What did Barbara Bernstein want to be when she grew up? “A physicist or a veterinarian.”
“So much for childhood ambitions,” she says now.
As she grew older though, Bernstein — now the assistant to the music school director at Community School of Music and Arts — learned that life for her wasn’t about reaching a final or preconceived destination; it was about enjoying each experience that presents itself.
“Someone once told me, ‘If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans,'” Bernstein said.
Her work life has included a myriad of professions. Bernstein has been a librarian, a technical writer and editor, a published author and, in the early 1980s, an information broker. Although her jobs have covered a wide range, the common threads of music, information and organization have run throughout.
The last three years of Bernstein’s life have been spent working as assistant to the music school director at CSMA. Her main responsibility is to set up students with private music lessons and to orient new families to the school.
To her delight, one of the first tasks she took on at CSMA was to create a music library. The room where the library is now housed was stacked floor to ceiling with hundreds of boxes of unsorted music. It took her four months with the help of a Stanford intern to catalog 5,000 pieces of music, and she believes there are at least 20,000 pieces left to go.
“It is a true labor of love,” Bernstein said.
Bernstein is also a student at the school. She has played piano her whole life, and for the last year and a half has taken private lessons at CSMA with distinguished teacher Ludmila Kurtova.
“Music is a large part of my life. As a result, this is the perfect place for me to work,” she said.
When asked about her next goal in life, Bernstein said she will never stop planning, thinking, growing, dreaming, or being excited about life.
“When people cease to dream, they cease to exist,” said Bernstein. “I feel as open to possibilities as I did when I was younger. CSMA is a wonderful place to be now and I have no idea where I will be next.”
