Phillip Sandifer
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Phillip Sandifer is a recording & concert artist, writer & producer living and working Overland Park, Kansas while maintaining a strong tie to Austin, TX.
Phillip's bio
Phillip
Sandifer is a writer, recording artist and producer. His music is
primarily known within the Contemporary Christian music field
although he has written for or recorded with such artists as
Jennifer Warnes, Glen Campbell, Fernando Ortega, Wendy Foy (Sierra),
Billy Crockett, Michele Wagner, Bob Bennett, Rob Frazier, Dawn Smith
Jordan (Miss South Carolina) and others. He has also participated on
recordings distributed by EMI, Disney, BMG and Warner Music Group
although most of his solo recordings have been released on Urgent
Records, an independent label founded by Sandifer in 1984. He
has performed with Steven Curtis Chapman, Twila Paris, Whiteheart,
Fernando Ortega, Bob Bennett, 4Him and many others.
Phillip was born in Baltimore, MD but moved to
Dallas, TX when he was seven. He attended Highland Park High School,
received a degree in History from the University Of Texas at Austin
and Masters degrees from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and Clemson University.
He began his music career in 1981, when he created an
independent album of original music on a minimal budget.
Over the next 18 years he went on to
create nine solo recordings and obtained six #1 songs (as noted in
CCM Magazine and The Christian Research Report) in the Christian
Music field. His top songs include "Just Because You Are"
(#1), "When It's All Been Said And Done" (#1),
"Learning To Love You" (#1), "The Less Traveled
Road" (#1), "From A Broken Heart" (#1), "What
You Mean To Me" (#1), "Man Of Compassion" (#1),
"Arizona Highway" (#10), "Others" (#3), "On
My Way" (#10). He has produced twenty-three full-length albums
for himself and others. Phillip and his brother Michael record as
the group Santa Fe which achieved two top ten songs "Wider
Sky" and "Love Speaks Louder" on their debut
recording "Moon Circles" in 1997.
In 1999 Phillip suspended his touring
and recording in order to focus on expanding Christian radio's reach
in his hometown of Austin, TX, finish his educational pursuits and
spend more time at home with his family. In 2000 he joined a local
church staff in order to participate in furthering the involvement
of the contemporary arts in worship settings. In the past ten years
he helped start 5 radio stations broadcasting largely Christian
programming in the Austin, TX area. Phillip currently serves as the
Worship & Arts Director at Colonial Presbyterian Church, a large
multi-site church in Overland Park, KS and has recently begun
writing and recording again. He
is currently scheduling concerts and worship leading opportunities
to accompany his two new recording projects "Prone To
Calamity" (an exploration of Christian maturing within a fixed
nature) and "Expression: Songs Of Worship" (an album of
some of Phillip’s favorite worship songs by other writers). Both
released in December of 2010.
Phillip's concerts range in size from intimate
group settings of 100 people or so to larger promoted events.
Phillip says, "my concerts are a mix of story songs and worship
songs...we banter back and forth about life and we try to put things
in perspective by worshiping God, who allows us to rise above it all
and walk in peace and with purpose". Regarding his
production and management work Phillip says, "developing
creative artists who engage believers and provoke the contemplation
of God by the non-believer is the best job on earth".
Phillip and his wife Rene have been married for twenty-six years and they have four children, one dog and two cats.