`Community' is music to his ears

Popular outreach programs develop musicians of all ages

Disdain for the term `ivory tower' has inspired Music Prof. Martin Berinbaum's career at UBC.

The results of his efforts to create performance-based music programs that engage the community can be seen and heard in the Chan Centre, as well as concert halls throughout the world.

"My greatest reward has been seeing the acceptance of our students by the profession," says Berinbaum. "We've produced a lot of major leaguers."

It was a chance stop in a 1976 concert tour that started it all.

A recent graduate of Julliard, Berinbaum was a gifted trumpeter and conductor. In Vancouver to perform, he looked up a former colleague who was teaching organ at UBC. It just so happened that UBC was looking for a combination trumpet teacher and band director.

"Marty" to his students, has been the driving force of much change at the School of Music, particularly the school's transition from a pure music education program to a performance-based one.

He predicts that the majority of the 400 current graduate and undergraduate students will go on to performance careers.

Among his initiatives is an honour band program that annually attracts B.C.'s best high school music students for two days of rehearsal followed by a concert. Often the students later enroll in UBC's music program.

The School of Music's Summer Institutes, which he started in 1993, attract upwards of 250 students annually. Ranging in age from seven to 83, they study and perform complex works under the guidance of some 70 teachers and assistants.

Now, after a quarter century as a teacher, performer, conductor and community ambassador, his only regret is that it will all end much too soon.

"I have no burning desire to stop," says Berinbaum. "I love every day of it. It's not `work' for me."