Sufjan Stevens ( ; born July 1, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He has released nine solo studio albums and multiple collaborative albums with other artists. Stevens has received Grammy and Academy Award nominations. His debut album, A Sun Came, was released in 2000 on the Asthmatic Kitty label, which he co-founded with his stepfather. He received wide recognition for his 2005 album Illinois, which hit number one on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart, and for the single "Chicago" from that album. Stevens later contributed to the soundtrack of the 2017 film Call Me by Your Name. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song and a Grammy nomination for Best Song Written for Visual Media for the soundtrack's lead single, "Mystery of Love." Stevens has released albums of varying styles, from the electronica of The Age of Adz and the lo-fi folk of Seven Swans to the symphonic instrumentation of Illinois and Christmas-themed Songs for Christmas. He employs various instruments, often playing many of them himself on the same recording. Stevens' music is also known for exploring various themes, particularly religion and spirituality. Stevens' tenth and latest studio album, A Beginner's Mind, was created alongside Angelo De Augustine and released in 2021. Early life Stevens was born in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of nine, when his family moved to Alanson, Michigan, in the northern part of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. He was raised by his father, Rasjid, and his stepmother, Pat, only occasionally visiting his mother, Carrie, in Oregon after she married her second husband, Lowell Brams. Brams later became the head of Stevens' record label Asthmatic Kitty. Stevens is of Lithuanian and Greek descent. Stevens attended the Detroit Waldorf School, Alanson Public Schools and Interlochen Arts Academy, and graduated from Harbor Light Christian School. He then attended Hope College in Holland, Michigan, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and then earned an MFA from The New School in New York City. While in school, Stevens studied the oboe and English horn, which he plays on his albums. Stevens did not learn to play the guitar until his time at Hope College. Sufjan means "comes with a sword." The name most famously belonged to Abu Sufyan, a figure from early Islamic history. The name was given to Stevens by the founder of Subud, an interfaith spiritual community to which