Persing started playing piano in the sixth grade before playing a
Minimoog in 1975 and finding inspiration in synthesizers. In the early 1980s he moved to Los Angeles and began working as a
session musician and
arranger. This work, which continued for years, led to his working with such notable artists as
Luther Vandross,
Quincy Jones,
Danny Elfman,
Marcus Miller,
Herbie Hancock,
James Newton Howard,
Eddie Jobson,
Michel Colombier,
Diana Ross,
Arif Mardin,
Chaka Khan,
Larry Carlton,
Hans Zimmer,
Leonard Cohen,
Michael Jackson,
Randy Newman and
Celine Dion. Roland made Persing the company's Chief Sound Designer, a position he held from 1984 to 2004, during which time he worked on many influential synthesizers and music-related products such as the
Roland D-50,
JD-800, the Roland JX, JV, JP, XP series synthesizers, and many others. In 1994, inspired by his work with
sample libraries for Roland, Persing co-founded Spectrasonics with his wife Lorey, Trilian, and Stylus RMX. At the 2011
NAMM Show, as part of a joint promotion with the
Bob Moog Foundation, Persing exhibited the OMG-1 synthesizer, a unique synthesizer of his own design that integrated a Moog Little Phatty with an Apple Mac Mini and two iPads running virtual instruments, all housed in a custom curly maple cabinet. In 2011 Persing's company released the Bob Moog Tribute Library for Omnisphere, with all proceeds going to the Bob Moog Foundation. Ten years later, the company released the Bob Moog Tribute Library 2, again donating all proceeds from the library's sale to the Bob Moog Foundation. Persing has cited important musical influences of
Vangelis,
Kraftwerk,
Jan Hammer,
Yes,
Genesis and
Thomas Dolby. ==Awards==