Carl Winter's Music Biography

Carl has been playing music most of his life. He started playing piano at age 5 under the tutelage of his mother, a piano teacher. He was encouraged to improvise and to play by ear. He discovered early on that he had perfect pitch, allowing him to easily play songs immediately after hearing them.

He played in numerous bands throughout high school, college, and during his adult life. Since 2019, he has provided keyboards, guitar, and vocals for the popular Northern California band Keep On Truckin', a tribute band playing the music of the Woodstock Generation.

Carl Winter with Keep On Truckin', May 2024

Carl is an experienced solo performer. In addition to his current musical efforts, he combined his scientific training as Professor of Food Science at the University of California, Davis with music to develop humorous and educational parodies of popular songs to teach about his specialty area of food safety. As an award-winning educator known as the "Elvis of E. coli" and the "Sinatra of Salmonella," he presented nearly 300 live concerts in 37 states and distributed more than 30,000 of his self-produced CDs and DVDs.

Watch a short video of Carl's food safety music

His food safety music received widespread media attention, including coverage in the Washington Post, ABC News, National Public Radio, the Sacramento Bee, and Science Magazine.

Audience responding to Carl Winter singing "We Are the Microbes," Bellingham, Washington, 2009