Mr. Anderson graduated from Montclair State University in New Jersey summa cum laude with the degree of Bachelor of Music in composition. In 2000, Bernie earned his MFA at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.
Bernie was a student of the late Lee Erwin who became famous for scoring and performing many original scores of silent films with theatre pipe organ accompaniment. Since this time, Bernie has scored and performed many silent film scores on organ in the tristate area over the last ten years and recorded new scores for 4 DVD releases through reelclassicdvd.com and Image Productions. Bernie also studied organ with famed Radio City Music Hall Organist, Ashley Miller, from 1991 to 1997. In 2001, Mr. Anderson was the organist for the New Jersey edition of the Library of Congress, American Movie Classics Film Preservation Tour performing his own scores for Laurel and Hardy's short, Big Business, 1903 Great Train Robbery and Harold Lloyd's Safety Last. Bernie served as Head Staff Organist and curator at the Union County Arts Center (formerly known as the Rahway Theatre) for 16 years and currently is a staff organist for the Lafayette Theatre in Suffern NY on the 2/10 Ben Hall Memorial Wurlitzer for 20 years playing intermission before the 1st run movies and also a staff organists at The Landmark Loews Jersey Theatre, in Jersey City, NJ on the 4/23 Wonder Morton Theatre Organ.
In July 2003, Bernie had the pleasure of being the premiere organist for NYC AGO's Pipe Organ Encounter (POE) which was held at Radio City Music Hall on the Music Hall's 4/58 Wurlitzer. The event's purpose was to expose Classical Organ Students to the world of theatre organ. In Feb 2005, in a concert with Dave Kopp, Bernie played the first public NYTOS concert at Radio City Music Hall since 1979. Bernie has also played concerts and silents at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), AFI Silver Theatre, EMCATOS (Babson College and Zeiterion Theatre), Shanklin Music Hall, Dickinson High School, Long Island University (Brooklyn Paramount), Capitolfest - Capitol Theatre, Rome, NY and Colonial Theatre, Phoenixville, PA. He is also a guest organist for Madison Square Garden and plays for the New York Rangers.
In 1996, Bernie met Tony award wining Orchestrator, Douglas Besterman, and started to work for him as his orchestration assistant working on such Broadway shows as "Big", "King David", "The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular", "Fosse" and "Seussical the Musical" and served as the music production assistant to the conductor on the Broadway production of "Seussical the Musical". Bernie also studied orchestration with Danny Troob; orchestrator for the Disney animated films such as "Beauty and The Beast" and "Aladdin" and "Enchanted".
In 2005, Bernie wrote the orchestrations for a new musical, "The Girl in the Frame" presented at Goodspeed Opera House in CT. and was published by Theatrical Rights Worldwide in 2007. Bernie recently finished orchestrations for another new musical called "I See London, I See France..." which premiered at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in Sept of 2007.
At NYU, Bernie wrote music for the musical "Washington Buzz" as his thesis project and was a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop from 2002-2006 where he wrote the music for a new show called "Slapstick".
Mr. Anderson had the pleasure of collaborating with Tony Award winner, William Finn on two new songs that were commissioned by The New Yorker Magazine for their 75th anniversary festival in May of 2000. Bernie is also the recipient of the 2000 ASCAP Frederick Loewe Award presented to him by Kitty Carlisle and is a member of ASCAP and AFM Local 802 (NY)