OUR STORY

The Beginning — 2017

The Conversation

“If you want to keep doing this — playing keys for musicals — you're going to need to get into MainStage.”

The foundation was laid in 2017 during a conversation between Eric and Beth. A quick trip to Best Buy later that afternoon and Eric had a brand new MacBook Pro. Forty-eight hours later, Best Buy had it back. He was completely overwhelmed.

As a former recording engineer, Eric had close to 30 years of experience with MIDI and keyboards, and just as many years as an IT professional. None of it made MainStage any less baffling. He stayed the course using hardware to play shows.

Fast forward to the spring of 2021. Eric was asked to sub last minute on the K2 book for Mamma Mia. As with many modern shows, there is simply no option without MainStage. Fortunately, Beth was playing the K3 book and had a lot of experience. She lent him her spare MacBook, some basic gear, and walked him through the essentials. Having someone he trusted explain everything was what he needed — and the show was quite enjoyable.

The Growth — 2021–2023

The Curiosity

Beth, Scott, and Eric began developing a routine — creating concert files for the shows they needed to play. Around 2023, Eric got tired of listening to Beth and Scott talk about how they should do this "for real."

“Do you guys actually want to do this, or do you just want to keep talking about the possibilities?”

After a bit of laughter, the answer was clear. The final piece fell into place when Eric retired from his 35-year IT career, giving him the time to formally create a MainStage programming entity with Beth and Scott as founding partners.

The Mission — PKS Today

The Core Philosophy

From the beginning, PKS was designed to be more than a programming rental company. Three ideas kept interweaving — and all three made the final cut.

Programming & Rental. As keyboard players who had been given rented concert programming for years, the team understood what was lacking — errors, unclear patches, no explanatory notes. PKS concert programming is built to the highest standard: logical, thoroughly annotated, and designed for the most realistic sound patches possible.

Hardware Rental. Need a better piece of gear for a particular show? Ask what we have available.

Live Performance. PKS are keyboard players, and they perform what they program. That gives them an unshakeable grasp of what works and what doesn't for any particular show — because they've been in the pit themselves.

Training & Consulting. This is what sets PKS apart from larger MainStage rental operations. Based on Eric's own early experience, training had to be the core of the business — not a side service. Their combined backgrounds in education, corporate training, and technical writing fill a segment of the field that is vastly underserved.

The goal is a growing community of proficient MainStage performers across central Pennsylvania. Without them, modern shows lose their essential tools. Without keyboard players who have MainStage experience, directors reach for pre-recorded tracks. Without live musicians, live theater loses something irreplaceable.

Live actors deserve live musicians. And this is why Performance Keyboard Solutions exists.