Composer David Sanford is an accomplished composer whose honors include the Rome Prize and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Radcliffe Institute.
On March 6, 2026, the Grossman Ensemble will premiere a new composition by Sanford. Learn more about Sanford's new piece and experience working with the Grossman Ensemble below.
Tell us about your piece. What can audiences expect to hear?
For some reason, months before the violence that’s going on in St. Paul and other cities right now, I was thinking about a short film called Toys that was shown to us in school when I was roughly 11 or 12 years old, and, in it, children watch these toy army figures come to life and attack each other. I don’t recall any commentary or discussion of it after we’d watched it, but it stayed with me all these years, and of course now you can find it (in a very rough copy) online. Somehow the very different depictions of war and/or how various people – including children – might play at war, such as in Crumb’s Black Angels, Hendrix’s “Machine Gun,” John Zorn’s Cobra, films like Apocalypse Now, or farther removed from that, Rushmore and the police/martial arts film The Raid, inspired a lot of what went into the piece.
How does your experience as a jazz musician inform your compositional process?
I’ve always considered myself a composer first and a jazz musician sometime after that. It is true that jazz is what initially influenced me to want to make music, and it’s probably audible in some elements here and how I think about rhythm. But improvisation, while something I love hearing from others, isn’t something I’ve taken part in myself very often since I was in high school. I see things like writing for big band as being part of the same undertaking as writing for chamber ensembles, or orchestras, and every piece is different. This composition for the Grossman Ensemble might sound more like recognizable jazz in certain parts than some of the big band music I’ve written recently. But I’d probably have to answer that by stating the opposite: my experience as a composer is informed by jazz in my interest in variations, much like improvisors create variations on themes. But that same impulse also tends to negate the act of spontaneous improvisation in that, more often than not, I find that I want to hear elements the same way every time, although I’m open to differing interpretations of those elements.
What jazz elements are present in your new work for the Grossman Ensemble?
There’s a lot of recognizable syncopation. That’s just something I like in music, and, similarly, there’s a lot of forward momentum in the middle part. I have the harp playing a lot of bass lines, which I’ve never tried before on that instrument – mostly because I’ve only written one previous piece that used the harp. Because of its range – and timbre – I have Ben Melsky covering bass lines that might suggest what a jazz bassist might do.
When you heard the Grossman Ensemble perform your work for the first time, were there any moments that surprised you or uncovered a new layer of the piece?
I try to challenge myself with each piece, and with the opportunity to write for an ensemble of this level, there’s kind of a balance where I want to attempt things I’ve not done previously; but in the process I’m also finding that some ideas don’t work, or are counterproductive. With big bands I’ve always been drawn to submerging soloists in sound up to a certain extent, which I haven’t really intentionally done with chamber music before, but with this size of a group and the forces assembled, it’s possible; and it made me think that I need to find a more subtle way to illustrate that conflict so that all the elements are audible – that it’s apparent that there’s something being covered up or upstaged, etc.
How has your piece evolved over the course of the Grossman Ensemble’s workshop process?
I like having the time and resources to ask questions – of the players and the other composers, but also myself – about the best way to present the music, constantly. Usually once I’ve arrived at what I’m ready to notate, the final form is pretty much a fait accompli unless it has major flaws. But with the workshop process I’m still asking questions about balance, orchestration, density, etc., after hearing them played perfectly. The group is extremely helpful in asking their own questions and offering suggestions to arrive at something more desired.
When you're not composing, what do you like to do in your free time?
If I had the time I would ride roller coasters with my kids (who are no longer kids, and rarely have the time either) all day and night, not unlike that great (fictional) Chicagoan Clark Griswold. I also enjoy movies immensely, watching sports (I used to like playing basketball when I was much younger), traveling, reading, art museums, theater, and hearing a wide range of live music.