$2.8 million pledge creates endowed chair in vocal music at UAF

A $2.8 million pledge from University of Alaska Fairbanks alumnus Steve Holmberg has established the UAF Music Department’s first endowed chair.
 
The Steve and Cynthia Holmberg Choral Director Endowment will provide support for a full-time choral director who will also work with the UAF Summer Music Academy.  

“This gift is an investment in the long-term betterment of the program here at UAF music. Having an endowed chair is going to provide financial stability, continuity for our students and access to the highest quality of music educators,” said department chair Jaunelle Celaire. “I value Steve’s friendship and support and couldn't be more excited about this opportunity for the music department.”
 
Holmberg graduated from UAF in 1988 with a degree in music education, but his connection to the university reaches back to high school, when he was a student at the UAF Summer Fine Arts Camp. He attended UAF for two years before moving to Seattle, where he met his late wife, Cynthia. They returned to Fairbanks in the mid-’80s, where he finished his degree and Cynthia worked at a local computer store and later the Fairbanks North Star Borough. After Steve’s graduation, they moved back to the Seattle area, where Cynthia worked for Microsoft and Steve began his 25-year career as a music teacher.
 
He hopes his gift can help sustain summer music programs for youths, while also continuing to provide the unique opportunities UAF offers to undergraduate music students.
 
“UAF was foundational in who I became as a music professional and in a lot of ways in who I became as a person,” Holmberg said. “I didn’t want the programs — the things that I had an opportunity to do — to not be available.”
 
 ADDITIONAL CONTACT: Jaunelle Celaire, jrcelaire@alaska.edu, 907-474-5291

ONLINE: Read more about the Steve and Cynthia Holmberg Choral Director Endowment in the most recent Chancellor’s Report on Philanthropy.