The Major Lift with Mark Berman
[Episode 7] Mark Berman makes it all sound so easy. From that spark of learning his first two chords to becoming a renown pianist and composer, you realize in talking with him that his journey is the perfect example of the saying If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. While nothing in life worth doing is ever easy, Mark’s positive attitude and energy have helped him endure the fickle music industry.
We walked away from our conversation with Mark impressed with his talent and accomplishments, thrilled that he’s still passionately working, but also in awe of his peace of mind which comes from the satisfaction of doing what he loves. Mark is proof that you can make a career by following your heart. Mark was always going to be a musician at heart no matter what he did as a profession. In his case, they are one and the same. It’s your heart that matters most. We hope you enjoy our chat with Mark Berman.
Episode Book Pairing
Each episode the The Gray Matters podcast is paired with a book that complements the episode’s subject matter. For this episode’s pairing, Mark selected the following title. We hope you enjoy it.
Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art
by James Nestor
Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren’t found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of Sao Paulo. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe.
Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is.
Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again.
Get your copy of Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art at Bookshop.org.
About Mark Berman
Mark Berman is a renowned pianist, composer and arranger. He has written music for, and played and recorded with, the proverbial who’s who of jazz, pop and rock: Aretha Franklin, Carole King, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Phoebe Snow, Leslie Gore, Gladys Knight, Wycliff Gordon, Hugh Jackman, Burt Bacharach, Chita Rivera, Richie Havens, and many others. He has also performed at Carnegie Hall, Radio City, the Blue Note, Birdland, the Rainbow Room, and Merkin Hall among other notable New York venues as well as internationally.
A graduate of the Hartt School of Music, Berman has written and produced music for television and film, including Sex and the City (where he played piano on the ubiquitous theme), Nurse Jackie, Royal Pains, The Bachelorette, and Bates Motel, and many others on NBC, CBS, ABC, Showtime, Comedy Central, HBO and OWN. His original music has also been featured on radio at NPR and CRN International.
Mark has also been a powerful presence on Broadway, where he has conducted orchestras for Rent, Smokey Joe’s Cafe and Blood Brothers, and played lead piano/keyboards on Bullets Over Broadway, The Boy from Oz, Hairspray, 42nd Street, The Life, Radio City Spring Spectacular, Aida, The Color Purple, Dream Girls, Jesus Christ Superstar, Hair, and Spider-Man.