Composer David P. Sartor (rhymes with “Carter”) has been honored with prestigious awards that 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, twenty-one consecutive ASCAP awards, and a “highly commended” award in England’s Oare String Orchestra's Third Annual International Music for Strings Composition Contest.  He was a finalist in both the Columbia Symphony Orchestra’s American Composer Competition and the Fauxharmonic Orchestra's Adagio Composition Contest and, most recently, won the Burlington (VT) Chamber Orchestra’s 2009 Composer Competition with his Reveries for String Orchestra.

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 composer of concert music, funds the creation of a new composition to be featured at the international organization’s Triennial Conference.   Sartor's new work for string quartet, Passages, was premiered on July 17, 2009 by the Atlantis String Quartet at the Triennial Conference in Cincinnati, which also coincided with 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.

The recipient of commissions from a variety of ensembles, Sartor’s music has been performed by noted artists such as the Cincinnati, Knoxville, Brevard, Kiev and Czech Symphony Orchestras, the Burlington Chamber Orchestra, the Mission Chamber Orchestra, the Cathedral Choral Society at the Washington (D.C.) National Cathedral, the Minneapolis Vocal Consort, the Chestnut Brass, bassist John Deak, soprano Cheryl Studer, organist Peter Fyfe, the Indiana Wind Symphony, 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, has been recorded by the Kiev Philharmonic with Robert Ian Winstin conducting for release on ERM Media's "Masterworks of the New Era" CD series. In addition to his concert music activities, Sartor is an alumnus of the acclaimed Steven Scott Smalley Film Scoring Workshop and, to date, he has scored more than two dozen video documentaries and features.

Compositions by Sartor have been featured nationally and internationally at the Tanglewood, Aspen and Sewanee Music Festivals, 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, his appearances include 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 David Van Vactor.   He holds full memberships in Phi Kappa Phi, Pi Kappa Lambda, the American Music Center, 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, 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.