Sufjan Stevens mixes autobiography, religious fantasy, and regional history to create folk songs of grand proportions. A preoccupation with epic concepts has motivated two state records (Michigan & Illinois), an electronic album for the animals of the Chinese zodiac (Enjoy Your Rabbit), a five-disc Christmas box set (Songs for Christmas), and, more recently, a programmatic tone poem with film accompaniment for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, a large-scale ensemble piece commissioned by BAM in 2007.

Born in Detroit and raised in the upper reaches of Northern Michigan, Sufjan attended Hope College, in Holland, Michigan, and the masters program for writers at the New School for Social Research. Sufjan currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.