Singer-Songwriter Bernice Lewis has been touring artist for almost four decades. She performed at innumerable festivals, concert halls, coffeehouses, colleges, and house concerts, She is also a story teller, published poet, a producer, and an educator extraordinaire. She has released seven CD’s of her original music and is currently signed to Houston’s Berkalin Records. She has a forty-five year old daily yoga practice, loves good coffee, and her religion is the Grand Canyon
Bernice is The Artist Associate in Songwriting at Williams College (Williamstown, MA) and founding faculty at Schreiner University’s Songkeeper Program. She has also been an Artist in Residence and workshop presenter at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, Kripalu Center for Yoga in Lenox, MA, and Esalen Institute in Big Sur as well as at many schools and retreat centers. In 2008, she was awarded an Artist in Residence position by the National Park Service, where she was posted in Grand Canyon’s North Rim, and in 2015 she was Artist in Residence at Marble House Project in Dorset, VT
Lewis has toured extensively in the US, Canada, Mexico, and recently was honored to play in Israel. She has led eight fan based white water raft trips on The Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. She has led several fan-based trips to Ireland with Janet’s Planet and will be leading a trip to Scotland this July.
Lewis — who studied vocal improvisation with Bobby McFerrin, guitar technique with Alex DeGrassi and Guy van Duser, and songwriting with Rosanne Cash and Cris Williamson — has been a featured performer on NPR’s Mountain Stage program, as well as at the Kennedy CenterIn 1987, she was a finalist in the prestigious New Folk Songwriting Contest at the Kerrville (Texas) Folk Festival, where she continues to be a main stage favorite. Her ballad, “Bridges That Hold,” was included in Peter, Paul and Mary’s Lifelines video (PBS). She was featured in Yoga Journal for her work with sound and yoga, and has shared the stage with many renowned artists, including Dar Williams, Dixie Chicks, Patty Griffin, Pete Seeger, Ellis Paul, Rory Block, Livingston Taylor, Odetta, Christine Lavin, Marty Sexton, Patty Larkin, Catie Curtis, Mary Gauthier… it’s a long list.
Bernice is also becoming widely known for her History Alive presentation, a multi-media discussion of her family’s emigration from Nazi Germany, specifically designed for Junior and Senior High School classrooms. Her song, “Ways to Survive,” won an award from the American Zionist Movement in 1996.
