My Students

In with the New.

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Two weeks ago today was the first day of classes here at Carthage - and I think for me (and probably for a lot of my music colleagues) it was a First Day fraught with more uncertainty than usual.  The reason is simple:  On a day filled with the joy of welcoming back returning students

“Nothing like a Dame” – 2015 Recital

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Here is a fun moment from my most recent faculty recital - as my current Carthage voice students (the upperclassmen, that is)  joined me for "There is nothing like a dame" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific.  I didn't list any of the pieces sung in the second half, so this came as a complete

The Very Best Kind of Beautiful

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This is a song I composed in honor of a Carthage graduate named Laura Kaeppler- who also happens to be a former Miss America!   Towards the end of her time as Miss America,  she returned to Kenosha to receive a special Kenoshan-of-the-year Award - and the organizers of the event were anxious for Carthage

‘Til we meet again.

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There aren't very many hymns that literally move me to tears - but "God be with you 'til we meet again" is one such hymn for me - and it always gets me crying.  Every. Single Time.  Interestingly enough, it's not a hymn I ever sang in my childhood because it wasn't in any of

“The Kerry Dance” (Mike & Nick)

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Here is a moment from "Moving On:  A Farewell Recital by Nick Huff and Mike Anderle."  I taught Mike and Nick voice lessons not only for four years at Carthage but back in their high school days as well - so we go back quite a long way.   After sets devoted to Musical Theater

  • Gregory Berg conducts Handel's Messiah at First United Methodist in Kenosha, Wisconsin

Arise! Shine!

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This past Sunday night I conducted my 10th consecutive Messiah Singalong at Kenosha’s First United Methodist Church.  Of course,  I have no business referring to “my” tenth Messiah,  because there could/would not have been any performance at all without all kinds of amazing people who made it possible, including .... AN EXTRAORDINARY ORCHESTRA.  I’m a

Winning Team

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  This photo makes me smile for all kinds of reasons.   It shows the four voice students I just took to a NATS competition in La Crosse.   NATS stands for the National Association of Teachers of Singing,  and the Wisconsin chapter sponsors a competition every fall in which gifted singers from nearly all of the

Male Call

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  This summer has been exciting not just because of fun trips which I’ve been able to make back to Atlantic and Decorah, two of my former hometowns, but also because I have taken on NINE new private voice students - all middle school or high school guys, and most of them taking private voice

Master Class Act

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  Carthage’s music department played host to a very special guest today- Kurt Ollmann, a marvelous baritone who was one of Leonard Bernstein’s favorite singers (singing the role of Riff on Bernstein’s one and only recording of West Side Story) and is now a highly regarded voice teacher at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.   And in