John Bertles Biography
Born in 1959 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, John grew up in the suburbs
of New York City. In high school he was extensively involved in
the arts, playing clarinet and bass clarinet in concert band and orchestra,
as well as singing in the chorus (voted "Best Singer"). He also
was very active in theater, acting in many plays as well as directing
a version of Aeschylus' "Agamemnon".
He attended Bennington College from 1977-81, gaining a Bachelor
of Arts degree while majoring in Music and minoring in Theater. During
this time he composed extensively, writing three pieces for orchestra (including
a bass clarinet concerto in which he played the solo) and an operetta
as well as many other pieces for diverse ensembles. He also directed
and produced several one-act plays derived from Greek theater. At
Bennington he was first exposed to unusual musical instruments by a professor
who was also an instrument-builder. It was also through Bennington
that he had his first experience with teaching, working as a general music
teacher for two months in Richmond, Virginia as part of a work-study program.
From 1981 to 1984 he worked as a musician in New York City, playing
and writing music in a myriad of styles, including string quartets, rock
bands, circus music and music for theater. He worked with a street
theater company where he wrote neo-punk circus music that was eventually
performed in the United States, Japan, Brazil, Israel and
Bosnia-Herzogovina. During this time he also took music theory
and ear training classes at Mannes School of Music.
In 1984 he was accepted in the graduate program at Columbia University,
earning a Masters Degree in Music Composition. During this time
he studied composition with Jack Beeson, Fred Lerdahl and Jacques Monod.
He also studied electronic music at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music
Center with Mario Davidowsky and the late Vladimir Ussachevsky. Here
he began to build and use homemade instruments as unusual sound sources
for his electronic music. He also wrote and performed many other pieces,
including a string trio, a four-movement orchestra piece, and a song cycle.
In 1986 he began to work toward a Doctorate of Music Arts from Columbia.
However, it became increasingly clear that the Columbia Doctorate
program was not a good fit. Among other things, his compositional
style did not agree with the emphasis on serial composition at Columbia.
Furthermore he had become more and more interested in unusual musical
instruments and how they could be used in education.
Bertles left Columbia in 1986 and immediately went on a two-month
tour of Japan, writing and performing music for a street theater company
in Tokyo, Osaka and on Japanese television. Upon his return to the
United States he continued to build homemade musical instruments, making
connections with other builders along the way. He formed a partnership
with Skip LaPlante, founder of Music for Homemade Instruments, that has
lasted until the present day. This partnership has led to homemade instrument
performances around New York, the United States and the world, most notably
including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and the International Gamelan
Festival in Indonesia, as well as appearances on National Public Radio
and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
Starting in 1987 Bertles began to use his homemade instruments as
a teaching tool, showing elementary students about the science of sound
and how musical instruments work. He worked first with Project
Impact in New Jersey, then with the Guggenheim Museum/Learning through
the Arts program, where he got his first experience with combining the
core curricula (literacy, math, science and social studies) with the arts.
During this time also began to make contacts with Carnegie Hall and
with the New York Philharmonic. Over the years these contacts would
blossom into deep relationships with these organizations in a wide variety
of work. Indeed, in the years to come, these organizations would
be Bertles' main employers.
From 1988 to around 1993 Bertles worked primarily as a teaching
artist in elementary school settings for institutions such as Carnegie
Hall, Kennedy Center, Queens Symphony, and the American Museum of Natural
History. He also founded his own performing group, the Experimental
Orchestra (later renamed Bash the Trash).
From 1993 to 1999 Bertles slowly began to change his emphasis from
classroom-based teaching artist to staff development. During this
time he developed programs for music teachers, classroom teachers, music
conservatory students (Julliard and Manhattan School of Music) and teaching
artists. Some of these programs included homemade instruments, but increasingly
they became focused on arts-in-education issues in general, including using
the arts to teach to the core curriculum, assessment, national and state
arts standards, and other issues related to creating a better trained,
well-informed cadre of teachers and teaching artists. He also worked
during this time, through Carnegie Hall, with famed educational consultants
such as Jane Remer (for whom he contributed an essay for her book "Beyond
Enrichment") and Heidi Hayes-Jacobs. He also became a sought-after
workshop leader and moderator for arts conferences around New York State.
Around 1999 he began to move further towards educational consulting,
first by working with national organizations such as the Grammy Awards,
the Leonard Bernstein Center, the Ravinia Festival in Chicago and Yo-Yo
Ma's international Silk Road Festival, as well as making contacts with
the Smithsonian Museum (for which he will contribute programs in 2002).
During this time he also forged a relationship with nationally recognized
educational consultant Eric Booth (see
Recommendations
).
Due to the nature of his widely varied experience in many fields
of arts education, he has been hired for many different kinds of roles,
including Narrator/Emcee for children's and family concerts, Concert Program
design and development, Educational Program design and development, Curriculum
design, planning and implementation, Staff Development, New Technologies
(such as distance learning and videoconferencing), Teaching Artist development
as well as continuing to serve as Workshop Leader and Moderator for arts
conferences.
Bertles lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, a suburb of New York City with
his wife Carina Piaggio and their son Ian. Piaggio (a choreographer and
director of movement theater) and Bertles often work together, in 1993
winning a New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship for "Ladies in Waiting"
for which Bertles supplied the music.
For more information, click on Resume
or Work Experience
below.
