Berens is a veteran of the orchestral pops world with more than 35 years playing and arranging professionally. He’s also played more than a thousand gigs across the Dayton area, from bars and clubs to theaters.
Berens began his career as a guitarist and banjoist for the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra in 1983, and has been arranging for the CPO since the 1990s. He, along with his wife and business partner, Louise — the orchestral copyist for the arrangements — founded the Berens Pops Library to publish Tim’s compositions.
His works are performed hundreds of times per year around the world, as well as in acclaimed venues like Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. His arrangements have been heard on nearly every continent.
“I’m able to reach people all over the world and never leave my house,” Berens said. “It feels good to make somebody happy who lives in China and can hear this piece. It’s impossible to imagine how I could have even reached a person like that 30 or 40 years ago.”
Dudamel is widely regarded as one of the world’s finest living conductors. In an email, Berens referred to him as the “LeBron James of orchestral music.” Whether that makes Berens a player or an on-court coach doesn’t matter; for one of the highest-profile classical music events in history, they were on the same team.
“He memorized my arrangement,” Berens said. “Dudamel has a steel trap memory. But considering he would have seen the score for the first time two weeks before the concert, it’s really quite a feat that he just stood right there with no music on the stand and conducted.”
Berens originally wrote the arrangement of “Amazing Grace” for the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. The DPO, conducted by Neal Gittleman, premiered the arrangement two summers ago with a local soprano.
Just before Thanksgiving 2024, Berens received an order from the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra. Days later he learned the piece would be performed at Notre-Dame.
The piece builds but never reaches a climax in the traditional sense. Just before Pretty Yende sings the final phrase “grace will lead me home,” Berens brings it down to just five instruments — the principal strings — increasing the intimacy. The audience is drawn in by the drop in volume, bringing a gorgeous new energy. The whole orchestra swells, like a prayer.
The emotional impact is gentle, but disarming.
“I like to bring voices to life,” Berens said. “By voices, I don’t mean human voices, but voices inside the orchestra. If you listen to the arrangement, there are multiple melodies going on at any one time, and they all blend together to create the harmony.”
He writes active lines and melodies, with every instrument playing a melody — instead of long, sustained whole notes. Having an active melody is Berens’ fundamental philosophy of arranging.
After having a year to reflect on his pivotal role in the historic concert, Berens shared his thoughts.
“It’s just an amazing thrill,” he said. “I’m very proud that I’m part of it. The video has gone absolutely viral and been seen by millions of people around the world. Nobody in the comments knows who I am; it’s all about the singer and the orchestra. But my favorite YouTube comment was a woman who says ‘she sounds just how I think I sound when I’m in the shower.’ That made me laugh.”
Currently, Berens is in the process of writing a public television special about the Underground Railroad with the Ohio Valley Symphony.
In October, he played the guitar one part for “Coco” with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He’s performed the part 14 times in seven cities. He’s playing it again in February with the Mason Symphony Orchestra in Mason, Ohio.
Berens has yet to talk with Dudamel, but he’s expressed a desire to write for him through the conductor’s manager.
“He certainly knows who I am because of this piece,” Berens said. “They used it for the end credit to the show that was broadcast around the world. And that tells me I got something really, really right.”
Brandon Berry covers the music and arts scene in Dayton and Southwest Ohio. Reach him at branberry100@gmail.com.
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