Steve Holmberg 鈥�89 creates endowed chair in Music Department
By Sam Bishop
Steve Holmberg cheers for UAF basketball teams at Concordia University in Portland, Oregon, in February 2020.
Two minutes into an interview, Steve Holmberg was singing.
鈥淵ou鈥檝e gotta have heart!鈥� he crooned across the phone from his home in Washington state.
The line comes from the musical 鈥淒amn Yankees,鈥� which UAF鈥檚 Summer Fine Arts Camp staged when Holmberg participated as a high school student in the 1970s.
Holmberg鈥檚 heart and his penchant for song have drawn him back to UAF. Now retired from a teaching career, he has created a fund to support an endowed chair for a faculty member focused on voice and choir at the Department of Music.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want the programs 鈥� the things that I had an opportunity to do 鈥� to not be available,鈥� Holmberg explained.
Those opportunities led him first to UAF and then into 25 years as an elementary school music teacher in Bellevue, Washington.
Holmberg鈥檚 ability to fund an endowed chair came from making good investment choices with his wife, Cynthia, who worked at Microsoft during those same years.
That investing did quite well, and they both retired in 2015. She died of metastatic breast cancer earlier this year.
Even before her death, they had begun giving back to their alma maters. But two of the schools, both small private institutions, had been forced to close for financial reasons.
Steve Holmberg signs an agreement with the UA Foundation on Sept. 23, 2021, in Camas, Washington. The agreement outlines how he will fund the Steve and Cynthia Holmberg Chorale Director Endowment during the coming decade.
That left UAF as the sole focus of the Holmbergs鈥� educational philanthropy. A recently signed agreement with the UA Foundation has created the Steve and Cynthia Holmberg Choral Director Endowment, which will be funded during the coming decade. Such endowments typically require a minimum of $2.5 million to support a faculty member.
Building a career
After high school, Holmberg spent two years at UAF as a music theater major before moving to Seattle to attend and then work for the Lutheran Bible Institute. That鈥檚 where he met Cynthia.
Returning to Fairbanks in 1984, Holmberg went to work at a day care and for Grayline as a summer tour bus driver. He attended classes at UAF and earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in music education in December 1988.
Cynthia, a business administrator by training, moved to Fairbanks in 1985. She worked at a computer store, Microage, and then at the Fairbanks North Star Borough as comptroller.
Just as Holmberg graduated with his education degree, cuts in state education funding made entry-level teaching jobs hard to find in Fairbanks. So the couple moved back to the Seattle area.
Cynthia soon found a place at Microsoft, thanks to a connection from her computer work in Fairbanks.
She ended up managing the help desk technical writing of the beta version of Windows 95.
When Microsoft began selling the software, it based the user manual on what she had compiled. More than 40 million copies were sold in the first year, back when desktop computers were far less common than today.
Steve and Cynthia Holmberg hug in their Fairbanks apartment in 1989.
鈥淪o my wife was one of the most published writers in world history!鈥� Holmberg said.
She went on to work as a management trainer in the IT department 鈥� 鈥渢raining computer geeks how to manage people,鈥� Holmberg said.
Holmberg, meanwhile, based himself at Clyde Hill Elementary School while teaching music in 11 other schools as well.
鈥淚 was the guy down on the floor with the kindergartners going 鈥榠tsy-bitsy spider,鈥欌€� he said. 鈥淵our job is to expose kids to the breadth of what is out there musically in the world and hope that some of it sticks.鈥�
Three students have gone on to become professional opera singers. Another charted on iTunes for several years. Several direct music at schools and churches.
鈥淵ou know you鈥檙e making an impact with kids when they swing by the school just to say hi,鈥� even after they are in high school or beyond, he said.
Holmberg said he wouldn鈥檛 always recognize them, given that often more than a decade had passed since they鈥檇 last met.
鈥淚鈥檓 going 鈥楬i?鈥� Maybe if you shaved I might have a clue,鈥� he joked.
A foundational experience
Holmberg spent every summer at the UAF Summer Fine Arts Camp when he was in high school. It was a monthlong program of music, theater and art, much of it organized and taught by faculty from the respective UAF departments. In 1978, as a first-year student, he was a member of the Choir of the North when it toured Europe.
Charles Davis, UAF music professor and Choir of the North director, stands with the 1978 ensemble, which toured Europe. Steve Holmberg is second from the right in the lower row of men.
鈥淯AF was foundational in who I became as a music professional and in a lot of ways in who I became as a person,鈥� he said.
Once in his teaching career, he found UAF had prepared him well.
鈥淚n many ways, I had a broader-based education than a lot of the other music education teachers I worked with. They went through a much more linear program,鈥� he said. But at UAF, 鈥測ou could have your fingers in a lot of different pots.鈥�
In recent years, Holmberg began to worry about whether today鈥檚 students would benefit as he had.
鈥淚 started hearing about budget cutting and the financial straits the U was in,鈥� he said.
Given his comfortable financial situation, he decided he could do something about it. He wants the endowed chair to help sustain summer youth music programs.
鈥淭he programs that were most impactful for me were those summer-month programs in my high school days,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 how you build the programs in Fairbanks. It鈥檚 why the Music Department has always had a good base of population 鈥� it鈥檚 because they had those summer programs where kids went, 鈥極h, I can go here.鈥欌€�
The UAF Summer Music Academy, today鈥檚 version of the program Holmberg attended, is directed by Jaunelle Celaire, the department鈥檚 chair and professor of voice.
Steve Holmberg poses for the Fairbanks Lutheran Church's member directory in 1988.
Celaire has known Holmberg鈥檚 parents for years, Al and Nancy, because she sometimes helps bring singers to the Fairbanks Lutheran Church, where they attend.
But she first met Steve Holmberg in 2019. He mentioned then that he would like to donate to the department. COVID-19 shut down everything soon afterward. Celaire didn鈥檛 think much about it again until she was invited to a meeting with Holmberg on campus in July 2021.
鈥淚 get to see Steve, sweet, it鈥檚 been two years, great, you know,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t never clicked until he said, 鈥榊eah, I鈥檇 like to endow a chair.鈥欌€�
鈥淎nd then he started talking about his wife, and the tears came,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 sobbing like a newborn baby.鈥�
Before the meeting, Celaire had been in the midst of directing an opera class on campus for the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival. She told the class she鈥檇 be right back, never expecting what was coming.
鈥淎nd I come back, and my eyes are puffed out to here,鈥� she said.
A community celebration
Holmberg will return to Fairbanks to attend a special Choir of the North recital on April 10, 2022, at 4 p.m. in the Davis Concert Hall. Planning for the event, a thank-you to UAF music scholarship donors, has unexpectedly illustrated to those involved just how close the human community can be.
Celaire said the recital was originally scheduled for April 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic canceled it.
Sparked by Holmberg鈥檚 donation, the department revived the idea this year. Celaire asked Emerson Eads, a UAF alumnus and faculty member at Minot State University, to write a piece to celebrate the gift. Holmberg sang with Eads鈥� parents in Fairbanks decades ago, and Holmberg鈥檚 cousin鈥檚 husband is a former Minot president.
Eads agreed to write the music. 鈥淗e said, 鈥楬ere鈥檚 the deal, Jaunelle 鈥� I can write music until the cows come home, but I need text,鈥� Celaire said. 鈥淚 went, 鈥極h right, there鈥檚 that.鈥欌€�
So, at Eads鈥� suggestion, Celaire asked Holmberg to name some poets that he appreciates. Among the poets Holmberg offered was a woman whose work was excerpted on a card he received after his wife died. He sent the excerpt to Celaire, who passed it to Eads.
鈥淗e said 鈥業 know just what I鈥檇 do with that,鈥欌€� Holmberg said. 鈥淟ess than two weeks later he鈥檚 got a piece of music written.鈥�
Holmberg, in thanking the poet for allowing the use of her work, mentioned that he now attends Messiah Lutheran Church in Vancouver, Washington.
鈥淪he responds back, 鈥極h, if you鈥檙e at Messiah, then your new pastoral intern (the woman training to be pastor) has been the nanny for my kids for the last two years,鈥欌€� Holmberg said.
Then, while talking to a neighbor who directs music for an Episcopal church in Vancouver, he mentioned the upcoming performance by the Choir of the North.
鈥淪he says, 鈥極h that鈥檚 Jaunelle鈥檚 choir. We were doctoral students back in Michigan together,鈥欌€� he said.
鈥淚鈥檓 just going 鈥楬ow small does this world get?鈥欌€� he said.
That small world seems to be giving Holmberg a big hug 鈥� a much-needed and well-deserved one.
鈥淲e grieve and we mourn and we miss and we鈥檙e sad,鈥� Celaire said. 鈥淗owever, we get to take this situation and this tragedy and just, like, be happy and celebrate. It truly is a celebration. I couldn鈥檛 be happier because of the number of people who are going to be brought together.鈥�