3 minute read
Behind the curtain
Music professor orchestrates noon concerts
James Hermon / Roundup
While managing his title of Associate Professor at Pierce and Santa Monica Colleges, working as a professional musician, he finds time to coordinate the Thursday afternoon concerts.
Jim Bergman has several roles that he assumes interchangeably, but finds exposing his students to classical music via the afternoon concert series to be the most rewarding.
Bergman was born in Pennsylvania, but moved to New York to study music at Juilliard.
“While there [at Juilliard] I studied the string bass and would pick up freelance gigs before I joined a band,” said Bergman.
Bergman and his wife moved to California where he became a member of the San Jose Symphony.
“When we moved out here I played around in the Bay Area with the symphony before they went bankrupt,” said Bergman. “My wife got a job offer out this way [in Los Angeles] and so we moved again.”
Bergman has been teaching music at SMC for five years and at Pierce College for four.
“I saw an ad for a music teacher at Pierce, and I applied but never heard anything back,” said Bergman. “It was not until I performed at a gig with [Pierce’s] chairman of the music department, so I cornered him in and put a face with the name.”
This is his third semester of coordinating the afternoon concerts.
“The concerts are apart of the Music 111 class, and I want my students to be exposed to some of the best out there,” said Bergman. “You have to see the best so that you can form a sound opinion.”
The Associated Students (ASO) sponsors the afternoon concerts.
“Its great that ASO is able to give what they do,” said Bergman.
“The hard part is that it doesn’t’ always work out the way you plan it when you are booking professional musicians for little or no money.”
Many of the musicians who perform at Pierce are current or former UCLA students.
“The Gluck Foundation pays for UCLA musicians to perform here,” said Bergman.
Although he teaches a classical music course, Bergman is conscious of his students when it comes to selecting performances.
“I want to be sensitive to my students, I am aware that many of them are beginning music students; you wouldn’t start beginning math students with calculus,” said Bergman.
Bergman finds it most rewarding when his students let him know they have a new found appreciation for classical music.
“I received an email from a former student that said ‘I now listen to classical music’,” said Bergman. “It would be great to have a full audience with students, faculty and staff from various academic backgrounds attend the concerts.”
One challenge he sees in the near future will be the closure of the Performing Arts Center for renovations.
“Once the theater closes, there is supposed to be a large tent set up for performances, but we’ll see how that goes,” said Bergman.
Bergman wants his students to be impressed with the quality of the performers and hopes to provide them with a new perspective about classical music.
“I consider myself to be a salesman of classical music,” said Bergman.
