ABOUT MIRIAM
home song index round index about
miriam
 

The Story of Yeshua

The Refutation of John

Collected Essays

Collected Poems

Meeting messages

miriam berg was born in Sacramento, California
    the grandchild of 4 California pioneering families
she grew up in the Sierra foothills and in Reno, Nevada
after her parents divorced she returned with her mom
    and three siblings to live in Woodland, California
    which was her mother's birthplace
she graduated from Woodland High School in 1952
nine years later she graduated in Civil Engineering
    from the University of California at Berkeley
she began playing the piano at age 7
    the tuba at 11 and the string bass at 12
    the bassoon at 15
    and the guitar at age 22
she learned folk dancing from Lucile Czarnowski
    one of the founders of the folk dance movement
    who had studied with Jane Farwell
she joined the UC Hiking Club in about 1956
    and began attending their folk singing parties
    and their folk dancing parties
    and finally becoming their folk dance teacher
    in a building called Senior Men's Hall
she taught folk dancing there from 1961 to 1965
    when they were expelled by the Faculty Men's Club
    for dancing too late and too loud
she attended Stockton Folk Dance Camp for the first time
    in 1953 and for several years subsequently
    (her father Frank Fitz was a charter member of Camp
    attending the first one in 1948)
she attended her first San Francisco Kolo Festival in 1955
    and every year after that until 1979
    serving on the Kolo Festival Committee every year
    from 1959 through 1979 and beginning again in 1997)
she attended the first Teton Tea Party in Berkeley in 1960
    led by Bill Briggs, a Teton Mountain rockclimber
    Teton Tea Party is an all night folksinging party
    where anyone can come and play and sing and join in
and she was a regular at the Teton Tea parties
    continued by Charlie "Brown" Artman
    from about 1961 until 1977 in Berkeley and Oakland
and when the Ashkenaz music and dance cafe
    was opened in Berkeley by David Nadel
    she taught Balkan dances there
    from 1973 till 1977
she joined the Berkeley Friends Meeting in 1964
    and she has served two terms as clerk
    from 1974 to 1977 and from 2002-2003
in 1971 she began to lead a small madrigal group
    which never performed but sang for the joy of it
this led her to use her natural musical ability
    to write choral arrangements
    and madrigal-type choral pieces
in 1991 she began leading a choral singing group
    at the Berkeley Friends Meeting
    which has been meeting every year since
in 1990 she completed "THE STORY OF YESHUA",
    a biography of Jesus based on her study of
    the gospels and many other references about
    the gospels -- a link to it is shown adjacent
she is now retired from her computer programming career
    of 46 years; the last 22 years of which were
    at a nonprofit homeless services agency
now she spends her time playing with her grandchildren
    and working on this website
(more later)
Additional web sites: www.miriamberg.com