Blog

His name was Ralph Houghton - and it is impossible to talk about the marvelous music program of the Kenosha public schools without talking about this incredible man.  In that rich history, he looms as a colossus - even though physically he was fairly short and completely ordinary-looking guy.   But in all of the ways

There is no way to count the number of musicals that I have experienced over the course of my life ... between the shows I have directed, the shows for which I have played piano, and the shows I have seen as a plain old audience member.  The thought of trying to calculate the number

The May 12th Chicago Tribune had a wonderful Mother's Day essay by Heidi Stevens that included these perceptive words:     "I know mothering is wonderful and exhausting, gratifying and soul-crushing, electrifying and tedious.  I know it is not for everyone."   As I read those words a second time, it occurred to me that they apply

Highlights from this past Saturday's State Solo & Ensemble competition at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, where I had to play (or maybe I should say 'where I had the pleasure of playing') for 28 different events . . .  a busy State for me although far from my busiest.  It was just busy enough to

One fairly normal day in the not-so-normal life of Greg Berg. Wednesday, April 24th ...... 5:10 a.m.-  Out of bed a little earlier than usual because I need to get to the radio station in plenty of time for some interview prep - 5:45 a.m.-  My breakfast - rather than the usual McDonald's Egg McMuffin

This is the sermon I preached at this afternoon's Good Friday Tre Ore service at Holy Communion.   I preached on the Sixth Word of the Seven Last Words of Jesus. From the 19th chapter of the gospel of John:  "When Jesus had received the wine, He said 'It is finished.' And bowing His head, He

It feels a little odd for me to be writing mournful words about the closing of a local Bar & Grill in the wake of yesterday's horrific fire that engulfed Notre Dame Cathedral yesterday.  It feels almost disrespectful to mention the one loss in the same breath as the other.  And yet, in a peculiar

After an eventful few days,  it is only now that I am finding the time to sit down and properly reflect on the extraordinary life and legacy of Kurt Chalgren,  one of Kenosha's most towering musical legends- and the kind of vibrant force of nature about which one can't possibly speak of in past tense. 

Let's start with the 'what' as in 'what happened.'   Saturday night at Carthage,  I collaborated with Dr. Wael Farouk,  director of keyboard studies at Carthage and the most astonishing piano virtuoso I have ever been privileged to know, in a performance of Franz Schubert's Die Winterreise, ('Winter Journey'),  one of the towering masterworks in the

I had to say thank you today.  Actually, I ended up singing thank you and playing thank you as well, because the woman being thanked was someone who played a gigantic role in my very earliest experiences as a musician in Colton, South Dakota- and mere words could not begin to express my gratitude for