Jane Berkner

Title: Senior Lecturer
Department: Music
Phone: 330/972-7061
Email: jberkner@uakron.edu

Biography

Jane Berkner is a Senior Lecturer of Flute at the University of Akron, and also on the music faculty at Ashland University. She has been on the Ohio Touring Artist's Roster since 1992, performing in recital series and school concerts across the state. Having worked with guitarist Stephen Aron (www.stephenaron.net) in numerous projects for over a decade, together they have formed The AronBerkner Duo (www.aronberknerduo.com). They are presenting concerts across the US, and their performances in Italy have led to the formation of an annual summer music festival, Suonare in Italia. (www.playmusicinitaly.com)

Ms. Berkner has performed with the Akron, Ashland, Canton and Youngstown Symphonies, the Ohio Ballet Orchestra, O’Neil Chamber Players, Garth Newel Chamber Players and the Chamber Music Society of Ohio. She has played for touring shows at EJ Thomas Hall in Akron, Playhouse Square in Cleveland and the Porthouse Theater as well as the Botzum Summer Festival Orchestra, Summit Choral Society, Akron Lyric Opera Orchestra, Ohio & Erie Canal Opera, and Prism Projects in New York City. She has also performed in Musica dal Mondo – Perugia and Voci e Organi dell’Appennino in Emilia Romagna with both Stephen and JoNell Aron and Singers Companye, a professional vocal group from Akron Directed by Dr. Sam Gordon. She has been performing with pianist Kim Bakkum since 1997, appearing in concert venues across the Midwest, as well as Sere Musicale and Corofest Assisi in Italy. Together they have performed for the National Flute Association and with the Singers Companye at the National Gallery in Washington, DC. In 2007 they released a CD, “In Cynthia’s Garden”, about which ClevelandClassical.com said “is wonderfully charming…and magnificently performed.”

Having been a clinician, judge and flute choir conductor at regional festivals and classes, Ms. Berkner has been invited to perform and present workshops for National Flute Association conventions in Atlanta, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Charlotte and Chicago, as well as for the Dana Flute Festival, NE Ohio Flute Association, and the East Carolina Flute Symposium, among others. The Greater Cleveland Flute Society Newsletter said of her, "Fun, outgoing, friendly, organized, direct, talented and thoughtful are some of the adjectives describing Jane Berkner…at Flute Festival 2011.”  Recognized for her expertise as a Flute Choir Director, she was Coordinator of the National Flute Association’s High School Flute Choir from 2001 to 2006, and is currently the Director of a summer Flute Choir Camp for adults at the Interlochen Center for the Arts.  

As Director of the University of Akron Flute Ensemble, she has taken the group to perform for the Central Ohio Flute Association and the Dana Flute Festival. They performed with jazz flutist Nestor Torres, received an invitation to perform for the National Flute Association in 2006, and, in 2010, she took the group on a performing tour of Italy. She is the Director of the Northeastern Ohio Flute Association’s Flute Ensembles, who appeared on the All Ohio Flute Choir Concert for the NFA in 2000, as well as Director of the Summer Flute Experience flute choirs at the University of Akron each summer.

Founder and Flutist of the O’Neil House Concert Series, she was also Assistant to the Program Chair of the National Flute Association in 2000. From 2004 to 2010, she was the Executive Director for Music at the Farmstead, a summer festival concert series in the Cuyahoga Valley. She is currently the Director of Arts and Enrichment for the Conservancy of Cuyahoga Valley National Park, creating concerts and cultural events for the Park, and is serving on the board of the Ohio Arts Presenters Network.

Ms. Berkner’s major flute teachers include George Pope, Geoffrey Gilbert, Martha Aarons and Jeffrey Khaner.

www.janeberkner.com