Composer David P. Sartor has been honored with prestigious awards which include the
American Bandmasters Association's Ostwald Prize for Symphonic Wind Ensemble Music,
the National Fine Arts Award, a New Music for Young Ensembles composition prize,
eighteen consecutive ASCAP awards, and a “highly commended” award in England’s Oare
String Orchestra Third Annual International Music for Strings Composition Contest.
The recipient of multiple commissions from a variety of ensembles, his works have
been performed by noted artists such as the Cincinnati, Knoxville and Brevard Symphony
Orchestras, the Minneapolis Vocal Consort, bassist John Deak, soprano Cheryl Studer,
organist Peter Fyfe, the Cathedral Choral Society at the Washington (D.C.) National
Cathedral, and the "President's Own" United States Marine Corps Concert Band in
Washington, D.C. His Metamorphic Fanfare, commissioned and premiered by Kirk Trevor
and the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, has received widespread critical acclaim and,
along with his Concerto for Orchestra and Black Ball Counts Double, is being recorded
by the Kiev Philharmonic with Robert Ian Winstin conducting for release on ERM Media's
prestigious "Masterworks of the New Era" CD series.
Compositions by Sartor have been featured nationally and internationally at the
Tanglewood Music Festival, the Aspen Summer Music Festival, the International Double
Bass Festival, the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, the International
Music Festival in San Jose Costa Rica, The World's Largest Organ Concert, and at Carnegie
Hall, with broadcast performances on National Public Radio and local affiliates. As
Guest Composer, Conductor and Lecturer he has completed residencies at venues that include
the Washington (D.C.) National Cathedral, Illinois State University, and California State
University Bakersfield, sponsored by New York City’s Meet The Composer Foundation.
As a Conductor, Sartor studied with Donald Neuen and has been an active participant in
workshops with Kenneth Schermerhorn, Karen Lynne Deal, and John Morris Russell. He
founded and served as Music Director of two chamber ensembles and conducts his own
works by invitation as well. An enthusiastic proponent and presenter of contemporary
music, he has appeared with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, the Middle Tennessee
Symphony, the Vanderbilt Orchestra, the Knoxville Brass Choir, the Dogwood Arts Festival
Chamber Orchestra, the Trevecca Symphony, and the California State University Bakersfield
Symphonic Band. His commentaries about contemporary music have been featured in various
composer journals and professional publications.
Sartor received his education at the Blair School of Music, the University of Cincinnati
College-Conservatory, and the University of Tennessee, where he studied with John Anthony
Lennon and the late David Van Vactor. He holds full memberships in Phi Kappa Phi, Pi
Kappa Lambda, the American Music Center (artist member), ASCAP, the American Federation
of Musicians, the National Association of Composers USA, the Center for the Promotion of
Contemporary Composers, the American Composers Forum, the World Association for Symphonic
Bands and Ensembles, and the Society of Composers, Inc., and is included in Who’s Who in
American Music, The International Who’s Who in Music and Who's Who in America®. Sartor’s
works are published by E.C. Schirmer, Shawnee Press, TRN Music, J.W. Pepper, and by his
own publishing company, Metamorphic Music. Selected works are also available through
Theodore Front Music Literature Inc., Van Nuys, California.
Sartor resides in Middle Tennessee with his wife, the author Nancy Sartor.