As a performer of new and experimental music, he has played at esteemed venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Royal Festival Hall (London), and the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing). He has appeared at festivals such as the Lincoln Center Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, PuSh Festival, Ecstatic Music Festival, and the Bang on a Can Marathon.

Friend has performed with ensembles like Ensemble Signal, Alarm Will Sound, Orchestra of St. Luke's, and the Bang on a Can All-Stars. He is a founding member of TRANSIT New Music, Hotel Elefant, and Grand Band, NYC's piano sextet super-group. He collaborates extensively with living composers and has worked with Steve Reich, Julia Wolfe, David Lang, Steven Stucky, and Charles Wuorinen, among others. He has recorded for the New Amsterdam, Harmonia Mundi, Albany, Dacapo, Cedille, and Innova labels, and his performances have been broadcast nationally on radio programs such as NPR's Performance Today, WQXR's Hammered!, and WNYC's New Sounds. As a soloist, David Friend is noted for his charismatic performances and his thoughtful programming. By developing compelling solo programming and engaging meaningfully with the audience, he brings a twenty-first century approach to the nineteenth-century concept of the piano recital format.