New Festival In the Works For Myrtle Beach

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By TBone Terry

Bernie Kenerson plays the EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument). It electronically synthesizes most wind instruments, including the saxophone, oboe, flute, etc. Bernie is an expert with the instrument and has been playing it for more than 30 years.

Planning for the FAME (Food-Arts-Music-Entertainment) Festival to be held on the last weekend in April is coming along nicely. Festival Chairman Karen Holck, has submitted the plans to the City of Myrtle Beach for their approval.

The festival date is set for  April 24 and 25. It will be called the “FAME on Broadway Street Festival” and will incorporate food, music, the visual and performing arts.  It will be a family festival with children getting involved in the arts. Plans are to block off Broadway from 4th Avenue to 6th Avenue and place a large stage in the middle of 5th Avenue and Broadway where bands, musicians, dancers, actors, mimes and others will perform continuously from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday. It will be promoted as a destination festival where the locals can mix with tourists in fun, fellowship and harmony. It will be modeled after the Fall for Greenville street festival in Greenville, S.C.

One of the featured musicians will be Bernie Kenerson, a world class musician specializing in the EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument). Bernie can play a variety of woodwinds, including the sax and oboe, which he played for awhile with the Long Bay Symphony. He became fascinated with the electronic synthesizer more than 30 years ago.

Bernie says it’s time to bring the Akai EWI out to the forefront and give it some r-e-s-p-e-c-t!  With his talent and ability, he is doing just that. He’s a producer, sound designer, composer, arranger, teacher, clinician, recording and performing artist who plays many different electric wind instruments, saxophones, flutes, clarinets and keyboards.  He was born to musical parents and began playing clarinet at age seven, sax at age ten and flute at age 13. He started his professional career at age 16 in his hometown of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. He joined the U. S. Army at age 17 and has fourteen years experience as an instrumentalist and arranger in Army Bands.  His musical studies include a Two Year Professional Diploma from Berklee College of Music and a Bachelor of Music Degree from Appalachian State University where he formed the Neo-jazz band, Slipstream. The group’s self produced album Afterglow received Downbeat magazine’s 1982 DeeBee award for best college group and Bernie received an Outstanding Soloist award for his Lyricon playing.  In the late 80s and early 90s, Bernie lived in Brussels, Belgium where he performed in a variety of groups at concerts and festivals throughout Western Europe, Scandinavia and Morocco.  Bernie moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in May 1995 and has been busy performing and recording; highlighted by three years in the house band at the Jasmine Supper Club (a seven-night-a-week jazz venue) where he performed nightly and shared the stage with jazz artists Gato Barbieri, Kim Waters, The Yellowjackets, Joe Beck, Bob James, Spyro Gyra, and the legendary Jimmy Smith. Bernie can be heard on many Beach Music CDs, including 11 that made the Beach Music top 100 and has received three Cammy Awards. He’s currently performing with  his own band, The Bernie Kenerson Group and working on solo CD projects. Bernie began performing on electric wind instruments in April 1978.

Bernie will be performing with other world class musicians at the Festival on Broadway.

To learn more about Bernie, go to his website at www.berniekenerson.com.

For more information about the festival call 843-333-8181.