Phil is a lifelong musician and passionate early childhood educator who believes access to playful and joyful music-making can be a transformational experience for children, families, and communities.

Phil currently serves as head of music and cultural education at Zibi Consulting Group in Cambridge, MA, partnering with local early childhood education centers to provide professional development opportunities and curriculum support for staff, administrators, and owners. 

In 2012, Phil co-created the Brookline Puppet Showplace Theater’s Puppet Playtime series and has been working with young children ever since. In 2014, he joined Rock and Roll Daycare as Music Director and ran their immersive music and Montessori program in Cambridge for seven years. During that time, Phil co-founded Fiddlefox music, collecting, translating, adapting, and publishing 37 collections of children’s songs and folk tales from around the world. 

Phil has taught early childhood music in residence at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Preschool, Fletcher Maynard Academy, Gardner Pilot Academy, Horizons for Homeless Children, Children’s Village Inc., the Nurtury, and Brookline Music School. 

He has been lucky to study a wide range of constructivist musical pedagogies, including Dalcroze Eurhythmics at Longy School of Music, Orff Schulwerk at George Mason University, and Music Learning Theory through the Gordon Institute of Music Learning.

Phil Berman is also a singer-songwriter, puppeteer, and theater artist who frequently performs in the Boston Area with his Americana vaudeville band, Phil and the Flying Leap. They released their epic debut album Play the Part in December 2021.

Phil has performed as an actor, puppeteer, and musician in many puppet shows and theater pieces including The Joshua Show, Astro Boy and the God of Comics (Company One), Brundibar and But the Giraffe! (Underground Railway Theater), Floyd Collins (Moonbox Productions), The Embryos (Fresh Ink Theater), and his annual Holiday Sing-Along at Puppet Showplace Theater.