On June 19, the Norman Studios will screen “The Flying Ace” at Flagler College’s Gamache-Koger Theatre in St. Augustine, Florida. Renowned pianist Bernie Katzman will provide live musical accompaniment. Following is Mr. Katzman’s bio.
Renowned Pianist Bernie Katzman
Bernie Katzman was born in The Bronx, NYC. He began improvising at the piano at age 3 and studied formally at 4 years of age. At 10, he enrolled in the Juilliard School of music’s prep division and studied piano with the great artist Santos Ojeda. He also studied composition with Jacob Druckman. He was a frequent performer of classical music during the weekly recital hall concerts. He attended the High School of Music & Art in Manhattan where he performed solo piano, ensemble chamber music and concerti with the orchestras. He was the school’s youngest accompanist of the Senior Chorus, performed on WNYC radio and graduated with the highest musical honors.
Post High School, he attended Juilliard where he received his Bachelors and Masters in Music performance. He performed at the opening of Lincoln Center as a tenor in a performance of Beethoven’s 9th under the baton of Leonard Bernstein. He has performed concerts throughout the NYC metropolitan area and has been notably recognized for his concert at Carnegie Recital Hall which consisted of works by Bach, Beethoven Chopin, Liszt and o- the-spot concert improvisations in contrasting genres.
Bernie has composed and produced many improvisational CD’s, which range from New Age Classical, Yiddish And Hebrew Melodies, “Your Favorite Christmas Carol” which includes his hit song, “Stay With Me On This Christmas Night”,” Hanukah At Home With Bernie”, “An American Prayer” a studio vocal production dedicated to the victims of 911 and their families. It can be heard and seen as an HD video on YouTube. Click berniekatzman and the icon with the American flag.
Aside from his classical and improvisational concerts, Bernie was a music educator, which included conducting and accompanying choruses, musical theater and private piano instruction. He was a club-date entertainer, show-band leader, arranger and Jazz musician.
For the past two years, he has been working with an early-childhood author, Susan Maskin, in the creation and development of musical compositions for her website, SuzieJean.com.
At present, Bernie has aspirations to create improvisations for film scoring. He is looking forward to his upcoming live performance at Flagler College, for The Norman Studios production of “The Flying Ace”
