Phil Bergh

Music Librarian

Phil was born in Vancouver British Columbia, but emigrated with his family to the Los Angeles area when he was eleven (1962) where he completed his elementary and high school studies. (He finally applied for US citizenship in 2003.) As a young student, being a “foreigner” brought its challenges and getting pretty much straight A’s pegged him as something of a nerd besides. He soon found he could “hide in a crowd” by being a chamelion and participating in a variety of school activities. Track and choral music were two of the early choices. He describes himself in those days as terribly introverted so he’d do just about anything to avoid being noticed. He liked singing as long as he was in a crowd, and the chorus environment was perfect for that.

But graduating 3rd out of 515 in his high school class, it was hard not to be noticed. Soon he was, but where it counted. He had checked out the big schools where he lived (UCLA and University of Southern California) but the much smaller campus of University of Puget Sound in Tacoma caught his fancy, partly because of the cool Northwest weather and green trees he remembered from his childhood, but mostly because they offered him a full tuition scholarship based on his academic performance.

Phil entered UPS in the fall of 1969 and graduated with a degree in math and physics in December of 1972. Though he considered graduate school, and actually enrolled in a graduate program at Washington State University, he soon opted for the more traditional route of marrying Kathy, his college sweetheart, and finding an actual job. A brief partnership with an older brother making fiberglass kayaks did not prove profitable enough. By 1974, Phil accepted a job with Safeco Insurance, where they taught him to be a COBOL programmer. By 1980 he had left that position and moved on to database administration at Weyerhaeuser Company. When his job was eliminated in 2007, he retired for 6 months until he was rehired as a contractor to help finish the job of getting Weyerhaeuser off the IBM mainframe computer system. After another 6 months of retirement, he says he visited the Washington State Employment Security Department in 2009 where he evidently stood in the wrong line or filled out the wrong form. Instead of collecting Unemployment Insurance, he was hired as a COBOL programmer – a case of deja vu all over again. Within 2 years, he took over as mainframe database administrator for their extensive database system, a position he remains in to date. But not for long…Phil is currently training his replacement so he can retire and do what is really important…singing.

Phil has enjoyed singing as long as he can remember, but performing and being noticed is a much more recent evolution in his life. Early on, he would sing along with the old 78 rpm wind-up record player, provided he was alone. Then it was various choral groups in school, though never willing to sing solo. But then came musical theater.

Introduced to Auburn Avenue Act One Dinner Theater sometime in the late 80’s by his daughter, Phil got involved in some of their productions and began to realize that he could “hide” in a role. That introverted kid he used to be could become someone different…a performer. Later, Phil joined the Valley Chorale group in Puyallup, a 40-member mixed chorus. He sang with them for seven years, participating in several ensembles including The Puget Sounds and The Late Shift.

He joined our friends in the Puyallup Valley Harmonizers in 2008 and stayed with them to the end of their run, first as Baritone and then later as Lead. While with PVH, Phil had his first taste of quarteting, singing with a mixed quartet called “The Four-Tunes” and with pick-up Valentines quartets where he has sung all four parts at various times.

In 2010 he took up with the Federal Way Harmony Kings and became a member of the Orca Wails senior quartet. Orca Wails were scheduled to compete in Division II in 2011, but Phil came down with total laryngitis the day before the contest! Eight weeks later, the quartet competed out of division in Moses Lake where they placed very respectfully for a novice quartet. Plans for future contests where cut short when Bob Thomas (the one with hair) passed away. Phil maintains dual membership with Northwest Sound and Harmony Kings where he serves as Music VP.

Phil’s ambition is to be a member of a group that is so good that they don’t want him as a member. Hopefully, Northwest Sound isn’t that group! In Northwest Sound he finds fulfillment of his desire to seek musical perfection, (it’s a math-physics thing I guess). He joined in our summer quarteting program, and has stuck around because he likes where we are gong. With enough singing performances behind him by now, it is safe to say he is no longer an introvert. Yea, he’s still one of those brainy engineering type A guys that Donny likes to tease about. But he sings…he does it well…and he’s now a performer. Isn’t singing great?