David P. Sartor

Sartor's engagements as guest composer, conductor and lecturer include the Washington National Cathedral, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra, the Nashville Concerto Orchestra, the Nexus Chamber Orchestra, the Vanderbilt University Orchestra, Illinois State University, Middle Tennessee State University, Trevecca Nazarene University, the Knoxville Brass Choir, the University of Tennessee Brass Choir, the Dogwood Arts Festival Chamber Orchestra, and a conducting “mini-residency” at California State University sponsored by New York City’s Meet The Composer Foundation. He was a 2017, 2018 and 2019 national semi-finalist for the American Prize in Orchestral Conducting, and has been inducted as a National Patron of Delta Omicron International Music Fraternity in recognition of his accomplishments as a conductor and composer, alongside notable individuals such as Samuel Barber, William Schuman and Robert Shaw. In addition to his concert music activities Sartor is an alumnus of the Steven Scott Smalley Film Scoring Workshop as well as a recent workshop with Richard Glasser & Aaron Zigman, and has scored more than two dozen video documentaries and features.

Other notable works include Metamorphic Fanfare, commissioned by the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra; Thy Light Is Come for chorus, organ, brass and timpani, commissioned by Christ Episcopal Church in Nashville and showcased at the Washington National Cathedral by the Cathedral Choral Society; Black Ball Counts Double for string orchestra, which received a commendation in England's Oare International Composing Competition; Reveries, for string orchestra, winner of the Burlington (Vermont) Chamber Orchestra's 2009 Composer Competition as well as a finalist in the Fauxharmonic Orchestra's Adagio Composition Contest; and Concerto for Orchestra, a finalist in the Columbia Symphony Orchestra's American Composer Competition. He is a ten-time honoree in the American Prizes, national awards celebrating American excellence in the arts, and was one of only five composers nationwide named as an "Honored Artist of the American Prize” in recognition of "sustained excellence" in the prestigious competitions.

In June 2007, Sartor was awarded the Thor Johnson Memorial Commission by the Delta Omicron Foundation. The Johnson Commission, awarded every three years to a distinguished concert music composer, funds the creation of a new work to be featured at the organization’s Triennial Conference. Sartor's work for string quartet, Passages, was premiered on July 17, 2009, at the 2009 Triennial Conference by the Atlantis String Quartet; the performance also coincided with and celebrated the 100th anniversary of Delta Omicron. Following the premiere, Sartor was inducted as a National Patron of Delta Omicron in recognition of his accomplishments as a composer and conductor.

Sartor was born May 25, 1956, in Nashville. The son of high school principal Grayl Bruce Sartor and elementary school teacher Kathleen Lipscomb Sartor, he began piano studies at age 5 with his grandmother, Sallie Lipscomb, a local piano instructor. In elementary school Sartor continued piano lessons and also began trumpet lessons, performing with his elementary school band.