Steve Bernstein

New Paltz resident Steve Bernstein is a music teacher and performer with the Bernstein Bard Trio. He teaches chorus and recorder ensemble at Mountain Laurel Waldorf School in New Paltz. He also teaches guitar and mandolin privately and performs as a mandolin / harp duo with me on occasion.

Steve has been playing guitar since he was a teenager. His brother brought a guitar home from college and left it out on the couch for anyone to play. Steve played it and took to it. His brother left his guitar for Steve to play and later bought Steve his own guitar for his birthday. Like many of the musicians I have interviewed, he mostly taught himself how to play. He learned to transcribe music from records to create arrangements for his students to play. He has arranged a four-part tunebook of Celtic Music and original compositions for recorder, which is offered through Waldorf Publications. He has been playing professionally, mostly with his brother Mark, since they were both in their twenties.

 Steve was in his twenties when he started playing the mandolin. When I asked him how he chose the mandolin, he said he was inspired by the sound of David Grisman and his mandolin. He heard Grisman and Jerry Garcia together and wanted to play mandolin in that blue-grass, old timey way. The sound of the mandolin added a different timbre to the music and complimented the other guitars in his band.

 Steve spoke a little about why he loves to play music. He spoke of the moments of magic that are created when musicians come together to play. These moments can be reached through improvisation. Steve describes a moment on The Bernstein Bard Trio's CD during Scarborough Fair], when the trio starts to improvise together and a magical moment is created. It's moments like these, he says, that led him to become and sustain him as a musician.