David Ward-Steinman

David Ward-Steinman (November 6, 1936 – April 14, 2015) was an American contemporary classical composer, educator, and pianist who served for many years as a professor and composer-in-residence at San Diego State University and played an influential role in U.S. musical life for more than five decades. Born in Alexandria, Louisiana, he pursued formal studies in composition and music theory at Florida State University and the University of Illinois, where he earned his doctorate, and later continued his research as a fellow at Princeton University.

During his training, he worked with major twentieth-century figures such as Darius Milhaud, Milton Babbitt, and Nadia Boulanger, whose diverse musical approaches strongly shaped his artistic outlook. Beginning in 1961, he taught at San Diego State University, where he led the Comprehensive Musicianship Program and directed contemporary music ensembles, and was later named Distinguished Professor Emeritus. He also served as an associate professor at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, teaching courses on music, world cultures, and interdisciplinary studies.

His works were commissioned and performed by leading ensembles including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and the City of London Sinfonia, and were released on several commercial recordings. In addition to composing orchestral, chamber, and solo works, he contributed to music scholarship through books such as Toward a Comparative Structural Theory of the Arts and as co-author of Comparative Anthology of Musical Forms, and received honors including a Ford Foundation Composer-in-Residence appointment and a Fulbright Senior Scholar award. He passed away on April 14, 2015, in Bloomington, Indiana.

Program Note
Concert Overture (1957)

Composed when he was 21 years old, the Concert Overture is a masterful early work that earned immediate international recognition, including the BMI Student Composer Award and the Sagalyn Prize at Tanglewood’s Berkshire Music Center. The piece received its world premiere on May 6, 1958, at the University of Illinois in Urbana, performed by the University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra under his own direction. Characterized by its driving rhythmic vitality, modern harmonic palette, and brilliant orchestration, the overture skillfully balances neo-classical structural clarity with a fresh, energetic musical language, serving as a definitive milestone that launched a distinguished career in American contemporary music.