David Sawtelle

Youth Orchestra Conductor

David is a graduate of West Texas State University with a BME in all level music education and holds a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from Texas State University. Sawtelle has served in a variety of conducting and teaching capacities. He has been the assistant director of the El Paso Youth Symphony and the Pacific Palisades Symphony Orchestra. David has conducted the Pflugerville Youth Orchestra and the Heart of Texas Suzuki Organization Chamber Music Orchestra. He has successfully taught instrumental music in the El Paso, Los Angeles, Georgetown and Austin school districts. Mr. Sawtelle was a prize winner at the Accademia dell’Arte di Firenze Symphony Conductors Competition in Florence, Italy.

David Sawtelle successfully directed the Alpena Symphony Orchestra in Alpena, Michigan and the Little Traverse Choral Society in Petoskey, Michigan. At the Crookedtree Art Center in Petoskey, Michigan Sawtelle taught as a contract string instructor for the Dorothy Gerber String program for the past five years. Currently David Sawtelle performs with the Gulf Coast Symphony and the Naples Orchestra and Chorus as a violinist. David worked with the Gulf Coast Symphony’s MusicWorks program at the Heights Center where he served as the Advanced Violin and Viola Teaching Artist, continuing to teach the art of violin and viola playing to children. He now works in the Heights Center’s MOSAIC string program teaching violin.