Composer Sven-David Sandström was often inspired by Baroque works, but his language was modern and eclectic. He was also an educator who taught in the U.S. as well as his native Sweden. Sandström was born on October 30, 1942, in Motala, Sweden. He studied composition at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and also took degrees in musicology and art history at Stockholm University. He taught for many years at the Royal College of Music and was also on the faculty at the University of Indiana for 15 years, organizing performances of some of his music there. Sandström soon found performance opportunities for his work as one of his orchestral pieces was performed by the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, and Pierre Boulez conducted his large chamber work Utmost (1975). During the first part of his career, Sandström was identified with modernist styles, but around 1980, he turned to more emotionally direct idioms. His style was eclectic, incorporating elements of modernism, minimalism, jazz, pop (his opera Jeppe quotes Janis Joplin's Lord, Won't You Buy Me a Mercedes-Benz), and even Tejano music. Sandström was the composer of more than 300 works. These included operas (Jeppe was performed in both Swedish and English), choral music, chamber music, and ballets, as well as several scores for Swedish films. Leading conductors who have programmed Sandström's works include Helmuth Rilling and Herber Blomstedt, in addition to Boulez. Many of Sandström's works are modeled closely on Baroque pieces but retain his own musical language; the High Mass of 1994 follows the structure of Bach's Mass in B minor, BWV 232, but has a modern idiom. Messiah (2009), based on Handel, was commissioned by the Oregon Bach Festival and was also performed at the Rheingau Musikfest in Germany. Sandström died in Stockholm of lung cancer on June 10, 2019. By the mid-2020s, more than 50 of his works had been recorded; his choral Songs of Love (2008), which have been recorded several times, appeared on the 2023 album Credo by the State Choir Latvija. ~ James Manheim, Rovi