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PREACHER’S KID: ACCESS TO PIANO, PIPE ORGAN

Growing up as a preacher’s kid in the small farming community of Dayton, Iowa, Roger Paul Peterson had ready access to piano and pipe organ at church. He spent thousands of hours playing those instruments — everything from frisky rock ’n roll to resounding church hymns. Now with 16 years of classical piano training and decades performing in live bands as a multi-keyboardist in schools, churches, colleges, bars, ballrooms and concerts, 

Roger plays with passion and precision. As a musical composer and recording artist, he uses up to ten acoustic and electronic keyboards, including midi access to more than 1,000 different instruments and sounds when recording. One of Roger’s remarkable recording skills is creating virtual instrument tracks — stunningly realistic computer-generated musical instruments and sounds — then programming his MacBook Pro to play those sounds into his recording software.

MUSICAL INFLUENCES

Roger’s music is shaped by his classical training, the pop-rock radio music of the 1970s and ’80s, and the influence of Christian radio and contemporary church worship music from the 1990s to the present. Music influencers include:

• German composers J.S. Bach and George Frideric Handel (“Messiah”)
• African American Scott Joplin (ragtime)
• British multi-keyboardist Keith Emerson  
• Christian worship musician Michael W. Smith. 

Roger’s styles range from honky-tonk/ragtime piano to electro-techno synth, from pipe organ to country rock, and from progressive symphonic rock to secular, sacred, pop and worship.

2016 IOWA ROCK ’N ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE

Along with the three other members of his first rock band “Mourning Glory,” Roger was inducted into the Iowa Rock ’n Roll Hall of Fame (2016). 

2021 OFFICIAL DOVE AWARD SUBMISSION

In 2021, Roger’s record company MC1 Nashville successfully submitted “MIGHTY Your Deeds” for a Dove Award; the submission cleared the first round of voting.

2026 ICFF BEST PERFORMING ARTIST NOMINATION

Roger’s 2025 release “Christmastime Is Here — Emmanuel!” earned a Best Performing Artist nomination at the 2026 International Christian Film & Music Festival (ICFF).

OTHER NOTABLES

Roger has performed with:

• Kenny Rogers (1999)
• Apple Records/USA Manager for “The Beatles” Ken Mansfield (2011)
• Christian recording artist Diana Pierce (1997–2000)
• Christian recording artist Steve Green (2019)
• Christian recording artist Dick Tunney (2019, 2020).
  

NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE

Roger was a passenger on TWA Flight 841 in April 1979, which went out of control at 39,000 feet, making two complete barrel rolls and plunging over 35,000 feet in an accelerated nose-dive before making a miraculous recovery 44 seconds later. 

TELEVISION APPEARANCES

Roger has appeared four times on NBC/CBS network television regarding TWA Flight 841, including the Tom Snyder Tomorrow Show in April 1979 and the CBS Reports’ 1983 Peabody Award-winning investigative documentary “The Plane That Fell From the Sky”, in which Roger and other actual passengers and crew portray themselves while re-enacting this true-life, death-defying story. Here’s the link to that documentary: Roger Peterson appears in “The Plane That Fell From The Sky”.

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Roger is also a licensed minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, CEO of the Christian missions nonprofit STEM Int’l (STEMPress), Board Member & Officer for the PF Foundation and a multi-published author, including co-authoring “Maximum Impact Short-Term Missions.”

Roger holds a B.A. in Organizational Leadership (Bethel University—2009), a Mini MBA for Nonprofit Organizations (University of St. Thomas—2010) and an M.A. in Intercultural Leadership (Bethany Global University—2013).

Roger and his wife Melanie live near Orlando, Florida, and have two young adult children: Rachel (& husband Robert) and Matthew.