David Dichiera was born on 8 April 1935 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. He was married to Karen VanderKloot. He died on 18 September 2018 in Detroit, Michigan, USA.
He studied music at UCLA, and spend a year researching Baroque opera in Italy on a Fulbright fellowship. He composed art songs and compositions for small ensembles, but his most notable work was "Cyrano," a full-length operatic retelling of Rostand's tragic romance.