Stephen Ackert is a native of the state of Wisconsin and completed his doctoral studies in organ at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.  He also studied at Oberlin College, Northwestern University, and the Hochschule für Musik in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, where his teachers were Helmut Walcha and Maria Jaeger-Jung.  From 1974 to 1978 he had the unique opportunity to work as a professional musician in Persia, serving as music advisor and resident keyboard artist of the National Iranian Radio and Television Network.  A resident of the Washington area since 1979, Ackert has performed organ and harpsichord recitals in many of its prime venues, including the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the National Cathedral, and the German Embassy.  In 2003 he undertook his sixth recital tour of historic concert halls and churches in Germany, playing recitals in various locations in the State of Hessen.

As Head of the Music Department at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Ackert administers the weekly concerts, which are offered free to the public every Sunday from October through June. His lectures on interrelationships between music and art have been a part of the National Gallery's public programs since 1990 and have been heard at the Walters Gallery in Baltimore, the German and Austrian Embassies, the Kennedy Center, and several public and private schools in the Washington-Baltimore area.  He has taught high school and junior high school music in Minnesota and Virginia, and served on the Board of Directors of the Arlington (Virginia) Symphony and the Rouhollah Khaleghi Orchestra. He is a member of the advisory board of RKAC.