Performances and Teaching

Lessons and Online Classes

We are teaching private lessons and classes via Zoom. Please contact us through our Contact page for more information. The Amherst Early Music Festival Online classes run on the first weekend of the month from September through May. Annette Bauer’s 4-week original notation classes and other continuing classes are also available. Please visit https://www.amherstearlymusic.org to register.

American Recorder Society members are invited to apply for scholarships to weekend and weeklong workshops. Scholarships are available to players of all ages and ability levels. Applicants may join the ARS at a special ½ price rate if not already a member. Visit americanrecorder.org/scholarships for more details and to apply.

Zoom classes with Tish on Tuesdays, January 27 – February 24, 2026

Online classes with Tish Berlin

January 27 – February 24, 2026 (5 weeks)

Bach on the Bass: Two-Part Inventions

10:00 am – 11:15 am PT/11:00 am – 12:15 pm MT/12:00 pm – 1:15 pm CT/1:00 pm – 2:15 pm ET

Johann Sebastian Bach’s two-part inventions and three-part sinfonias provide recorder players and other non-keyboard instrumentalists with a wonderful collection of pieces to play. Over these five weeks we’ll work on three of the two-part inventions on our bass recorders. Part of our work will involve making decisions on how to deal with parts that go out of our range, learning how to make changes that retain the beauty of the line. We’ll also exercise our skills on switching from bass clef to treble clef by playing both parts of the inventions. Along the way we’ll continue to work on good bass technique.

For bass recorder players.

2. An All-Zoom Practice Challenge: Making Friends with French Baroque Music

1:15 pm – 2:30 pm PT/2:15 pm – 3:30 pm MT/3:15 pm – 4:30 pm CT/4:15 pm – 5:30 pm ET

French Baroque music can often seem like a foreign language – you’ve practiced Handel and Bach, and learned a few trill fingerings along the way, but maybe you’ve wondered about the suites by French composers and the art of ornamenting them. Boismortier, Hotteterre, Dieupart, and others who were composing and performing in French aristocratic circles in the 18^th century offer a wealth of beautiful music for us to discover. We’ll learn about and practice some of the French agréments – trills, the port de voix, battement, flattement, tour de chant, and tour de gosier – in context so they become second nature. We’ll listen to recordings to hear the music that charmed Louis XIV and XV and their courts. We’ll learn how to adorn movements from suites by Boismortier with beautiful ornaments! For alto recorder players.

HOW TO PAY FOR MY ZOOM CLASSES

Payment: $25 per individual class, or $125 for all five.

Electronic payment is preferred, but if paying by check please make your check out to Letitia Berlin and mail to 806 Washington Ave Albany CA 94706.

Please make Canadian checks out in US dollars and have a US bank name and address printed on the check. Electronic payment options: Venmo, Zelle, ApplePay, or PayPal. If using PayPal, please add $2.00 to your payment (per individual class), unless you have a bank account linked to your PayPal account and can use the “sending to a friend” option.

Use this email address for most electronic payments: tishberlin@sbcglobal.net.
For Venmo use @Letitia-Berlin. Please register by filling out this form and returning it to me by email at

tishberlin@sbcglobal.net.
Please write “January-February 2026 Bach on Bass class registration” or “January-February 2026 All-Zoom PC class registration” at the beginning of your subject line.

1. Name
2. Email address:
3. Mobile phone #:
4. Classes you want to take – please list by title and date:

5. How you intend to pay:

Classes will be recorded and available to stream for one month. To learn how to register, please write to Tish at tishberlin@sbcglobal.net. Music will be sent as PDFs one week before first class.

IN-PERSON WORKSHOPS

October 25-October 31, and November 1-November 7, 2026 , Carmel Valley, CA

Hidden Valley Early Music Road Scholar, Carmel Valley, CA. Open to intermediate to advanced recorders and viols. Week 2 includes a special auditioned track for advanced dulcian and shawm players with Wouter Verschuren and Tish Berlin. Visit https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-adventure/6254/national-road-scholar-recorder-early-music-workshop/dates/ to register. If you are told that enrollment is closed, write to hiddenvalleymusic.org to ask about openings.

Week 1 faculty: Recorder: Tish Berlin, Frances Blaker, Larry Lipnik; Viola da gamba: David Morris; Early strings: Shira Kammen

Week 2 faculty: Recorder: Tish Berlin, Frances Blaker, Larry Lipnik; Viola da gamba: Mary Springfels, Larry Lipnik; Dulcian/shawm: Alison Gangler

March 1-6, 2026 Next Level Recorder Retreat, at The Bishop’s Ranch, Healdsburg CA

A retreat for intermediate to advanced recorder players interested in working intensively on technique and musical skills. Instructors: Miyo Aoki, Tish Berlin, and Frances Blaker. Dowload flyer/registration form here.

March 27-28, 2026 Central Coast Recorder Society lessons and workshop, Santa Barbara, CA

April 11-12, 2026 Amherst Early Music Spring Break Workshop, Arlington VA

May 30-June 1, 2026, Winds and Waves Recorder Workshop, Lincoln City, OR

Winds and Waves Recorder Workshop with Tish and Frances in Lincoln City on the beautiful Oregon coast. Stay posted for flyer/application.

Tish Berlin, Cléa Galhano, Frances Blaker. Photo by Bill Stickney

July 12 – July 26, 2026, Amherst Early Music Festival, Allentown PA

Amherst Early Music Festival: The Field of the Cloth of Gold, music of France and England. Classes for a wide variety of instruments and for singers. Stay tuned for more information and to register.

August 23-28, 2026, Next Level Recorder Retreat Southeast, Orkney Springs, VA

Next Level Recorder Retreat Southeast, Shrinemont Conference Center, Orkney Springs, Virginia. Faculty: Tish Berlin and Frances Blaker. Stay tuned for more information.

Virginia House at the Shrine Mont Conference Center in Orkney Springs, VA

October 26-November 1, and November 2-November 8, 2025 , Carmel Valley, CA