Jaimie Stepro

Before Jaimie Stepro made it to her first birthday, two things were very clear to her parents: she loved to communicate and she wanted to make music. Her small hands would reach up to her grandparent’s piano and desperately try to clank out a tune before an adult would close the lid. Her mom recalls coming down the hallway one day to find a 3 year old Jaimie standing on the couch shouting out the window to the neighborhood kids playing outside, “You must repent! You must receive the Holy Spirit!” What no one could’ve foreseen at that time was how her two passions would eventually merge and become an incredible source of encouragement for so many people.

Born in Lancaster CA in 1983, Jaimie was the first daughter of Bill and Char Walker. Her earliest musical impressions were Oldies and Country music. Her parents compared her voice to Alfalfa from the Little Rascals as she would sing out from the back seat “I’ve got memories to burn...” Wanting to encourage her love for music, they enrolled her in piano lessons at age 5. Though she was a young student, she practiced her pieces regularly and enjoyed playing.

At age 8, her family moved to Pearblossom, CA, and she was unable to continue lessons. Her lack of formal instruction did not stop her from playing, however, and she faithfully practiced what she had learned from her first teacher. Seeing her determination, her parents found a new teacher closer to home when she was 11. For the next 5 years Jaimie trained in classical music with her teacher Sheryl Wyatt, whereupon she developed a love for Chopin, Beethoven, Debussy and several other timeless composers. She received several Certificates of Merit and performed in recitals. Those that heard her would comment on the amount of feeling she was able to put into the pieces she played. At age 13 she started teaching piano and by 17 she was leading worship for her dad’s newly budding church, Olive Branch Christian, her first experience singing publicly.

Once she graduated high school, music became a full time job for Jaimie. She enrolled in Antelope Valley College and continued her musical education, studying with Dr. David Newby and his wife Gail Newby, and for a few years under Dr. Agnes Kim. During the week she taught piano, played in the Antelope Valley College orchestra, sang in Master Chorale, and assisted the choir for Quartz Hill Presbyterian. Weekends were spent leading worship for Olive Branch Christian and as pianist for the Presbyterian church, as well as regularly performing in wedding ceremonies solo or accompanying a string quartet. It was around this time that she met her husband Noah Stepro. He introduced her to a whole new world of music from artists such as Coldplay, Radiohead, and Deathcab for Cutie. Noah also encouraged her to write her own music, something she had never really thought of doing before. In the spring of 2003 she received her Associates Degree in Musical Performance.

At the age of 22, inspired after the birth of a close friend’s baby, Jaimie wrote her first song, “A Blessing for Sage”. After composing this peaceful ballad, she found herself eager to compose more. Over the next three years she proceeded to write a total of 11 songs. Though a few were dedication songs (“Walk or Run”, “A Clover Lullaby”, “Jude’s Song”) she found herself writing very powerful worship songs. She would incorporate these worship songs into the sets she led during church services. The songs were so moving that several people would come up to her after and ask her more about them. When they found out that she had written them, they began requesting recordings. After writing a song for her daughter Clover who was born February 2008, she decided to get serious about recording. A few months later she teamed up with producer Joel Hatcher, one of her husband’s best friends. The result was the release of her incredible first single “Easter”. Jaimie has also written a children’s book taken from “A Clover Lullaby”, illustrated by her brother in law, Ryan Perea.

If you ask Jaimie about her music, she does not credit her abilities to her many years of training or hard work. She is quick to point out that she recognizes this talent as a gift from her Creator that she wants to use to glorify Him and encourage His people.

At this time she is continuing to write music and looking forward to recording the rest of her compositions.

“Lord grant us a spirit of wisdom to come to a deeper knowledge of You; and to live worthy of Your calling as long as there’s life within.”
-Jaimie Stepro
A Prayer from Ephesians