Herb Bernstein
Herb Bernstein is an American record producer, composer, arranger, and conductor.
Professional Life
Herb Bernstein arranged and produced records for many artists in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. These artists include Laura Nyro, John Denver, Joel Grey, The Four Seasons, Bob Dylan, The Monkees, Dusty Springfield, Tina Turner, The Happenings, Tony Orlando and Dawn, Julie Budd, Lainie Kazan, Frankie Valli, Peaches & Herb, Patti Austin, Connie Francis, and Jimmy Roselli.
Bernstein's numerous hit records, as producer/publisher/arranger, include “See You in September,” “Go Away Little Girl,” “Knock Three Times” and “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” The Laura Nyro album More Than a New Discovery released in 1967, which Bernstein arranged and conducted, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. The album included such classic songs as "Wedding Bell Blues" and "Stoney End."
Bernstein served as musical director and conductor for Michael Amante . As of August 2012 he continues to work as an arranger and conductor, working with Regis Philbin and Joy Philbin, and Bernstein's longtime protegee Julie Budd , appearing at symphonies and other venues across the country.
Bernstein has conducted at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, and with the Buffalo, Baltimore, Austin, Hartford, South Bend, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras.
On August 11, 2012, Bernstein participated in Lincoln Center's "29th Annual Roots of American Music Festival" as a panelist for the "Stoned Soul Symposium" discussing the work of Laura Nyro.
Early life
Herb Bernstein was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY and was a star basketball player in high school and college . He attended Southern Methodist University on a basketball scholarship, then earned his B.S. and M.A. in Education at New York University. He briefly played professional basketball for the Milwaukee Bucks.
He went on to become a basketball coach and teacher in the New York City School system (at Midwood High School and Eastern District High School), where his day to day encounters with "special students" was the topic of conversations with his friend and fellow teacher Gabe Kaplan. Those conversations led to the widely popular '70s TV series Welcome Back, Kotter. The characters and their antics were largely based on Bernstein's students and experiences.
Bernstein dabbled in music from the time he was a child, starting with violin lessons at the age of four. He later learned piano and played in various bands until he broke into the record business full-time in the mid-1960s.
Personal life
In the 1960s, Bernstein was married to Joyce Robinson, a dancer with whom he had two daughters, Jill Bernstein, a writer and publicist in Washington, DC, and Ellyn Bernstein, an event producer/agent in New York City. He has two granddaughters, Alyson and Rachel. He and his second wife, Anne Roselli, daughter of Jimmy Roselli, have a son Michael.