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 is currently Lead Faculty and Program Coordinator for New England Conservatory’s Early Childhood Pilot Program, teaching music to over 200 weekly students at Ellis Early Learning Center in Boston’s South End and Jamaica Plain. He also teaches weekly classes at New England Conservatory Preparatory School. Phil is the recipient of a 2025 Massachusetts Cultural Council grant for creative individuals.

His songwriting work includes scores for Sarah Nolen’s Party Animals (Jim Henson Fund Family Grant Awardee), Three Blessed Brothers (Boston University New Play Initiative), Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad (Boston Center for the Arts), Puppet Playtime: The Bella Show (Puppet Showplace Theater), and Lower Allston Live (WPRX Podcast Garage).

Phil previously worked 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. Zibi created over 700 pages of bespoke world cultural curriculum for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.

In 2012, Phil co-created Puppet Showplace Theater’s Puppet Playtime series with Brenda Huggins 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 collaborated with producer Marc Diaz to produce over 50 tracks of world children’s music available to stream on Spotify and Bandcamp.

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., Cambridge Nursery School, the Harvard Club of Boston, Tufts University Community Music School, and Brookline Music School. 

He has been lucky to study a wide range of music 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 and are hard at work on their next release. Phil’s first album “The Battle of Bunker Hill” was released in 2015 after running a successful Kickstarter campaign.

Phil has performed as an actor, puppeteer, and musician in many puppet shows and theater pieces including The Joshua Show: Episode 1, 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 the annual Holiday Sing-Along at Puppet Showplace Theater with Sarah Nolen.

Phil earned a BFA in Theater Arts from Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, focusing on performance, playwriting, and dramaturgy.

Phil lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his husband Josh and their 28 pet snails.