Albany High Alum Sings To Help Local Music Efforts

As a student at Albany High School, Jonathan Sandberg starred in the musical "Oklahoma!" along with two choral groups, though he sometimes struggled to control his then adolescent voice.

Now, the 22-year-old is a professional singer with a smooth baritone voice trained in opera performance. Sandberg, a recent music graduate of the University of California at Irvine, will share with the community his repertoire, of arias, art-songs and Baroque madrigals, Friday night at a benefit for the Albany Music Fund. It's a way, he said, to thank the schools that taught him the essentials.

"Albany music programs have helped me become a musician," Sandberg wrote in a letter to the community he sent to the Albany Music Fund before the first benefit alumni concert he organized a year ago. As a fourth grader at Cornell Elementary School he began playing the flute. He proceeded to experiment with saxophone in the middle school jazz bands, then focused on singing at Albany High. While At UC Irvine he has performed in operas, a cappella groups, and in master classes with world renowned singers.  

"I would not have been prepared for this rigorous training without the foundation of excellence that the Albany music program provided," he wrote in his letter. Two of his musical colleagues, mezzo-soprano Connie Li and pianist Christopher Smith, will perform Friday night as well.

Sandberg began organizing alumni concerts last year when the state slashed education funding and it looked, for a while, like Albany's music program would have to be scaled back. The Albany Music Fund began aggressive fundraising, which his concert was part of, and eventually the music program was saved. In August, the Music Fund committed $67,500 to the school district so students at every Albany school could receive music instruction.

"With the current state budget cuts, all the opportunities that were available to me during my high school experience are in jeopardy. I would really like younger students to continue to have the chances I had, so I wanted to do something to help," he said.

The benefit concert will be held 7:30 p.m. on Friday, July 3, at the United Albany Methodist Church at the corner of Stannage and Marin avenues. Tickets are available for $12 at the door and in advance through Brown Paper Tickets. Write Debbie Carton, Albany Music Fund, at dycarton@yahoo.com with questions.

Learn more about the Albany Music Fund here.