ABOUT STEVE
There is a rising meteor in the musical firmament, a man of the sort of talent we can only associate with greatness. His name is Steve Sandberg. I, personally, become awestruck when listening to Steve Sandberg. His keyboard artistry and creative gifts are treasures awaiting the world’s recognition.
-Seymour Bernstein
Steve Sandberg is an Emmy-nominated composer, pianist, and teaching artist. He has given classical recitals, toured internationally with well-known Latin, jazz, and rock artists, and written extensively for TV and other media.
Steve specializes in creative piano (including composition, theory, and improvisation) lessons for children and adults. He shares his passion for and broad knowledge of music in a gentle and approachable way, and tailors his teaching to the individual needs of each student.
He began classical piano studies at age four and is currently a student of the legendary classical performer and teacher, Seymour Bernstein. He won a BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.) Student Composer Award before attending Yale University, where he majored in music. His studies with noted African art theorist Robert Farris Thompson inspired him to explore the world of Afro-Caribbean music. After graduating from Yale, he returned to New York City where he played with, and arranged and composed for, some of the great salsa artists of the 1970s and 1980s, including Mario Rivera, Celia Cruz, Ruben Blades, and Tito Puente. In Rio de Janeiro and São Paolo, he opened for the legendary João Gilberto in a duo with vocalist Bebel Gilberto. He also toured with David Byrne of Talking Heads, as keyboardist and vocalist.
Steve has conducted and arranged on Broadway and for many regional and Off-Broadway theaters, including the New York Shakespeare Festival.
More recently, he was nominated for three Emmy Awards for his work as musical director and composer for Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go!
Steve has performed completely improvised concerts at The Knitting Factory, Guggenheim Museum, Le Petit Versailles, and The Stone. These concerts were heavily influenced by his studies of North Indian raga singing with Ustad Mashkoor Ali Khan.
Steve’s latest project is the classical world music group The Steve Sandberg Quartet. Quartet concerts begin with performances from the solo piano repertoire (including original compositions), and continue with soaring improvisations on originals that draw from European, African, Latin, Balkan, and Indian traditions. One listener described the experience as listening to “music from a country I’ve never been to but always wanted to visit.”
The group made its debut in June, 2016, with a sold-out show at the DiMenna Center in New York City, recorded its first CD on artistShare records, and has appeared at Birdland, Kitano Jazz, Side Door Jazz Club, the Deerhead Inn, Allentown Symphony Jazz Cabaret, and other prominent venues.
“... a breathtaking composite of world music, jazz, and classical expressions. In other words, it’s Sandberg’s whole musical existence merging into a single stream. In these eight tracks, he delivers unto us an exultant music that’s incredibly personal and precise in its direction, yet universal in its language and ability to connect.”
— Dan Bilawsky, All About Jazz
For more information about Steve, please visit the links below:
CONTACT STEVE
To schedule a lesson or free consultation with Steve, please call (646) 717-4620 or use the convenient contact form below.