Affiliated Artists Program

Affiliated artists are musical artists who have partnered with Berch Media to bring their music to market in a unique way. The artists are contributing their musical selections to underscore and enhance your Berch Media "Market SmartR" package. The recipient of the Berch Media "Market SmartR" package gains the use of these musical selections for their listening pleasure. The artist gains exposure and a link to their web site to create awareness and monetize their efforts. This symbiotic relationship between the keystone company and the artists involved, create a valuable entity. It is definitely a "win win" situation and extremely cost effective.


2002 Photo

There is a wonderful chemistry between husband and wife, Randy and Pamela Copus, the duo who comprise 2002, perfectionists in both their art and their craft. Randy Copus plays piano, electric cello, guitar, bass and keyboards. Pamela Copus plays flutes, harp, keyboards and a wind instrument called a WX5, along with exotic instruments she collects during her travels around the world and learns to play. Both musicians also provide all of the vocals on their albums, recording their voices many, many times and layering them in their state of the art studio in Texas to create a “virtual” choir with a celestial, angelic quality.

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Anon1myZ Photo

Anon1myZ (pronounced anonymous), aka A1 is no newcomer to the hip-hop and Latin hip-hop. Breaking new ground in 2001 A1 has moved on to perform and record with household names including E-40, Jon B., T-Pain, Lil Kim and many more. A1 has a dynamic and powerful stage presence, his music is personal and contemporary. He is a strong driver and catalyst in documenting the current struggle of his people. With three videos on You Tube and his most powerful work “Riddle of Steel” available now, be prepared for a breakout year for A1.

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Omar Akram Photo

While Omar is a classically trained pianist, he has a gift for composing intriguing melodies that dance in your head long after the music has stopped. The son of a U.N. diplomat, Omar has spent decades living around the globe, soaking up musical influences from far flung locales such as Afghanistan, Cuba, France, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

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Jamie Bendell Photo

Jamie has been writing songs since fourth grade and crafts her lyrics from experiences, thoughts, stories, and feelings. Her songwriting can best be characterized as sweet, melodic, and mindful pop music that will have listeners singing along on repeat.  After graduating from university in Atlanta, Georgia, Jamie didn’t even consider looking for jobs related to her business studies. Instead, she packed up her car and made the 14-hour drive back up to New York City.  A Clear Channel recommended artist, Jamie's music has been featured on the sites of over one hundred adult contemporary radio stations across the country.  After recently releasing her newest EP, 'I'm not sorry anymore' Jamie spends most days writing, and as many nights as possible frequenting the music scene around New York City, playing both solo and full band shows.

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Malia Eleven Photo

Malia Eleven

Malia Eleven hasn't had many breaks. Struggling through many setbacks and roadblocks, Malia has finally found her emotional core. After winning the prestigious “Most Intriguing Poet” award from the International Society of Poetry, Malia wrote a poetry book and has turned her lyrical poetry into lyrical styling. She has developed into a strong songwriter with a style that features a compelling and intriguing honesty.

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Gandalf Photo

Gandalf plays many and varied instruments (acoustic and electric guitars, sitar, saz, charango, bouzouki, balaphon, piano, synthesizers and sample-keyboards, and various percussion), blends acoustic with electronic and spherical sounds and weaves folk-elements into symphonic structures to create his unmistakable and unique style. The music is intimate, tender, rich with grandeur and always heart opening.

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Giovanni Photo

Giovanni has performed in concert halls around the world... filled showrooms in Las Vegas and sold millions of CDs on QVC and The Home Shopping Networks in the United States, England and Canada. Setting a sales record on QVC, he sold one hundred twenty thousand CDs in just two hours. A true testament to the talent, style and popularity of Pianist/Composer/Performer… GIOVANNI.

After performing for many years in Europe seeing all of the wonders of each city and meeting many interesting people, his longing, was to move to the United States. In 1984, he finally realized a life-long dream, when he became an American citizen. “It was like winning an Oscar for the best score”, says Giovanni. “I’m so proud to live in this country”. With his US citizenship and a new-found confidence, Giovanni went about pursuing his passion... performing in America. Hearing about an opportunity “where the stars play”, Giovanni went to Las Vegas. Through sheer determination and a little help from a new-found friend, he began an association with Caesar’s Palace hotel and performed on their stage for more than ten years. Oh yes, the new friend… Frank Sinatra.

“Frank used to come and listen to me play all the time”, says Giovanni, with a smile. “He used to call me “my Italian boy”. He would pinch my cheek and say, “Come on eat, you’re skinny”. Can you imagine, Sinatra calling me skinny?” One time he asked what I wanted out of life. I told him my hopes and dreams about people hearing my music and he just looked at me and said, “You’ll do it. I can see it in your eyes.”  With all of his other talents, it seems that Frank Sinatra was a prophet as well.

Now, with his acclaimed PBS TV special “Giovanni Live From Las Vegas”, his highly successful “Roll Out Piano” television promotion and the release of his new “Romantic Moods” 3 CD collection, the Giovanni story continues…

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Govi Photo

A native of Germany, Govi spent eight years living in India. "My approach comes from the meditative and creative environment I experienced while living in India as well as playing with musicians from many different cultures and backgrounds," he says. It was there that Govi started playing the mandolin, mandola cello, sitar, bouzouki, charango and the 8-string ukulele.

Currently living in Hawaii, Govi contends that the overwhelming response he has received from listeners worldwide is heartening and keeps him going.

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Nicholas Gunn Photo

Gunn's formal training was as a student of the Royal School of Music in Rochester, England, Gunn's birthplace. It was there that he studied the flute and learned basic theory and music appreciation. When Gunn moved to Southern California, he began writing, producing and performing his own material from his at-home, state-of-the-art production facility.

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Mike Howe Photo

Born in Liverpool, England in 1966, and growing up when the music scene was transforming so rapidly, he had fantastic opportunities to see the most amazing bands.

Mike went to college to study ecology, eventually earning a masters degree. Inspired and humbled by world class jazz musicians, Mike has tried to develop his own unique sound on the acoustic guitar with a strong sense of melody and emotion. His sound is directed by his relationship with people and wild places, places that have left him awestruck since he was a boy. “I hope that people can hear the deep-felt respect for people and wild lands in my music and that it helps bring peace, warmth and curiosity to a small part of their day.”

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John Jorgenson Photo

The John Jorgenson Quintet features guitarist John Jorgenson, a founding member of the Desert Rose Band, the Hellecasters, and six-year member of Elton John's band. Artists ranging from Barbra Streisand to Bonnie Raitt to Earl Scruggs have sought out Jorgenson's guitar work. At a John Jorgenson Quintet performance, audiences are amazed by John's dazzling guitar work as well as his mastery as a clarinet player and vocalist. Whether playing his own accessible compositions or classic standards, John and his band make music that is equally romantic and ecstatic, played with virtuosity and soul.

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Karunesh

Karunesh was born in 1956 in Cologne, Germany. Although he had been drawn to music as a child and played in bands as a teen, he chose to study graphic design as a career. After attaining his degree, the path did not feel right for him and as sometimes happens to prompt us of a critical need for a change in direction, Karunesh was involved in a serious motorcycle accident. For two weeks, he was suspended between life and death, and this experience sparked the beginning of his spiritual path. In 1979 he made his first journey to India and began to follow his heart.

Karunesh has lived in Maui, Hawaii, since 1992, bathed in the healing warmth and fragrances of the tropics. From this island's feminine embrace, he creates music that holds a beautiful, sacred and healing resonance for those who listen.

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Peter Kater

Of German birth and descent, Peter moved to New Jersey from Munich, Germany at the age of four and began studying the piano when he was seven. Moving to Boulder, Colorado at the age of eighteen, he began a six-year period of playing only improvisationally in clubs throughout the Rocky Mountain region. When he was twenty years old he accepted a scholarship to the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles but quit after two months, preferring his life as a professional musician.

Kater has written music for over 100 television and film programs including eleven On and Off-Broadway dramatic plays. His more than 40 critically acclaimed CD releases in 25 years range from Contemporary Jazz, World Fusion and Native American collaborations to full orchestrations and of course, his signature solo piano recordings.

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Kevin Kern Photo

Born in Detroit, Kevin began studying with a private tutor at age four and made his professional debut at 14 with the Well Tempered Clavichord, a teenage casual group of which he was a founding member. Kevin studied under Detroit Symphony pianist, Mischa Kottler, and attended the University of Michigan School of Music. He has also attended the New England Conservatory of Music, receiving a Bachelor of Music as well as a Master's Degree in Performance. He spent several years playing in and around the Boston area before moving to San Francisco in 1990, where he began performing at a variety of live venues. His unique approach and ability to communicate earned a spot on the faculty as a theory teacher and vocal accompanist at Jazz Camp West in Santa Cruz in 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1998.

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Bernward Koch Photo

Classically trained, German musician Bernward Koch (kahtch) has experienced a most astonishing rise within the international New Age music scene over the last decade. Koch's fame began to ascend when the artist (among greats such as Bonnie Raitt, Sting, Basia and Ottmar Liebert) contributed a track for two Aids-benefit compilations initiated by California radio stations KKSF and THE WAVE. Today Bernward Koch is considered by many as among the genre's leading artists.

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Johannes Linstead Photo

This self-taught, Canadian guitarist’s work is deeply rooted in the South American and Caribbean cultures he experienced while on a spiritual journey of personal and artistic awakening. Influences from his travels to Spain, the Caribbean Islands and Latin America shaped his profound respect for life and moved him to create new musical soundscapes. It is his eclectic fusion of virtuoso fretwork, global rhythms and intriguing instrumentation that keep Linstead’s music fresh and alive.

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Liquid Mind Photo

Liquid Mind’s (aka Chuck Wild) musical experience spans three decades, including writing 125 songs and compositions used in TV/Film and albums. The Pointer Sisters, Tommy Page, Timothy Leary, Wink, Jennifer Rush, Thelma Houston, Glen Medeiros and Philip Bailey are just some of the artists who have recorded his songs. Wild co-composed music with Michael Hoenig for the Emmy (TM) winning ABC-TV series Max Headroom. In 1992, his first composition for two pianos, Los Angeles Fantasy, was premiered by Zita Carno and Gloria Ching at the Bing Theater in Los Angeles. The same year, Wild co-scored the Academy Award (TM) winning film The Panama Deception. In 1989, he co-wrote (with Marti Sharron) the song "You're My One and Only," #1 hit in Europe for Jennifer Rush. Over the last twenty years, Chuck has lent his studio talents to projects with Michael Jackson, Paula Abdul, Missing Persons, Philip Bailey, Frank Zappa, and many other artists.

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Buedi Siebert Photo

Classically trained, composer, performer, flutiest, multi-instrumentalist Buedi Siebert could be called a "musician without borders." He collects and plays instruments from all over the world and along with tremendous versatility as a musician, truly has a global consciousness and vision.

A native of Germany, Siebert has been composing and performing for more than twenty years. In addition to recording his own CDs, he composes music for film and theater and produces albums for other musicians. A flamboyant performer, Siebert has toured in concert throughout Europe, the United States (including a performance at Carnegie Hall), Africa, and as a touring member of Andreas Vollenweider and Friends.

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Hilary Stagg Photo

With a high school band sousaphone background, Hilary Stagg (named for Sir Edmund Hillary, the famous mountaineer) was an electrician when in his mid-twenties he attended an Andreas Vollenweider concert. He was enthralled, and so inspired that he purchased a small harp. It was a delightful challenge for him to use his knowledge as an electrician in amplifying the instrument and his custom amplification was superb. He tried formal lessons but quickly decided he would learn to play the harp a different way. As he experimented, Hilary developed a gentle, yet powerful, melodic style that gave new meaning to soothing and relaxing music. He began performing regularly, refining his technique and confidence.

Stagg died suddenly after a brief illness in June 1999. His music is our gift, ready to comfort and uplift at the touch of a button.

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Frank Steiner Jr.

Frank Steiner Jr.

www.realmusic.com

Frank Steiner, Jr. was born in Freiburg, Germany in 1966. There he studied classical piano, trumpet and music theory. After experimenting on numerous musical projects and playing with a wide variety of groups, Steiner founded his own jazz-rock group. He now focuses primarily on composing.

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Russel Walder Photo

Every member of Walder’s Chicago family played an instrument and when he was ten, Russel heard the oboe and knew in his heart and soul that this was the instrument that was his. No matter that it is widely considered the most difficult classical instrument in the world to play. At 17, he joined the United States Youth Symphony for a world tour first appearing at Carnegie Hall. With a foundation of classical training and mastery of the instrument, he ventured into jazz at 20. Walder has studied with the legendary group Oregon and performed with such diverse groups as Afro-Celt Sound System, Yungchen Lhamo and Urban Tap from New York.

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Danny Wright Photo

With 22 recordings and millions of albums sold, it is true to say that Danny Wright's music is playing 24 hours a day in both the U.S. and around the world. One of New Age music's finest performers, Wright is a brilliantly talented pianist who has sold over 4 million CDs since his debut album in 1986. In 1993 and 1994, he was named by Billboard Magazine as a Top 10 artist in the New Age genre. Three of his albums were included in Billboard's Top 10 New Age Albums in 1992, 1993 and 1994, and he has twice been nominated by the National Association of Record Merchandisers as the Best Seller in the New Age category.

Danny Wright's destiny began to unfold at age four when he reached up and played the theme from Dr. Zhivago on the piano in the family's living room. Trained as a classical pianist, Wright composes and performs original compositions that are blended with various influences including contemporary jazz, classical and neoclassical.

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Courtney Yasmineh Photo

Courtney Yasmineh is a recording artist and songwriter whose sultry voice is distinctly recognizable for its emotion and intelligence. Her songs speak of love and redemption, with an entertaining dose of flirty cleverness that is part Joni Mitchell, part Lucinda Williams. Yasmineh (yes-ME-nay) with her electric guitar and her blues rock backing band have toured Europe and the US extensively in support of enthusiastic indie radio play. Adored by her fans and respected by music critics, her four full length studio albums span a ten year career with her latest album released in late 2011.

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