MUSIC FACULTY




Bergeron Photo

  • Saxophone
  • Music Theory
  • Music Business
  • Brazilian Combo
  • Improvisation
  • Recording
  • Rhythmic Awareness



Dr. Thomas Bergeron
Professor of Music (1990)

DMA University of Oregon 1989
MM University of Michigan 1978
BM/BA University of New Hampshire 1974

In a career that spans 5 decades, Tom Bergeron has played in just about every situation one might reasonably expect of a saxophonist. He has performed throughout the United States, and in Europe and Central America; and has appeared with internationally-renowned artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Hal Blaine, Anthony Braxton, Robert Cray, Natalie Cole, Myron Florin, Vinnie Golia, Dick Hyman, Oliver Lake, Glen Moore, Bernadette Peters, Bobby Shew, The Fifth Dimension, The Temptations, Guy Lombardo’s Royal Canadiens, and Marin Alsop’s String Fever. He has premiered dozens of new concert works for the saxophone, and is widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on multiphonics, the esoteric technique of producing several notes at once on the saxophone.

He began his musical journey as a multi-instrumentalist in his native New England, studying piano and music theory with Roland Belisle, who learned stride piano from Fats Waller. In the late 60s, Tom met the legendary concert saxophonist and teacher Donald Sinta, with whom he studied while in high school and graduate school. Upon moving to Oregon in 1981, Tom studied with J. Robert Moore, who was among the last generation of students of Marcel Mule, the French Godfather of the saxophone. As a composer, Tom draws inspiration from Western European concert music and the jazz heritage, as well as from music traditions from around the world. In the 1980s, he studied African marimba with the late Zimbabwean master-percussionist Dumisani Maraire; more recent explorations have taken him to Brazil, Costa Rica and Poland.

Bergeron performs and records with Whirled News, Cathexis Orchestra, Western Rebellion, Labirynt, Hagberg/Bergeron Quartet, Mason Williams & Friends, and Gordon Lee's Gleeful Big Band. Over the years, he has played saxophone with the Portland Chamber Orchestra, Portland Center Stage, Third Angle New Music Ensemble, Pittsburg New Music Ensemble, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Oregon Bach Festival, Oregon Festival of American Music, Oregon Coast Music Festival, Cascade Festival of Music, Kansas City Symphony, Sacramento Symphony, Eugene Symphony, Newport Symphony, and Grande Ronde Symphony. His first orchestral experience was as second bassoonist with the NH Philharmonic in the late 1960s.

When he's not teaching or making music, Tom can be found swimming in the creek behind his house in the foothills of Oregon's Coast Range.

LINKS

Teal Creek Music

Tom Bergeron's Blog

Tom Bergeron's Podcasts

PODCASTS

Teal Creek Music

Business of Music

Music Theory

DISCOGRAPHY

2008 Whirled News: Bugbear
Whirled News Plays the Music of Adam Bates
Teal Creek Music &ndash TC 2013

2007 Labirynt: Motion Tissue
Teal Creek Records – TC 2011

2007 Western Hemisphere Orchestra: Henry Darger
Teal Creek Records – TC 2010

2006 Cathexis Orchestra: Dead Men (Are Heavier than Broken Hearts)
Teal Creek Records – TC 2009

2006 Labirynt: Exit
Teal Creek Records – TC 2008

2005 Mason Williams & Zoe McCulloch: Electrical Gas
Skookum Records &ndash SK-1008

2005 Christopher Woitach: Family
Teal Creek Records – TC 2007

2005 Clovis: Clovis
Teal Creek Records &ndash TC 2006

2004 Hagberg/Bergeron Quartet: Jobim Now
Teal Creek Records &ndash TC 2005

2004 Western Rebellion: Western Rebellion
Teal Creek Records &ndash TC 2004

2004 Gordon Lee: Flying Dream
Origin Arts Records

2004 The Tone Sharks: Morsels
Louie Records - Louie 032

2002 The Tone Sharks: Intention
Louie Records - Louie 029

2001 Whirled Jazz: Mukilteo
Louie Records - Louie 020

2001 Dave Leslie: The Brim
Louie Records - Louie 024

2000 The Tone Sharks: Chunks of Zen
Louie Records - Louie 018

2000 America's Millennium Tribute to Adolphe Sax: Volume III
Arizona University Recordings - AUR CD 3098

2000 Richard Raven Williams: The Wanderer
rraven records - rraven 0900

1999 The Tone Sharks: Cave Sleepers
Louie Records - Louie 013

1999 Valerie Brown: Uneasy Sleep
Louie Records - Louie 011

1998 Don Latarski & Rue de Blues: Rue Two
Crescent Records - CR 2224

1998 The Tone Sharks: ww.shark
Louie Records - Louie 009

1998 Labirynt: Labirynt
Teal Creek Records - TC2002

1998 Dave Storrs and the Tone Sharks: Ten Stories
Louie Records - Louie 010

1997 Tom Bergeron & Whirled Jazz: Leopard's Tale
Teal Creek Records - TC-2001

1996 Tom Bergeron: Saxophone Alone
Mark Records - MCD 2204

1991 Anthony Braxton & the Northwest Creative Orchestra: Eugene (1989)
Black Saint - 120 137-2

1982 Laura Clayton: Simichai-Ya!
Helicon Nine

1980 Betty Johnson & Yvonne Cheek Johnson: Moving Makes Me Magic
Nonesuch/Folkways Records - FC 7518

1978 The First Few: Could It Be?
Panting Hyena Productions

PRESS QUOTES

"Tom Bergeron stunned the audience...with some brilliant alto saxophone improvisation."
-Sue Pilla, Eclipse Jazz Newsletter (Ann Arbor, MI)

"Tom Bergeron brought the house down with a stunning performance."
-W. Thomas Marrocco, Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)

"Tom Bergeron's sax is so sweet your blood sugar soars."
"Outrageously good."
"Whatever Bergeron was paid...it wasn't enough."
-Karen Kammerer, Register-Guard

"Bergeron is a virtuosic saxophonist....He is a master of classical, improvisatory, avant garde, and jazz performance."
-Jason DuMars, International Saxophone Home Page

"The climax of the evening [was] Bergeron's rapturous and brilliant work."
"Tom Bergeron stole the show with his frisky Eric Dolphy-like romps."
-Mike Heffley, What's Happening (Eugene, OR)

"Bergeron, like Osby, produces clear, precise lines."
-Mark Corroto, AllAboutJazz.com

"Bergeron's compositions move like a well-plotted story."
-Lynn Darroch, The Oregonian

"Ferociously talented, pyrotechnically gifted."
-Scott Williams, Sentinel and Enterprise (Fitchburg, MA)

"Bergeron's rounded tone is so smooth, his dynamic control so exquisite that the sound envelops you like a cool flannel sheet."
"Bergeron's music is an Oregon microbrew of rich flavors and rare quality."
"So good he's scary."
-Brett Campbell, Eugene Weekly

 


You may contact Tom Bergeron at:

Western Oregon University
Department of Music, Smith Hall 124
Monmouth, OR 97361
phone: (503) 838-8802
e-mail: berge@wou.edu



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