ALUMNI UPDATE: W. GREGORY BERTON

Posted on February 28, 2020

(PJS 1971 - 1975)

My participation in the Portland Junior Symphony has blessed me with a lifetime of music, travel, and friendships. When I was a junior at Grant High School, PJS awarded me a scholarship to the Aspen Music Festival where I met my eventual teacher and mentor, Stuart Sankey, who had taught at Julliard for 23 years. That was the first of my 5 summers at Aspen, 4 of them as a fellowship student. While still in college, through my Aspen connections, I was offered a one-year position as Acting Principal Bass of the Symphonisches Orchester Berlin, where I enjoyed a well-paid position and the opportunity to learn a foreign language in addition to traveling and touring with the orchestra.

After college, I spent two seasons with the Oregon Symphony before winning an audition in San Diego where I spent the next 33 years. I met and married my wife Rosanne and we raised our two children in San Diego while the Orchestra blossomed into a first rate ensemble. In 2017, after an amazing orchestra trip to Carnegie Hall and a two-week tour of China with Lang Lang, we decided it was time to enjoy more time on our own schedule. We moved back to the NW to Lincoln City where we had always enjoyed the “family cabin” and purchased a small farm. Although I don’t have a regular gig, I am able to participate in various jazz ensembles, orchestras, and a music festival. I spend much of my time on the board of the thriving Lincoln City Cultural Center and also as a musical coach/mentor at the local high school where I am often reminded of our PYP Saturday night sectionals with Herman Jobelman, the former Principal Bass of the Oregon Symphony.

I support PYP because I believe in the transforming power of the arts! I believe that there will always be support in this world for remarkable performances and exhibits. I also believe that every child deserves to receive musical training and the opportunity to be exposed to all of the fine arts as a basic and fundamental part of their education. The training that I received at PYP was invaluable and I have never hesitated to proudly tell others that I received my early training there. I think it is also fair to say that without PYP and my early exposure to a national music festival, I never would have dreamed that I could have such a career. I give generously to PYP because I want others to have the opportunity to share their musical gifts with the world and become lifetime ambassadors for the arts. I hope you will join me in supporting what is clearly one of the oldest and finest youth programs in existence today.