David Chesworth's compositions and sound art installations have been performed and exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas. His work has been featured in major festivals including Ars Electronica, Festival D'Automne de Paris, Edinburgh Festival, BAM's Next Wave Festival in New York, Bang on a Can Marathon, Sydney Biennale and Adelaide Festival.

Together with collaborator Sonia Leber, David Chesworth has created a series of public art and museum installations including 5000 Calls, a permanent 'sonic environment' for the surrounds of the Sydney Olympic Stadium for the 2000 Olympics. Other Leber and Chesworth projects include The Master's Voice a permanent sound installation for Canberra's Civic Walk and Rewards of Silence, a commission for the chapel of the Separate Prison at Port Arthur in Tasmania. They have toured installations to Ljubljana and Cardiff. Leber and Chesworth were the 2007 recipients of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art's Helen Macpherson Smith Commission for which they created the major installation work Almost Always Everywhere Apparent. Their solo exhibition, Space-Shifter, was shown at Conical in Melbourne in 2009.

Chesworth and Leber collaborated with Simeon Nelson on Proximities, the 2006 Commonwealth Games public art commission for William Barak Bridge in Melbourne and Oceanic Endless for Melbourne's Cardinia Council in 2007. Dyad, a Leber/Chesworth/Nelson proposal was shortlisted for the 2012 London Olympic Park bridges commission.

Chesworth's work has tended to investigate relationships between the performers, audience and the 'work' itself. His interest in combining sound and musical elements and exploring wider extra-musical contexts has led to his involvement with performance artworks and contemporary opera. His first opera, Insatiable, was completed in 1986. Since then, he has worked with Melbourne's Chamber Made Opera (Recital, The Two Executioners and Lacuna), and with the Melbourne International Arts Festival (Cosmonaut and Sabat Jesus). His CD, Wicked Voice containing material from these productions is available on ABC Classics. In 2004 Chesworth's Cosmonaut was presented at the Melbourne International Arts Festival, a work originally commissioned by Opera Australia.

Chesworth is the artistic director of the David Chesworth Ensemble. The ensemble has released three acclaimed CDs, Exotica Suite (ARIA nominated for classical release of the year) Badlands and recently Music To See Through. Panopticon from Music To See Through was recently awarded Instrumental Work of the Year at the APRA Classical Music Awards. Three works from the CD were nominated in that year. The ensemble has given numerous performances including the Melbourne Festival and the Sydney Spring Festival of New Music. The ensemble has shared the stage with a range of artists from the Gavin Bryars Ensemble and The Bang On a Can Allstars to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The ensemble has made many international appearances including performances at BAM's Next Wave Festival, the Bang on a Can Marathon in New York, and the Kennedy Centre in Washington. The ensemble recently returned from performances in France and the UK appearing at The Big Chill Festival.

Southgate, scored for the 1991 Southgate opening in Melbourne, received an international Prix Ars Electronica Honorary Mention. Sabat-Jesus was selected to represent Australia in the 1994 Paris International Rostrum of Composers. Insatiable received the 1988 ATOM Award for Most Innovative Film, and The Two Executioners received the inaugural Age Performing Arts Award for the Most Outstanding Fringe Performance. In 1997 he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to pursue studies with opera composers including Robert Ashley and Gavin Bryars. In 2001 he received a Green Room Award for Sound Design in Drama. Chesworth was recently awarded Instrumental Work of the Year at the 2006 APRA/Australian Music Centre Classical Music Awards for Panopticon performed by the David Chesworth Ensemble.

From 1978-1982 Chesworth coordinated the Clifton Hill Community Music Centre in Melbourne, a centre for experimental music, performance, film and video. As a solo performer and with groups like Essendon Airport (1978-83), he performed extensively during this time. He also released several records including 50 Synthesizer Greats and Sonic Investigations of the Trivial with Essendon Airport, both recently reissued on CD.