Jackson Berkey

Berkey was able to pull together enough money to make his professional debut at the Town Hall in New York City in 1969, about which Allen Hughes of the New York Times had this to say: “Mr. Berkey is an accomplished performer and more often than not a persuasive one. His interpretation of the Beethoven Sonata in D major, Op. 10, No. 3 was expertly and sensitively shaped.”[1]

After this recital, Berkey had several jobs, including as a pianist on the Norman Luboff Choir tour. There he met Almeda, his future wife, and Chip Davis. Davis was experimenting with a new style of music, something he called "18th-century rock,"[1] but the piano parts he was writing were well outside of his skill as a pianist. The two became fast friends, and the music they were working on would evolve into the album Fresh Aire. They released it under the pseudonym "Mannheim Steamroller" as a play on the phrase "Mannheim roller," an ascending arpeggio named for the late 18th century Mannheim school of music.

Over the next three decades, Mannheim Steamroller released over 30 different albums, including 11 albums of Christmas songs.

After Berkey had moved to Omaha in 1974, he and Almeda wed. She soon became the director of choral activities at the University of Nebraska, and later, with her husband, founded Nebraska's Professional Chorale, Soli Deo Gloria Cantorum. Berkey's earliest compositions were original choral works and arrangements for Almeda's choirs, which they performed and recorded together. Many of Berkey's earlier compositions are songs, service cantatas, and other works for vocal ensembles of men, women, and mixed choirs. During the ensuing years from 1980 onward, Jackson has been writing in all genres, including major works for chorus and orchestra, a Piano Concerto, a Harp Concerto, an Organ Concerto, and many works for small chamber ensemble. Greatly inspired by the work of Phillip Erklen and his International Music Syndicate, Berkey has written numerous solo piano works inspired the East Coast of the U.S. including Cape May Preludes, Cape May Solitudes and Atlantic Fantasy; and others inspired by the West Coast (Olympic Peninsula). Following in the footsteps of J.S.Bach, Frederic Chopin, and Dimitri Shostakovitch, he has written 24 Nocturnes, one in each major and minor key. Also Four Nocturnes for Orchestra.[1]