Frank Berg was one of the few students at his Alberta high school who knew what he wanted to do with his life. After his dream of teaching music came true when he moved to this area in 1999, he felt guilty for the first few years that he was being paid to have fun.

“Then I heard enough comments from people saying they could never do what I do and realized I didn’t need to feel that way,” he says with a laugh.

Since 2005, Berg has been teaching his younger students using the Music for Young Children (MYC) program. This method, developed in 1980, is now followed by over 900 teachers in five countries.

Berg says he had been offering regular private lessons when several students came to him from a MYC program. “I was impressed with the kids’ depth of knowledge for their age,” he says.

He looked into the program and found that there was already an MYC teacher in Huntsville. When he learned that she was planning to stop, he undertook all three levels of MYC teacher training in one year so that he could take on her students.

“MYC does group classes with a parent,” he explains. “Kids learn rhythm reading and sight reading, ear training, composing, music theory and singing. They learn it in a fun way so they don’t realize they’re learning. Concepts are sliced thin enough so kids can get it and parents with no training can get it. And parents with training wish they had learned it that way!”

Berg says he always enjoyed teaching younger kids, but private lessons were difficult because children had to focus for half an hour sitting on a bench. “Having group classes where you’re changing activities every five minutes and reinforcing concepts in different learning styles is way better,” he says, “especially for high-energy kids who don’t have long attention spans.”

From his studio on Main Street, Berg offers MYC lessons to children ages four to 10. He also has a Music Pups program providing music experiences to children from birth to four years and has private piano and singing students of all ages, including some retirees.

“I love it,” he says. “For me, to have a new focus every half hour or hour it really breaks up your day. It’s not like 10 hours at a desk.”

As well as teaching 35 hours of music lessons each week, Berg is the musical director for Church Muskoka Style and also directs the Muskoka Music Men barbershop choir.

“I enjoy that because the men usually don’t have a music background,” he says. “You sing each part to each person and teach it by rote. That’s a lot of fun.”

Berg’s interest in music began in early childhood, when he spent summers with his grandparents in Saskatchewan. “I’d pick out tunes by ear,” he said. Then, when he was in Grade 3, his grandparents bought him a piano and he started taking lessons.

He completed a BA in music at Briercrest Bible College near Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. “It was a well-rounded program,” he says. By the time he graduated, he had his Grade 8 singing, Grade 9 piano and had learned conducting, songwriting and recording.

While at college, he met his wife-to-be, Heather Cassie of Huntsville. The two married in 1996 and moved to an old farm north of Kearney in 1999.

“I had never been to Ontario,” he says. “Having grown up on the prairies, I was surprised by all the lakes in the way of everything. You couldn’t just drive straight there.”

When their first daughter, Meeda, was born five years ago, they decided to move into Huntsville, and they now have two more daughters, Sylvie, 3, and Isabel, 5 months.

Berg’s is a busy life. Most workdays are 12 hours long, and some nights the kids are already in bed before he gets home. Nevertheless, he feels very lucky.

“There’s nothing else I’d rather be doing,” he says.

Thanks to Donna Leadston and Janice Roy for suggesting that Frank Berg be profiled. If there is someone you’d like to see in this space, please call Paula at 789-5541 or e-mail  pboon@metrolandnorthmedia.com.