As a proponent of Latin American music and the free-bass accordion, he performed as the piano accordionist on the radio music program Viva América, which was broadcast live to South America under the United States Department of State's Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs' cultural diplomacy initiative for Voice of America during World War II.

[3][4][5][6][7][8] Broadcasts of this show have been cited as helping to introduce Latin American music and the Mexican bolero to large audiences in the United States in the 1940s.

During the course of these performances he appeared under the musical direction of several noted conductors including: Alfredo Antonini, Mischa Borr, Percy Faith, Shep Fields, Mitch Miller and Andre Kostelanetz.

[29][30] The family owned a grocery store after initially moving to Navy Street in 1905,[31] and subsequently taking up residence on 18th Avenue in the Bensonhurst section.

[36] Hallberg later appeared in the Magnante Quartet before an audience of three thousand concertgoers at Carnegie Hall in 1939 [37][38] A lifelong friendship with the accordionist Louis Del Monte was established as a result of these studies.

[41][42][43] With the help of Del Monte, in the 1930s Serry continued his professional career by making appearances with the Ralph Gomez Tango Orchestra at The Rainbow Room at the RCA Building in Rockefeller Center,[12] leading to an extended engagement there in 1935.

[47] His performances as a member of the orchestra are also documented in the film The Big Broadcast of 1938 ("This Little Ripple Had Rhythm" and "Thanks for the Memory"), which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1939.

[50][51] The six accordionists joined forces at the north ballroom of the legendary Stevens Hotel in Chicago for an "Accordion Jamfest" before an audience of over 1000 concertgoers in September 1938.

[53] In a few short months both Biviano and the Mecca brothers would appear with Charles Magnante, Gene Von Hallberg and Abe Goldman to introduce the accordion in recital for the first time to an audience of classical music concertgoers in Carnegie Hall (April, 1939).

[56] He simultaneously undertook private studies with: Joscha Zade in piano (1945–1946); Arthur Guttow, an organist at the Radio City Music Hall (1946);[57] and Robert Strassburg in Orchestration and Advanced Harmony (1948–1950).

[59] Building upon his concert experiences of the 1930s, Serry entered the golden age of radio performing on the CBS radio network and assisted several concert artists in New York City including the French diseuse Marianne Oswald (aka Marianne Lorraine) in her English speaking debut of "One Woman Theatre" performing the poem Mr. Lincoln and His Gloves (by Carl Sandburg), Never Before (by Archibald MacLeish) and poems by Jean Cocteau and Jacques Prevert at Town Hall (1942).

[65][61] For ten years Serry performed as an original member of Alfredo Antonini's CBS Pan American Orchestra (1940–1949)[66][67][68][11] on the Viva América program for the Department of State's Office of Inter-American Affairs (OCIAA) in support of its cultural diplomacy initiatives.

[69] [70][35][68][71][72][73] He also worked with Antonini, Nestor Mesta Chayres and members of the New York Philharmonic in the Night of the Americas Concert gala at Carnegie Hall in 1946.

[103][104][105][106] The album includes performances of "Little Brown Jug", "Golden Wedding", "Swing Low Sweet Chariot", "That's a Plenty", and "The Jazz Me Blues".

[116] Numerous accordion studios soon emerged within the major ethnic population centers of the East coast, as well as within the rural South and West with an estimated enrollment of over 35,000 students in 1938.

[126] In addition, Serry was invited to contribute to the annual series of Master Accordion Classes and seminars sponsored by the American Accordionists Association in New York City in August 2000.

[130][40] During the early days of network television in the 1950s, Serry performed at CBS as a staff member of the original CBS Orchestra (1949–1960)[58] and an accompanist on several live network television programs including The Jackie Gleason Show in 1953,[58] The Frank Sinatra Show in the 1950s,[58] and on the prime time drama I Remember Mama in 1953 starring Peggy Wood.

[35] On the Broadway stage he performed under director Harold Clurman in a production of Arthur Laurents play The Time of the Cuckoo with Shirley Booth and Dino Di Luca.

[22][148] He also completed arrangements of popular songs for Seeburg's jukeboxes featuring three accordions, violins, vibes, guitar, bass, percussion and piano.

[170][171][172][173] The ensemble of sixteen accordionists utilized modified piano accordions to recreate the orchestral sounds of several instruments while performing classical works by: Rimsky-Korsakov, Carl Maria von Weber, Nicolo Paganini and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

[175][176][177] As the decade of the 1960s unfolded, however, the general public's interest in the accordion began to diminish in the United States while the popularity of rock music continued to grow.

Carl Maria von Weber and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as a member of Pietro Deiro's Accordion Orchestra was cited by critics in The Billboard for its high level musicality.

[163] Above all else, he was applauded on his album Squeeze Play for utilizing the accordion to establish a beautiful, relaxed and soothing mood while avoiding a more common type of "show-off" performance.

[162][163] His compositions include: Serry's compositions in the symphonic jazz and classical music genres include:[254][241][255] [144] List of musical arrangements: Allegro – Joseph Haydn, The Golden Wedding( La Cinquantaine) – Jean Gabriel-Marie, Tango of Love – John Serry Sr., Shine On, Harvest Moon – Jack Noworth & Nora Bayes, My Melancholy Baby – Ernie Burnett & George A. Norton, Singin' in the Rain – Arthur Freed & Nacio Herb Brown, Nobody's Sweetheart – Elmer Schoebel/Gus Kahn, Chicago – Fred Fisher, If You Knew Susie – Buddy DeSylva & Joseph Meyer, Somebody Stole My Gal – Leo Wood, Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay – Paul Stanley (composer), Old McDonald – children's music, Beer Barrel Polka – Jaromir Vejvoda/Eduard Ingris, I Love Louisa – Arthur Schwartz/Howard Dietz, Oh You Beautiful Doll – Seymour Brown/ Nat D. Ayer, Chinatown, My Chinatown -William Jerome/Jean Schwartz Serry was granted a patent in 1966 by the United States Patent Office for his design of a protective shield for collapsible toothpaste tubes (US Patent #US3269604).