Westbeth musican and composer, Christopher Berg died in 2026. Jeffrey Middleton, acclaimed pianist, recorded Berg’s “Nocturnes and Preludes Book 2” in his honor. The pieces were recorded by Jeffrey using an IPhone. He is considering producing a studio recording of Books 1 and 2.

Christopher Berg (1949-2026) , although self-taught as a composer, counted as mentors composers Robert Helps, Noel Farrand and Richard Hundley. Berg is known primarily as a song composer. Reviewing his twelve “Songs on Poems of Frank O’Hara,” the American Record Guide said, “On the evidence of these songs, Berg may be an American Hugo Wolf.”
The recipient of grants from Meet the Composer, American Music Center, The National Endowment for the Arts, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music, and a Yaddo fellow, Berg’s works are published by Tender Tender Music, distributed exclusively by Classical Vocal Repertoire. Berg’s opera, “Cymbeline,” based closely on Shakespeare’s play was showcased in 2009 at the Opera Grows in Brooklyn series at Galapagos Art Space.
In addition to “Songs on Poems of Frank O’Hara”, his works include an orchestral rhapsody, “We Have Heard the Chimes at Midnight”, commissioned and performed by the Santa Fe (NM) Community Orchestra, another orchestral work, “Love Letter (for Bastiaan)”, two books of Nocturnes and Preludes for piano, “Two Poets, As Seen by Another,” for baritone, bassoon and piano, on texts by Ilse Gilbert, commissioned by Downtown Music Productions , and “Four Episodes and an Epilogue”, for cello and piano, commissioned for the Russian cellist Svetlana Kossyreva-Lishcke.

Originally from the Niagara Falls area of upstate New York, Jeffrey Middleton studied piano at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, followed by the Juilliard School and the Yale School of Music, where he earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree. He has lived in New York City since then and pursued a diverse musical career, including chamber music, solo recitals, and vocal accompaniment. His teachers include Theodore Rehl, Howard Aibel, Donald Currier, and Seymour Bernstein.
As a soloist, Middleton has specialized in the music of Joseph Fennimore and has made first recordings of many of his compositions, which are available on Albany Records.
For over 20 years, he worked at the Harlem School of the Arts, where he accompanied Betty Allen’s classes, coached singers, and directed an opera workshop. Concurrently, he held a long-standing position at the School of American Ballet, Lincoln Center, where he developed a curriculum to teach music to dancers.

For more information and links:
In Memoriam – Christopher Berg
Profiles in Art Interview: Jeffrey Middleton