About the Company

The Musical Enterprises family is a small group of professional musicians, music educators, and music lovers who believe in the importance of keeping music alive and thriving in our schools and communities. Since 1986, the people who produce the BERP have been committed to creating a sustainable economy to help heal the earth, donating a minimum of 5% of their profits to organizations which work toward that goal, and utilizing renewable and biodegradable materials when possible. We are proud to offer all new eco-friendly products and accessories to the 21st century musician, including BerpBioOil, the first biodegradable valve oil on the market, as well as Bags from Spain, hand-crafted instrument cases that offer eco-friendly design and materials.

Mario Guarneri

Mario Guarneri is a musician who has done it all from playing dixieland with Louis Armstrong at the age of thirteen to fifteen seasons with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta and Carlo Maria Giulini conducting. He has toured Europe with the Los Angeles Brass Quintet and performed with the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, Radio City Music Hall and the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Mr. Guarneri has recorded solo albums on the Crystal and Nonsuch labels, one of which was nominated for the Prix de Rome.

He was the principal trumpet with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for ten years and has played on hundreds of T.V. and motion picture soundtracks--as soloist on Lonesome Dove and Godfather III, to name a few. He has taught trumpet for over 25 years, and is currently a trumpet instructor at the San Francisco Conservatory. He also performs regularly with his jazz quartet in the San Francisco area.

In 1986 he developed the Buzz Extension and Resistance Piece (B.E.R.P.) for all brass instruments, a dynamic advancement in brass pedagogy. Since then, he has lectured extensively on the BERP concept. In recent years, he has presented lectures at the Mid-West Band and Orchestra Clinic, Texas Music Educators Association, the International Trumpet Guild, the New York Brass Conference, and numerous state conventions across the country. Guarneri has taught master classes in Asia and Europe, and has established a world wide reputation as a creative musician of the highest level.

Watch the Guarneri Jazz Quartet perform live at The Sleeping Lady in Fairfax, California, February 2009. Click here to listen.

Check out Mario and friends performing live with 101-year-old ukulele legend Bill Tapia at Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, California, April 2009. Click here to listen.