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These are the things musician Marc Bernstein hopes to share through “Ashkenazi Fathers,” a piece he has written for the Saint Mary’s University Concert Band.
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Marc Bernstein, left, an internationally recognized jazz saxophonist, plays "Gold Duck Time" alongside student Ryan Ballanger, center, and Professor Eric Heukeshoven on Tuesday during a jazz workshop combo class at Saint Mary’s University. Bernstein traveled from his home in Denmark to work with SMU’s concert band on the new music he composed for them as part of this year’s Kaplan Commissioning Project. (photo by Katie Derus/Winona Daily News) |
“These are things we all need as musicians,” Bernstein said.
Bernstein, 45, is a world renowned jazz saxophonist and was commissioned to write the piece through the Helen and Sam Kaplan Foundation Commissioning Project. The foundation supports performances and activities led by Jewish artists and scholars that are designed to increase cultural and religious understanding at SMU.
The piece will be performed in September. Bernstein is at SMU this week to work with music students and introduce them to the piece.
“I’ll change or polish the piece as necessary,” Bernstein said. “I want the students to have an influence on how it ends.”
Bernstein was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduated from the Berklee College of Music in 1984. His grandfather came to Brooklyn from the Ukraine when he was only 17 years old, escaping a country that was no longer safe for Jewish people.
While his grandfather never played an instrument, he encouraged Bernstein to play. When he was in fourth grade, his grandfather bought him a clarinet. In sixth grade, he got a saxophone.
“He wanted to hear ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’” Bernstein said.
He pays honor to his grandfather with his band Kibrick, taking the name from his grandfather’s original surname. It was later changed to Bernstein to help the family blend in.
“The day he first stepped into America, Russia didn’t exist,” Bernstein said. “He forgot how to read and write the language. He forgot everything.”
But he didn’t forget the music. His grandfather would play Klezmer and Yiddish music from back home, often singing a lullaby to comfort his grandchildren.
It was the same lullaby
that comforted him as he and his 12 brothers and sisters walked from the Ukraine to Paris in search of safety.
Bernstein is proud of his heritage and feels lucky to have grown up in Brooklyn with his grandparents on the first floor, his aunts and uncles on the second floor and his family on the third floor.
He now lives in Denmark and teaches at the Academy of Music in Esbjerg. He moved there 13 years ago after meeting his future wife on a plane after he played a gig in Amsterdam.
Bernstein will be back in September to work with students on the piece and to perform it during SMU’s Inauguration/Family Weekend.
Bernstein is thankful for his grandfather’s musical influence and enjoys adding jazz, funk, soul and rock to the music from his childhood.
“My music is a fusion, just like I am,” Bernstein said.
