Since moving “Up North” in 2020, I began recording a Christmas song about this time of year and producing it with a video. It is 2024, the 5-year anniversary of this tradition. While finishing production on my rendition of the Mannheim Steamroller “Traditions Of Christmas”, I wanted to share a sample from the music and video to be released on Christmas Eve… all of the music was recorded from my favorite Kurzweil PC6 keyboard!

The Christmas Eve video 2023 takes a break from the traditional Mannheim Steamroller music/video projects in the past few years. I remember as a kid watching the Peanuts special "A Charlie Brown Christmas", and the end where "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" was played and sang. For some reason that sounded great to me, so I went to the piano to play that song. It never really sounded right! The original song was recorded using a Hammond Organ in St. Paul's Episcopal Church (Vince Guaraldi). With my new Hammond XK-4, I thought I would record this song for Christmas 2023. Being a young kid when I first heard this, I thought the video should just contain kids (and grandkids!). Starring (in alphabetical order): Alayna, Brenna, Carissa, Emily, Eric, Grant, Isla, Jack, Jake, Johnathan, Karter, Olivia, Rachel, Ross, Ryan, Serena. Merry Christmas 2023!

The tradition to play and record a Mannheim Steamroller Christmas song continues...2022. "Hallelujah" was the most extensive recording yet, taking 17 tracks, percussion and bass track, and a couple of months to complete. My freshman year at Bethel College (University), our concert choir performed the real "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah in churches of northern Michigan and all over the Upper Peninsula... I was the organist for this 1983 Spring choir tour, but obviously this version is quite different, and every bit as challenging. Merry Christmas to my family and friends! See you in 2023 :)

My rendition of Mannheim Steamroller's "Stille Nacht". I originally constructed the MIDI programming for this song exactly 20 years ago (2000), and used some of it for this recording.