Dr. Rocco Anthony Jerry began studying the accordion at the age of six with Paul Bertolozzi of Poughkeepsie, New York, and later with concert accordionist Carmen Carrozza. His interests are mainly in 20th century music, and performs a number of the works commissioned by the American Accordion Association. He has recently given solo concerts at the National Museum of American Art-Smithsonian and the National City Christian Church-Washington D.C. He attends workshops offered by the American Accordion Association and the American Accordion Musicological Society.

Rocco has worked as a research scientist in the Center for Hearing Science, Department of Otolaryngology, and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. His work has focused on the outer hair cell, which is responsible for the high frequency selectivity and sensitivity of human hearing. In 1992, he received a Ph.D. in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a specialization in polymer surface physics. He has published in the Journal of the Acoustic Society, Journal of Neurophysiology, Physical Review, Journal of Chemical Physics, and other scientific and engineering journals.