Mannheim Steamroller Makes You Feel Like A Rock Star

I was hired to play with Mannheim Steamroller this December and it was such a great experience! It was my first time playing with a click track in a live performance and learning to listen to my sound versus what I was hearing come out of the speakers was a whole new experience. Despite having an unseasonable tornado/severe thunderstorms blowing through the state, the Wednesday night performance was almost capacity at Gallagher-Bluedorn Hall on the UNI campus! I was shocked!  All 3 concerts were virtually sold out—the last one being in the large area in Cedar Rapids. The appeal of Mannheim Steamroller seems to live on and I had to ask myself a lot of interesting questions about classical music, its relevance, and what kind of music do people really want to see/hear.  As I played into the microphone, my sound amplified for thousands of happy people, I realized that this might be their only introduction to western instruments playing “classical” style music.  And this was an important task—to represent my craft in the best possible light.  During intermission, I saw all ages in the aisles, hugging and greeting each other.  It would take a lot more than an unseasonable tornado to keep people from getting out of the house and enjoying something special in a concert hall—something we have been missing from the last year and a half.   I found the whole experience heart warming.