil of Aldo Parisot and winner of major prizes. He later went on to study with Boris Pergamenshikov.

David Kenedy has a career giving recitals and broadcasts in Europe and the USA, and his recordings of piano trios by Schubert and Dvorák with the London Mozart Trio, of which he was a founder member, were selected as "overall first choice" in BBC Radio 3's "Record Review". He has twice had the honour of being invited to play in Jacqueline du Pré Memorial Concerts, at Lambeth Palace and in the Wigmore Hall, and performed with the English String Quartet in the London Festival of Chamber Music. He is a member of the London Piano Quartet, with whom he is currently engaged in producing a series of CDs of previously un-recorded British music.

Since 1990, David Kenedy has been Professor of 'cello and Chamber Music at Trinity College of Music, London. He teaches and performs regularly at the Dartington International Summer School, and holds annual performance platforms at the Wigmore Hall. His classes have been broadcast on the BBC World Service. David Kenedy gave a series of masterclasses at the International Summer School of the Köln Hochschule in Montepulciano (Italy) in 2006, and has been invited to hold masterclasses at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv.

His 'cello was made by Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi in Milan in 1758.