Education:
B.A., University of Cape Town, South Africa.
M.A., Columbia University.
Ph.D., University of Michigan.
M.Ped., Mercy College.

A specialist in nineteenth - and twentieth-century music, who has lectured in South Africa, Israel, and Italy, Dr. Berrett has published on a wide array of topics.

His far-ranging interests are reflected in his teaching as well in that he has taught highly acclaimed courses in Afro-American, European and contemporary music to honors students, music majors, and the general student population.

His publications include two volumes on the history of the symphony in the Garland Symphony Series of Barry S. Brook, and articles on jazz and contemporary music in such major journals as the Journal of Jazz Studies, The Musical Quarterly, American Music, The Black Perspective in Music, and Musica Oggi. His latest books, both on jazz, appeared in 1999: The Louis Armstrong Companion: Eight Decades of Commentary (Schirmer Books/Simon and Schuster Macmillan) and The Musical World of J.J. Johnson (co-authored with Louis G. Bourgois and published by Scarecrow Press and the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University). A revised paperback edition of the Johnson work appeared in 2002. His research is cited in major publications-among them, Leon Plantinga's Romantic Music; Glenn Watkins's Pyramids at the Louvre: Music, Culture, and Collage from Stravinsky to the Postmodernists; The Oxford Companion to Jazz, Jazz: A History of America's Music by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns; and the latest editions of The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz and The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Most recently he has written the commentary for the Verve Deluxe CD reissue of Satchmo: A Musical Autobiography. and liner notes for J.J. Johnson, Origins: The Savoy Sessions. Dr. Berrett's controversial Louis Armstrong and Paul Whiteman: Two Kings of Jazz was published by Yale University Press in October 2004.

Dr. Berrett is the recipient of a number of grants, from such sources as the National Endowment for the Humanities and NYNEX for his research in jazz as well as for developing Internet-based Distance Learning courses in music. He was also a participant during the summer of 2002 in a National Science Foundation project for Mercy College faculty dealing with ethical issues and the Internet.