Short Bio
John Bertles is a composer, instrument builder and educator.
As a composer he has written music ranging from opera to circus music, and
from symphony to punk rock. Most recently he has been concentrating
on music for instruments built from recycled materials with his group, Bash
the Trash®. "The Evils of Pots" (1994), written entirely for pots
and pans, has been performed at Lincoln Center in New York City and at the
International Gamelan Festival in Indonesia and throughout the United States.
He is also an educator and staff developer, having been Lead Teaching
Artist with the Carnegie Hall Link-up Program for nine years as well as
Program Leader for Carnegie Hall’s Distance Learning Program for the last
three years, a curriculum writer and teaching artist for the New York Philharmonic
Orchestra, and a teaching artist and guest lecturer at the Manhattan School
of Music and the Julliard School. He has taught and performed for
the Leonard Bernstein Center, Grammy Foundation, Guggenheim Museum, Kennedy
Center, American Museum for Natural History, Franklin Institute, Fordham
University and New York City Opera among others.