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, April 14 – May 12, 2026
Online classes with Tish Berlin
April 14 – Mary 12, 2026 (5 weeks)
- Bach on the Bass: Two-Part Inventions and Three-Part Sinfonias
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 these marvelously inventive 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. We’ll make decisions about articulation and phrasing based on the melodic and harmonic structure of the pieces. Along the way we’ll continue to work on good bass technique.
For bass recorder players.
2. An All-Zoom Practice Challenge: Developing our Friendship 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
This class will build on my January/February Making Friends with French Baroque Music class. Familiarity with French Baroque ornaments as found in Hotteterre’s ornament chart and as seen in music by Hotteterre will be helpful for new participants. Boismortier, Hotteterre, Dieupart, and others who were composing and performing in French aristocratic circles in the 18th century offer a wealth of beautiful music for us to discover. We’ll continue our study 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 of music that charmed Louis XIV and XV and their courts. We’ll go deeper into learning how to adorn movements from suites by Boismortier and Hotteterre 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 write to Tish at tishberlinsbcglobal.net for address.
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 “April-May 2026 Bach on Bass class registration” or “April-May 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
March 27-28, 2026 Central Coast Recorder Society lessons and workshop, Santa Barbara, CA
Schedule a private lesson with Tish or Frances on Friday, come play all day on Saturday! Visit https://centralcoastrecorders.org/workshop/ for more information.
April 11-12, 2026 Amherst Early Music Spring Break Workshop, Arlington VA
Visit https://www.amherstearlymusic.org/workshops/spring-break-workshop to learn more and to register. Choral workshop with Richard Robbins, classes for recorders, viols, and lutes. Finish the weekend with a grand all-workshop performance of a motet by Ingegneri and a chanson attributed to Claude le Jeune.
May 30-June 1, 2026, Winds and Waves Recorder Workshop, Lincoln City, OR
Winds and Waves Recorder Workshop with Tish and Frances and Inga Funck in Lincoln City on the beautiful Oregon coast. Download flyer/registration form here.
Inga Funck
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. Visit https://www.amherstearlymusic.org/festival 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. Come back for registration information.
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 Alison Gangler. 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
February 28-March 5, 2027 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. Watch this space for registration and flyer.
Concerts
Friday March 20, 2026 on the Barefoot Chamber Series, Berkeley, CA
Bertamo Trio (Tish Berlin, recorders; David Morris, viola da gamba; Yuko Tanaka, harpsichord, with guest violinist Cynthia Keiko Black. 17th- and 18th-century Music from Germany and Beyond. Visit https://barefootchamberconcerts.com/next-season/2025-2026-season/trumpet-violin-continuo/
Fringe Concerts at the Berkeley Festival and Exhibition June 6-14, 2026- stay tuned for Bertamo dates and Ensemble Vermillian dates.