The son of Henry Bern from Bessarabia. He is internationally recognized for his contributions to the research, dissemination and creative renewal of Jewish music with Brave Old World, The Other Europeans and the Semer Ensemble, among others. He is the creator of Present-Time Composition, a musical and educational approach informed by cognitive science that integrates the methods of improvisation and com- position. In 2016 he received the Weimar Prize in recognition of major cultural con- tributions to the city of Weimar. Bern is founding artistic director of Yiddish Summer Weimar, a five-week summer institute and festival in Weimar, Germany. Currently, it is the longest andmost intensive program for the research, dissemination and creative renewal of Yiddish culture in the world. YSW annually attracts students, artists, edu- cators and audiences from more than 20 countries to its workshops, concerts, lectures and symposia, new music, dance and theater projects, jam sessions and more. Bern's artistic direction gives equal weight to subject matter and pedagogical approach. YSW explores the subject of Yiddish culture as an ongoing, fundamen- t a l l intercultural process that is part of a complex matrix of European and non- European cultures. Its pedagogical approach emphasizes experiential learning, em- bodied knowledge, diversity and social interaction, and the complementarity of artis- tic, scientific and social creativity.