biografia

Donald Sade

Donald Sade grew up in Mexico, NY, USA, a rural farming community.  During and after high school he trapped muskrats, and worked as a farm hand and lumberjack. Later he attended the New York State Ranger School and  Hamilton College (where he played trumpet in a brass choir), and received a PhD in Physical Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley.  His professional years were spent jointly at Northwestern University and the University of Puerto Rico conducting research on ethology and population biology of non-human primates, and teaching Anthropology, and Jujutsu self-defense. A life-long love of folk music led him through a series of two-dollar guitars until his wife's gift of a playable guitar awakened the desire to perform classical music.  At his retirement she accepted a position at the University of Rochester and encouraged him to pursue musical training at the Eastman Community Music School, where he has studied Classical Guitar, Voice, and Music Theory and Composition since 2001. In addition to a number of folk song arrangements, compositions include Melkor's Salvation (in solo guitar and orchestral versions), Jack and the Beanstalk (for narrator and guitar quartet), Brighid's Prayer (for tenor and consort), and others. A CD, Loggers, Lovers, Fishermen, Others is in preparation and includes a number of original works as well as arrangements of traditional folk songs.