David Sasso received his Bachelor of Music in Music Composition at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Prior to college, David was a founding member of the Indianapolis Children’s Choir and studied at the Interlochen Arts Camp. At age 16, he was the youngest composer to have a work premiered by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. At age 21, he was the inaugural winner of the Marilyn K. Glick Young Composer’s Showcase and had a second piece performed by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, this time under the baton of the late Maestro Raymond Leppard. In 2003, the Indianapolis Children's Choir, under the direction of Maestro Henry Leck, premiered David’s opera The Trio of Minuet, with libretto by Paul Goyette. A monumental production with a total cast and chorus of nearly 200 children and young adults, with costumes designed in Russia by Galina Solovyeva and sets by Peter Dean Beck, the opera was broadcast on PBS stations nationwide. David’s published children's choir music is performed around the country, and his piece “Night,” set to the William Blake poem, is a perennial favorite at choral festivals.

In recent years, David has become active in several folk and traditional genres as a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist focusing on mandolin-family instruments. He is active in the bluegrass and traditional Irish music scene in New England and performs with Connecticut based bluegrass band, Five ‘n Change. His folk/Americana duo, Kat Wallace and David Sasso, has yielded two critically acclaimed albums. Stuff of Stars, produced by Grammy-winning multi-genre cellist, Mike Block, is a spare fiddle and mandolin duo album, described as “New smokin’ good original music for violin and mandolin” by mandolincafe.com. Old Habits expanded the duo’s sound to a full band and received critical acclaim at home and abroad. David has participated twice in Mike Marshall and Caterina Lichtenberg’s Mandolin World Retreat in Benicia, CA, where he performed an original fiddle tune with Mike and his trio transcription of Gabriel Fauré’s “Pavane” for two mandolins and mandocello with Mike and Caterina. In 2019, David was invited back to his home state of Indiana to perform two commissioned songs based on the writing of Kurt Vonnegut for the grand re-opening of the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library in Indianapolis. In 2022, David returned with Kat to premiere the music video of David’s composition, “Childhood Song,” at the Museum’s Literary Landmark designation celebration.

In 2023, David recorded selections from his bluegrass setting of the traditional Friday night Shabbat liturgy with members of Boston-based Jewish bluegrass group, Jacob’s Ladder. Sasson v’Simcha - Joy and Delight was dedicated to David’s parents, Rabbis Dennis and Sandy Sasso, and premiered in May 2023 at the retirement celebration of Rabbi Dennis Sasso at Congregation Beth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis.

David has composed a number of works on Jewish themes. Beyond chamber works from his college years, David has recently composed a choral setting of modern poetry on biblical themes and two settings for soprano and piano of Yiddish poems, including his own Yiddish translation of Wordsworth’s “Daffodils.” In 2023, David traveled to the island of St. Thomas to participate in a collaboration with local musician and fellow Interlochen Arts Camp alum Gylchris Sprauve, celebrating the many musical heritages of the US Virgin Islands, including David’s own personal ancestry in St. Thomas and his heritage of Sephardic Jewish music. 

In 2024, David’s song cycle, “Zakhor: A Requiem for October 7” was premiered by members of The Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv. This piece includes settings of biblical and liturgical selections and poetry from across the centuries to provide a musical response to the tragedy of October 7 and its ongoing aftermath. The premiere, available to watch online, received critical acclaim in The Times of Israel. Several future US performances are currently being planned.

While at Indiana University, David also completed a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry. After college, he went on to medical school and received his MD and Masters in Public Health (MPH) degrees from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in 2004. He completed residency and fellowship at the Yale University School of Medicine and now works as a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist. He serves as Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and in the Child Study Center at the Yale University School of Medicine and maintains a private practice in psychiatry and psychotherapy. He has engaged in several projects at the intersection of music and psychiatry and is the founding chair of the Committee on the Arts and Humanities, in the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry.