Sven-David Sandstrom Composition Scholarship
A prolific composer and gifted teacher, Sven-David Sandstrom mentored and inspired numerous young composers and performers at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music for two decades. Sven-David was a Professor of Music (Composition) at the Jacobs School of Music from 1999 to 2008. He returned to Bloomington in 2012 and was a faculty member until 2018. He leaves a legacy of powerfully expressive music and utmost commitment to his students. While teaching at IU, Sven-David Sandstrom served as an exemplary model of the artist-teacher.
Born in 1942 in Motala, Sweden, Sven-David Sandstrom studied art history and musicology at the University of Stockholm from 1963 to 1967. Following this, he studied composition with Ingvar Lidholm at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and did advanced study with Gyorgy Ligeti and Per Nogard. From 1985 to 1995, Sandstrom himself was a professor of composition at the Royal College of Music and was Professor of the College through 1998.
Over the past 50 years, Sven David Sandstrom composted nearly 300 musical works, with pieces in virtually all genres of the Western art music tradition. Never content to rest on his laurels, Sven-David Sandstrom let his music and artistic philosophy evolve over time. His controversial Requiem (1982) was a seminal work. Twelve years later he composed his powerful and frequently performed High Mass. He composed many works for choir, both a cappella and with orchestra. Other significant works from his time at IU include the Magnificent (2005), several motets, a Christmas Oratorio (2005), the passion oratorio, The Word (2004), and his opera, Batseba, premiered in December 2008 at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm.