When the River City Brass Band opens its 2008-2009 season, the Sept. 11 performance will feature something old and something new—the world premiere of “Monongahela 1971,” a composition commissioned to commemorate Pittsburgh’s 250th birthday. Besides being a world premiere, “Monongahela 1971,” was written by a native Pittsburgher whose great-uncle was the first African-American to serve in the Grant Street City Council chambers.

DAVID STANFORD

David Sanford was born in 1963 in Pittsburgh, Pa., and although he moved to Colorado when he was 11, he bleeds Black and Gold.

“I was in Pittsburgh so I could watch the games in a Steelers bar,” he says proudly. He grew up in Wilkinsburg and attended Turner School on Laketon. The music in his DNA comes from his grandfather, William A. Jones, who conducted the choir at Ebenezer Baptist Church, his mother, Nancy Thomann (nee Jones), the director and organist at Grace Presbyterian Church, and his father, Joseph A. Sanford, a singer who also earned several  degrees and worked for many years at the University of Pittsburgh.

The genetic strain led him to receive degrees in music theory and composition from the University of Northern Colorado, New England Conservatory, and Princeton University. His honors include the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and commissions from Chamber Music America, the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, and the Koussevitzky Foundation, for performers such as Speculum Musicae, the Meridian Arts Ensemble, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and cellist Matt Haimovitz.  

In addition, his works have been performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Chamber Players, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and the Chamber Society of Lincoln Center, and recorded on CRI, Channel Classics, and Oxingale Records.  

He is the leader of the Pittsburgh Collective, a big band that has performed at the IAJE Conference in New York with Pittsburgh’s own Nelson Harrison, and at Miller Theatre in New York where he was the subject of a Composer Portraits concert. He currently lives with his wife, architect Mary Yun, and their two children in Northampton, Mass., where he is associate professor of music at Mt. Holyoke College.

“Monongahela 1971” is a musical convergence that pays tribute to Pittsburgh’s history and his childhood memories that include Kennywood, the Pirates and Roberto Clemente.

Also appearing on the program is tap dance virtuoso Shelley Oliver and, of course, the River City Brass Band.

(RCBB’s season opener, “Shall We Dance?” will be presented Sept. 11 at Byham Theater, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available by calling RCBB at 412-434-7222, 800-292-7222 or 412-456-6666.)