Parkville residents Steve and Joyce Berg have been practicing and teaching music for a long time in the southern Platte County area.
The couple met at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. Joyce is from Milwaukee, Wis. and Steve grew up in the Kansas City area. Joyce said their professor studied classical traditions from Russian techniques and some French techniques came from Alfred Cortot. Steve is the founder of the Parkville Symphony which began in 1995. He also taught astronomy at Park University for 18 years. Joyce plays timpani and mallets in the band. She also worked playing organ and piano at Parkville Presbyterian for 25 years and at St. Augustine Episcopal Church for 10 years. The symphony continuously performed until COVID which caused them to take a three year hiatus. The symphony just finished their 31st season. The symphony performs a fall concert, a Christmas concert, a spring concert and a Fourth of July concert.
Steve said Park University has been very generous to allow the symphony to reserve and do a majority of their concerts at the university. He also said the symphony makes it a mission to do fund raisers for each of their concerts. The symphony performed at Parkville Living Center for one of their fund raisers last year. The beneficiaries of the symphony are the Platte Land Trust, SPEAC Food Pantry, Parkville Living Center and the Washington Chapel C.M.E. Restoration Fund. The symphony does three performances a year for their charities. Another part of the symphony’s mission is to make the best music they can which includes mostly local amateur musicians. It creates the opportunity for the musicians to keep performing past college and high school. The symphony is up to about 45 members now and Steve said they’re the best they’ve ever been. The symphony is multigenerational, composed of volunteer adults and student musicians.
“The attitude is just marvelous,” Joyce said.”It seems to be like therapy in many ways. There’s just this wonderful sense of unity as we’re all working together.”
There have been times for the symphony when membership was down, but they’ve always had a pretty full band. Parkville City Clerk Barbara Lance who died in 2015 was a loyal supporter of the symphony.
The Bergs have taught students of all ages and faith backgrounds. Joyce was the president of the Kansas City Music Teachers Association (KCMTA) in 2007 and they were both members of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) and National Federation of Music Clubs (NFMC). Joyce said she’s been able to teach students from all backgrounds and said it was a marvelous worldview. The KCMTA was the second largest piano teaching organization in the country just a spot below New York. The Bergs are not looking for any more new students.
The Bergs’ daughter, Steph, decided to follow in the footsteps of her parents to become a musician. Steph majored in clarinet and became a composer. Her compositions have been performed by the St. Louis Symphony and major universities all over the country.
The next concert planned for the Parkville Symphonic Band will be sometime in November for their fall concert. For more information about upcoming concert the Parkville Symphonic Band can be contacted via Facebook.