Bertram Levy ’63: Renaissance Man

Levy

Levy pictured in his workshop with one of his nautical creations and (below) out on the waves in a finished product.

When Bertram Levy finished high school in Long Island, N.Y., he had two choices: go to college or go to Vietnam.

The college preparatory student was bright, no doubt, but he would have preferred to pursue his lifelong passion for music rather then enter college. However at his parents’ insistence, he acquiesced to apply. It was already late August, so they went to a college placement firm where Bertram was offered a variety of schools. Oglethorpe appealed to him because he could combine his education with his passion for southern banjo playing. Oglethorpe welcomed him with open arms, and soon transformed him into the life-long learner he is today.

“When I arrived at Oglethorpe, I began with the college’s Core curriculum and a spark of academic curiosity was ignited. One day in my first quarter I passed an open building next to Lowry Residence Hall. Inside, I met Dr. Roy Cohen who showed me his electron microscopes. I was fascinated and when he offered me an opportunity to do a small project in electron microscopy, I accepted.”

Though the project was short-lived, that simple gesture changed Bertram’s life. He was inspired to pursue the sciences and spent the next three years studying chemistry and playing music. At graduation, Dr. Cohen urged him to go on to graduate school. Cohen arranged for him to interview with Dr. Geoffrey Bourne at the Yerkes Primate Center at Emory University, which offered him a full fellowship in histochemistry and electron microscopy.

Bertram spent the next three years completing his credentials for a PhD. At the insistence of his advisor, neuroanatomist professor emeritus Marion Hines, he went on to Duke University’s School of Medicine, where he graduated in 1968 with honors. “I remember sitting in lecture halls among students who were furiously taking notes on everything the professor was saying,” he recalls. “Instead, I simply listened to what was being said. I’d go home, read the text, then take a break and play my instrument. And I’d think about what I read while I played. That’s how I learned.”

While at Duke, Bertram met fellow graduate student Alan Jabbour with whom he shared a passion for the music of the region. Together, with band mates Tommy and Bobbie Thompson, they formed the Hollow Rock String Band. The band was dedicated to playing only the repertoire learned directly from the old time fiddlers. Their 1967 album, “Traditional Dance Tunes,” continues to sell all over the world and is credited with launching the traditional American fiddle music revival of the ’60s and ’70s. One of the cuts, “Over the Waterfall,” is included in the Smithsonian’s CD, “The History of American Folk Music.”

Levy on the water

After finishing at Duke, Bertram accepted an internship and subsequent residency and fellowship in urology at Stanford University, where he spent seven years. During that time, he developed his unique banjo style, which is a crossover of bluegrass and old-time claw-hammer styles played on nylon strings. He eventually debuted this unique banjo style in his now classic recording, “That Old Gut Feeling.” He was awarded banjo player of the year by Frets magazine in 1974.

When, in 1974, it was time to look for a job, Bertram recalls going into a men’s store near Stanford’s campus to try on suits. None of them felt right and he realized that he wasn’t ready for an academic job. Instead, he saw an opportunity to pursue his music, so he traveled to Ireland with his musical friends as a band.

In the following year in Dublin, Bertram studied Irish music and its relationship to the roots of American folk music, as well as performing and recording with other musicians. He also took a position as surgical registrar at the Urologic Institute at the Meath hospital in Dublin. He returned to the states in 1976, declined an offer to be an assistant professor at Stanford, and instead chose to settle in Port Townsend, Wash.

Bertram, his wife, Roberta, and daughter Madeline have called this small maritime community in the Northwest “home” for nearly three decades. Here, he has balanced a life of a private medical practice, an active musical career and his lifelong sailing hobby—something that began back when he was a boy in Long Island. Bertram has built 10 boats, including a 24-foot boat, “Able,” that he and Roberta sailed to Hawaii.

Levy CD cover

Levy pictured with Kirk Sutphin in the back cover image of their CD, Two peas in a pod.

Bertram’s never-ending curiosity drove him to a new musical passion in 1988 when he met Argentine musician Astor Piazzolla. Bertram was so moved by Piazzolla’s Nuevo Tango that he traveled to Buenos Aires, acquired a bandoneon (the national instrument of Argentina) and began his bandoneon studies. He formed the Tangoheart Sextet which continues to perform regularly throughout the U.S. and Europe. Since 2005, he has studied regularly in Buenos Aires with the great master Rodolfo Daluisio at the Conservatory de Manuel de Falla.

Musician, traveler, healer, boat builder and lifelong student, Bertram Levy is proof positive that an Oglethorpe education can change your life.

“I am afraid I have a rather elitist view of a liberal arts education. For me, the primary purpose of liberal arts colleges is not for job training. Rather they are places to learn to assemble information, to learn to write cogently, and to be a critical thinker. That is the gift I received from Oglethorpe.”

 

Visit bertramlevy.com for a sampling of Bertram’s music and to catch his performance schedule.

Kelly Holland Vrtis ’97 lives outside Indianapolis, Ind. with her husband, Matt, and children Amelia and Franklin. She is a marketing freelancer and currently chairs the Alumni Board’s Communications Committee.

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