Biography - Sandra Jeter

With a distinct piano style, Sandra Jeter brings together melodies that are textured with a reflective soul in her instrumental music. Sandra's music explores the boundless expressions of the soul and takes the listener on a profound journey of the imagination.

In 1978, at age 7, Sandra began piano lessons, studying classical music and theory for the next 8 years. Her studies exposed her to all the eras of classical music and provided valuable performance experiences. Starting in 1980, Sandra began competing in yearly performance auditions with the National College of Musicians. In 1981, she began participating in performance recitals and engaged in Whitlock exams, resulting in numerous medals. Along with her traditional performances, she also participated in several Sonata Festivals throughout her classical training.

"Surprisingly, even after years of intensely studying classical music, I never had a strong connection with that form of music," Sandra says. "However, when I was given a soulful song to play, one that was in a minor key, I devoured it. I found infinite beauty in the minor keys that I forged a deep connection with." As the strong connection with minor keys continued to develop in the years to follow, Sandra found it increasingly difficult to focus on all the other music pieces on her repertoire. Early in her classical training, Sandra began to experiment with her own music style. As her style developed, she began to write her own compositions and participated in various music competitions.

In 1981, Sandra had her first opportunity to enter into a music competition with the National Cultural Arts Reflection Project. She wrote a lighthearted one-page composition that won first place.

In 1984, she joined a pianist guild and competed in yearly tournaments. For her accomplishments in the piano tournaments, she received several trophies. Sandra also began to expand her musical interests and learned to play the clarinet and the bass clarinet.

The day finally arrived in 1985, when Sandra was given her first opportunity to perform one of her compositions as part of her recital repertoire. With its minor tones and boldness, "Knights of York" was a definite statement in her stage performance.

In 1986, with the previous performance success of "Knights of York", Sandra was given another opportunity to perform one of her compositions as part of her classical recital repertoire. This time, she included "Xylan" in her performance. With its strong melody interlaced with classical elements, "Xylan" was well accepted by the audience. Two of her major stage performances of the year included the Texas Woman's University Jazz Festival and her participation in an 11-piano ensemble performance at the Texas Music Teachers Association Convention in Houston, Texas. One of the major highlights of 1986 occurred when Sandra composed the piece "Blakaverria" and entered it into a music competition later that year. "Blakaverria" received high accolades from the judges and received the first place award.

Although Sandra was studying classical music, her preferred music choices were much more contemporary. "I listened to whatever records my brother had, which included Queen, Blue Oyster Cult, Vangelis, and Led Zeppelin to name a few," Sandra recalls. "But as I grew up as a typical mid-1980's teenager, my music tastes changed to include metal bands like Metallica, Megadeth, and Judas Priest." When asked which bands directly influenced her creative style of music, her answer is picturesque - "As odd as it may sound, my style is strongly influenced by Vangelis with undertones from Blue Oyster Cult and Megadeth, all built on a classical foundation."

For the next few years, Sandra continued to explore her music style and writing numerous compositions, while continuing her classical training. "I really enjoyed creating the music, but I didn't like the 'writing it down' part," she recalls. "Notating the composition by hand onto music paper was a chore for me. So I pretended to be Beethoven while writing down my compositions to make it more enjoyable." As Sandra created more and more of her own compositions, her classical training became less of a priority. Her final stage performance was in late 1986 with a classical Sonata that was 26-pages in length. Shortly afterwards, she discontinued her classical training and turned her focus to composing her own music and other interests.

In 1989, Sandra's focus changed from music to serving as Historian in the local Business Professionals of America chapter. As Historian, it was her responsibility to document all the chapter's events and create a scrapbook. "Being Historian was one of the most enjoyable social activities that I did. I was a senior in high school and, unbeknownst to me at the time; being the Historian was a key point in my life. I didn't realize I was being positioned for future events that were to come. It was the start of a domino effect," Sandra recalls. Being a perfectionist, Sandra meticulously organized all the photographs and cut out detailed stencils to decorate the scrapbook. The chapter's scrapbook was entered into the Business Professionals of America's yearly scrapbook contest where it won first place in both the state and national competition. For her accomplishment, Sandra was awarded with a trophy from the Denton Board of Trustees and a full scholarship for an electronic engineering degree at ITT Technical Institute.

Three days after graduating from ITT Technical Institute in 1991, Sandra started her corporate career at RadioShack Corporation in Fort Worth, Texas. In 1992, Sandra met her future husband, a fellow co-worker, and in 1996 they were married. Sandra continues to work for RadioShack, specializing in merchandise planning and inventory management.

In 2010, Sandra released her first album, Midnyght Storm. "This album contains several of my very early compositions, along with some new pieces. It is a very reflective, yet majestic collection," she adds. Some of the early compositions included are "Approach to Lanache Hill," "Rastryata," "Blakaverria," and "Siege of Jericho" (formally titled "Xylan"). The album has a strong foundation of minor tones, interlaced with delicate melodies, strong emotion, and beautiful orchestration - all working together to create a dark enchanting atmosphere. The creation of this album took nearly two years. Building on the support of her growing fan base, Sandra is working on releasing a piano solo album in 2012.
Copyright © 2011 Sandra Jeter. All Rights Reserved.