David William Sanford (born 1963 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

who is also a jazz bandleader.

Biography

Sanford was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1963, into a musical family. His parents and one of his grandfathers were choir leaders, his other grandfather was a jazz trumpeter, and his great-grandmother Mozie Bass had composed songs, and music for church pageants; he also has a brother who is a music teacher and singer in Colorado, where the family moved. The young David Sanford acquired an enthusiasm for big band music early on, playing trombone from around the age of ten. He went on to major in music at the University of Northern Colorado, and earned master's degrees in theory and composition at the New England Conservatory of Music. In 1991, supported partly by a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

and partly by a job in the financial services industry, he undertook doctoral studies at Princeton, where he completed his dissertation on Miles Davis in 1998. That same year he joined the faculty at

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...

, where he teaches theory, composition, and various history courses, including one on music of the 1970s. In 2002, the Rome Prize took Sanford to Italy for a year, and he formed the Pittsburgh Collective on his return, inviting players from a classical background as well as jazz musicians. The group's debut album (Oxingale OX2010) was recorded live at the

Knitting Factory The Knitting Factory is a nightclub in New York City that features eclectic music and entertainment. After opening in 1987, various other locations were opened in the United States. The Knitting Factory gave its audience poetry readings, perform ...

in 2005, with Matt Haimovitz as a cello soloist. Works by Sanford have been performed by the Chamber Society of Lincoln Center, the

San Francisco Contemporary Music Players The San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (SFCMP) is a performing arts organization and unionized chamber orchestra that commissions, performs, and records innovative new music from across cultures and stylistic traditions. SFCMP incorporated in ...

, Chicago Symphony Chamber Players, Detroit Symphony, Corvini e lodice Roma Jazz Ensemble,

Meridian Arts Ensemble The Meridian Arts Ensemble is an American chamber music ensemble based in New York City, specializing in the performance of new works for brass and percussion. History The Meridian Arts Ensemble was founded in 1987. The original members of the gr ...

, and

Speculum Musicae Speculum Musicae is an American chamber ensemble dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music. It was founded in New York City in 1971 and is particularly noted for its performances of the music of Elliott Carter and Charles Wuo ...

. His most recent works are published by Oxingale Music.

References

External links

Mount Holyoke Music Department Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanford, David 1963 births Living people American jazz bandleaders American jazz composers American male jazz composers 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers Musicians from Pittsburgh Progressive big band bandleaders Radcliffe fellows 21st-century American composers American male classical composers American classical composers 20th-century American composers Mount Holyoke College faculty Jazz musicians from Pennsylvania Classical musicians from Pennsylvania 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians 20th-century jazz composers 21st-century jazz composers 20th-century African-American musicians 21st-century African-American musicians