Margaret Jean Bernstein is an award-winning songwriter, flutist, and educator internationally recognized for her socially awakened songs and uplifting instrumental compositions. Growing up into a family of professional dancers and educators just outside of New York City on Long Island, she began writing her own compositions by the age of seven and began flute lessons at the age of nine. Ms. Bernstein continued her studies with Katherine Hoover at the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory program, with Robert Willoughby at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where she received her Bachelor of Music degree in flute performance and with a full tuition merit scholarship to Arizona State University where she received her Master of Music degree in flute performance.
Ms. Bernstein’s discography includes two solo flute albums, Full Circle and On the Threshold of Change featuring her original compositions as well as an album produced by The Who’s Pete Townsend, on which she is a featured flute soloist. Her many live performances include a season as flutist and piccoloist with the Albany Symphony’s Shaker Mountain Opera Festival in Pittsfield, Massachusetts and five seasons with the Dance Brigade’s Nutcracker Sweetie production in Oakland, California.
Currently a member of the American Federation of Musicians Local #802 as well a writer and publisher member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), Margaret is also a voting member of the Recording Academy (Grammy’s). Her many awards and over ten years as a recipient of the ASCAP plus award, a finalist in the instrumental category in the West Coast Songwriter competition, and a finalist in the Children’s Music category in the International John Lennon competition.
Ms. Bernstein has written two original children’s musicals, “The Little Seed” and “The Trees’ Song for Peace” as well as songs, which have been performed by school choruses throughout the country. As an experienced educator, Ms. Bernstein holds permanent New York State public school teaching certifications in music and general education and is the founder of SAFE through the Arts, an arts-based bullying prevention program.
When she is not writing, teaching, practicing or performing music, Ms, Bernstein enjoys spending time with her animals, in nature and with her son Julian Jacobs, a professional jazz drummer residing in Phoenix, Arizona.