“One-Take Warren” was the nickname Warren Bernhardt earned across an estimated 1,000 studio sessions — credits ranging from Gerry Mulligan and George Benson to Don McLean’s “American Pie” to Steely Dan tours — and he was equally at home playing Chopin etudes from memory or four-handed piano with Bill Evans. He died in August 2022 at 83, having spent more than 50 of those years in Woodstock, and on Saturday his community gathers at Maverick Concert Hall for a tribute.
About the Show
The September 19 event is billed as an independent production, falling just after the close of Maverick’s 2026 regular season, organized to mark the life and music of a pianist whose range made him genuinely difficult to categorize. Bernhardt received classical training from Sascha Gorodonitzki and others in New York City, and the technique stayed with him; guitarist David Spinozza, who played alongside him in L’Image, recalled being astonished by how “virtuosic he handled Chopin’s 24 Etudes, which he played from memory.” In 1961 he joined Paul Winter’s Sextet, won a competition judged by Dizzy Gillespie and John Hammond, and performed at the Kennedy White House.
His later career moved through Steps Ahead (alongside vibraphonist Mike Mainieri, saxophonist Michael Brecker, bassist Eddie Gomez, and drummer Peter Erskine), touring years with Art Garfunkel and the Simon & Garfunkel reunion shows, and session work whose accompaniment Donald Fagen called “a singular work of art.” He recorded more than 20 albums as a leader or co-leader; his final session, Lotus Night (2011), was made alongside Mainieri and guitarist Kazumi Watanabe. Erskine described Bernhardt as someone who “saw and heard the world through rhapsodic eyes,” adding that “everything he touched became poetic.” Bernhardt relocated to Woodstock in 1968 and stayed, performing regularly at the Joyous Lake and collaborating with Tony Levin and Steve Gadd, until his death. No performers for the September 19 tribute had been announced at the time of publication.
Venue & Logistics
Maverick Concert Hall, a historic outdoor pavilion constructed by hand by Hervey White of the Maverick Art Colony and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, sits along Maverick Road near Woodstock, in the Hudson Valley. Its acoustics have earned the description “superb,” and the hall hosts what is considered the nation’s longest-running summer chamber music festival. The concert begins at 4 p.m.
Tickets
No ticket price was available from sources at the time of publication. Buy tickets through the Maverick Concerts website.