State Theatre presents Mannheim Steamroller Christmas by Chip Davis on Saturday

Davis has achieved worldwide sales of all album titles in excess of 41 million, with four multi-platinum, eight platinum, and 19 gold certifications in the U.S. alone. Furthermore, Davis is the entrepreneur behind the hugely successful Mannheim Steamroller product line, author of nine children’s books, an amateur astronomer, and dedicated philanthropist.

The man behind Mannheim was born Louis F. Davis, Jr. in the archetypal small town of Hamler, OH (Pop. 500), the son of a family to whom music and “a sensitivity to nature” were integral. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1969 with mastery in bassoon and percussion before taking on a job at the Omaha, NE, ad agency, Bozell & Jacobs. In 1974, Davis and fellow ad exec Bill Fries teamed up to create a fictional truck driver named C.W. McCall for a series of Clio Award-winning commercials. A string of hit albums and top 40 singles followed, including the RIAA gold certified #1 classic, “Convoy.”

The success of C.W. McCall allowed Davis to focus on his own original music. He dubbed his new band Mannheim Steamroller—a play on the 18th-century musical technique known as the “Mannheim crescendo”—and in 1975 recorded Fresh Aire, a landmark work melding elements of classical, rock, and pop into something altogether unique. Foiled by the industry’s inability to classify a genre for the album, Davis decided to distribute and sell Fresh Aire on his own and AGR was born.

Davis employed innovative marketing techniques to spread his “18^th Century Classical Rock,” and Fresh Aire eventually found its way onto record store shelves everywhere, fitted with the newly created classification “New Age.” Each consecutive album in the Fresh Aire series earned multi-million album sales, countless fans, and, with Fresh Aire 7, the 1991 Grammy® Award for Best New Age Album.

In 1984, Davis had the idea to reinvigorate traditional carols and Yuletide staples via Mannheim Steamroller’s always-eclectic sonic approach. Mannheim Steamroller Christmas proved a phenomenon, the band’s first to reach the Billboard 200 album chart on its way to six-time RIAA platinum certification. A Fresh Aire Christmas followed in 1988, achieving six-time platinum certification and ultimately surpassing its monumentally successful predecessor to be declared the sixth best-selling holiday album of the SoundScan era.

Further Christmas collections resulted in cumulative Christmas album sales in excess of 31 million. The Mannheim Steamroller Christmas Tour quickly became as much a Yuletide tradition; today two separate groups perform across the country.

Mannheim Steamroller's An American Christmas, a 12-hour nationally broadcast radio special heard annually on over 450 stations across the U.S.

The steadfastly autonomous AGR label has released works by an array of like-minded artists. For their part, Mannheim Steamroller has observed additional holidays such as Halloween and July Fourth while also exploring inspirations spanning the music of Walt Disney films to the majesty of Yellowstone National Park.

Additionally, Davis is the creator of the patented ambient therapy system, inspired by his own neck surgery in 2004. The system enhances healing by reducing stress, anxiety, and other barriers to recovery, combining musical content and four-channel surround sound algorithms. The ambient therapy system is used in medical facilities such as Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic and The National Intrepid Center for Excellence in Bethesda, MD, which serves wounded warriors.

Davis’ lifelong interest in astronomy has led to an extended relationship with NASA, including several trips to Kennedy Space Center in Cocoa Beach and Johnson Space Center in Houston, where his team recorded space shuttle launches and landings that have been characterized as “the most accurate ever made.”

The indefatigable Davis still travels the country on behalf of AGR but prefers to spend his time on his 150-acre farm outside Omaha. He has three children.

Davis determinedly carries on each day with the original spirit of creative drive and invention that first inspired him. “There wasn’t any business plan when I started American Gramaphone,” he says. “There wasn’t any target I was looking at. It’s always been about just moving forward and doing things I like to do.”

After major renovations, State Theatre New Jersey celebrated its 100th Anniversary in December 2021 in a fully renovated theater. Originally built as a silent film and vaudeville palace, State Theatre’s historic significance was honored by PBS by featuring it in its documentary series, Treasures of New Jersey, in the fall of 2018. “Treasures of New Jersey: State Theatre New Jersey” can be streamed online.

Today, State Theatre is the largest performing arts center in Central New Jersey and has welcomed more than six million people through its doors since reopening as a nonprofit performing arts center in 1988. State Theatre New Jersey is a cornerstone of the cultural vitality of Middlesex County and averages a total economic impact on New Brunswick and the surrounding area of more than $18 million a year. The theater has the largest Broadway series in New Jersey featuring world-renowned shows. It also has featured high-caliber artists such as Diana Ross, Tom Jones, Kevin Hart, Ringo Starr, Melissa Etheridge, John Leguizamo, Harry Connick, Jr., Diana Krall, and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Program offerings include Broadway, orchestra, family, dance, comedy, rock/pop, jazz, Performances for Schools, and Sensory-Friendly Performances.

State Theatre New Jersey’s programs are made possible by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners through a grant award from the Middlesex County Cultural and Arts Trust Fund. For information on events, go to MiddlesexCountyCulture.com.