biopix/jess_200x200.jpg Jess Berg has been working as a live sound engineer for over 20 years, and has been recording sound since she got her first Tascam four-track cassette recorder in 1996. Born and raised in Minnesota, and being a lifelong musician, Jess decided to pursue her audio engineering and production education at The Institute of Production and Recording in 2002. She wanted to learn how to better record her own music and fell in love with working behind the scenes. She starting running sound in the local jazz clubs in 2003, and in 2004 was the assistant engineer for Skywynd's Escape Plan album. The next year, while still running sound in the jazz clubs, she also began working at Voiceworks, one of the top local voiceover studios, as their dub room engineer. In 2006, Jess became the Concert & Event Coordinator for the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, booking over 220 shows at five outdoor venues between June 1-Labor Day. During this time she was also a founding member of the JLR Foundation, a non-profit to help inner-city youth gain access to real-world recording technology in the parks. In 2009 she left the parks to work at The Institute of Production & Recording as the Academic Coordinator and co-instructor for their immersive SXSW course. Jess got her BS in Media Business at a sister school during this time, and continued to run sound at the Dakota Jazz Club. She was also a founding member of the Twin Cities Mobile Jazz Project, a non-profit aimed at providing under-privileged youth direct access to instruments and mentors from the greater MN music community.

In 2013, Jess moved to Los Angeles to pursue a touring career. She got her first gig a few months later, as the Front of House engineer and Tour Manager for a direct support act on a six-week North American club tour. The woman who hired her was an A-level tour manager and taught her everything she knew. This gig led to many more, and Jessica has since toured the world as a Front of House Engineer, Monitor Engineer, Tour Manager, and Production Manager, depending on the client's needs. During this time she also volunteered for a few years with SoundGirls, worked production at Coachella, and had local audio and production gigs in L.A. while in between tours with various production companies like Showpro, Rat Sound and Bigger Hammer. In 2017, Jessica decided to go back to school and pursue a Master of Arts in Music Industry Administration. She graduated in 2019 and moved to the Seattle area to base her tour life closer to nature, where she connected with the AES PNW Section and officially became an AES member. Jess began working as a house engineer with the local AEG venues (Showbox, Showbox SoDo) in between tours, and also picked up audio gigs with Eighth Day Sound in SoCal. In 2020, she signed on to work freelance A2 live audio gigs with Microsoft, and was a part of their shift to live event broadcasting from their production studios when covid hit. She continues to network and participate in music and audio discussions about the future of our industry while figuring out her next adventures. In late 2021, Jess moved back to MN and was recruited by Minnesota Public Radio. In January 2022, she began a new chapter as the Technical Supervisor with the Broadcast and Media Operations department at MPR, where she currently gets to run the board for on-air broadcasts with over one million listeners.

Jess and her rescue dog currently reside in St. Paul, MN.