David Kellner (~1670–1748) is a German-born composer, organist, poet and music theorist who also has many connections to Estonia. Kellner studied at the University of Tartu from 1694 and married Dorothea Schwartz, daughter of mayor Matthias Ladau in Tartu. According to the information so far, in 1696 Kellner applied for the position of organist in the Swedish Church in Tartu, and later he worked for a short time as the organist of St. Nicholas’ Church in Tallinn. David Kellner’s music theory treatise “Treulicher Unterricht im General-Baß” (1732) was particularly successful in its time, and was printed in Swedish, German, Dutch and Russian, and numerous reprints have survived. Kellner spent the last decades of his life  in Stockolm working as an organist, carillionist and teacher.

Of David Kellner’s music, only a tablature collection of lute pieces “XVI Ausersene Lauten-Stücke” (1747) has survived. According to Robert Eitner, the collection was also published in 1747 as a keyboard version, which has not been preserved according to the available data.