Who is Sparkbird?
Photo by Jason Quigley.
Sparkbird is the project of singer-songwriter Stephan Nance (they/them). Their music has been featured by Obscure Sound, Good Music Radar, Rock the Pigeon, Homoground, the National Audubon Society, and Birding Magazine. Their breakout single "November," described as "a masterpiece of contemporary musical artistry" by Sinusoidal Music, amassed millions of streams on Spotify in the months following its release.
Sparkbird's performance history spans three tours of Japan and others in the UK, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and Italy. In 2024 they toured the US in support of Madilyn Mei’s Side Quest Tour.
Sparkbird’s songwriting has earned praise for its “slice-of-life aesthetic… reminiscent of Sufjan Stevens and Joni Mitchell” (Good Music Radar). For their fiction, Stephan is a 2021 Lambda Literary Fellow, 2022 Tin House YA alum, 2023 Oregon Literary Fellow, and 2023 We Need Diverse Books mentee.
Stephan lives in Brooklyn, NY, with their partner Adam, along with a 16-year-old Senegal parrot named Georgie, and a 45-year-old Yellow-naped parrot named Fred. Stephan is currently working on their next album and a young adult novel.