... about me
I grew up in a musical family, where music was always just an organic part of our everyday life. My parents sang in school and church choirs, and my older sister Sally was a piano performance major in college. I grew up with the sounds of Chopin, Debussy, Bach, Beethoven and others ringing through the house; but the biggest influence on me was my older siblings' membership in the top performance choir at their high school. They walked around the house singing their parts daily, so by the time it was my turn to sing the staples of choral repertoire, I already knew the bass parts! As is sometimes the case, as I aged I became a tenor. Perhaps as I continue to ferment in old age, I will revert to bass.
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All my life, I have been fortunate to sing in many esteemed organizations, such as The St. Olaf Choir of St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN, The Dale Warland Singers, The Minnesota Opera, and other professional freelance venues in both solo and ensemble performance. This lifelong involvement in quality and professional choral performance has nurtured an instinctively vocal compositional style, which helped me earn First Place Winner in the Edwin Fissinger Choral Composition Competition in 2024. I have a Masters Degree in voice performance from the University of Minnesota, which has helped me keep the door open to my life-long passion of performance. I am currently tenor section leader of The Singers: Minnesota Choral Artists, conducted by Dr. Matthew Culloton, and am section leader and Assistant Conductor of Exultate Chamber Choir, conducted by Dr. Thomas Rossin. Both organizations are Minneapolis-area based choirs.
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As a teacher, I directed high school choir for 13 years in Mountain Iron, St. Peter and Hastings High Schools in MN, and served on the voice faculties of St. Olaf College, Bethel College, Northwestern University St. Paul, and North Central University.
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Why the "J?" in my name? Because there is another composer named Steve Sandberg! He is a very successful writer and performer, and for one thing, is the composer and music supervisor of the children's TV show Dora, the Explorer. I'm being very courteous and respectful of him because he has a really nice name!
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I live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in Minnesota with my wife, Sandy, and have two adult children. I love playing Irish music on my tenor banjo, bouzouki, concertina and Celtic harp; my non-musical hobbies include cycling, reading classic literature, history and science fiction/fantasy, bird watching and astronomy.
