New position for Oceanside pianist

Oceanside native and accomplished jazz pianist Kenny Werner has been named the Artistic Director of the Performance Wellness Institute (PWI) at Berklee College of Music. The PWI will help students at the music college become confident in their performance and overcome self-doubting thoughts.

“As rampant as that is in music schools,” said Werner, 61. “It’s not really addressed in the school environment.”

PWI’s mission is based on Werner’s 1996 book “Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Music Master Within,” which teaches musicians to reach their full potential and push against their negative thoughts. “Instead of being triggered to criticize,” said Werner. “They would be triggered to drink in the sound.”

Werner — a Berklee alum — was asked to be the director because Berklee wanted to have him on their staff and he has 10 years of experience teaching at New York University.

When Werner was seven years old, he went to a birthday party on Turf Road in Oceanside. The birthday boy’s father was playing the piano. Werner was fascinated and soon asked his parents for a piano. “I always knew I was a performer of some kind,” said Werner, referring to a childhood of dance class and imitating actors on television. “But when I started to play, it became pretty obvious that I had a special gift for it.”

By nine years old Werner had a record out, and at 13 Werner had joined a band — the band that had played at his Bar Mitzvah. His career has since included concerts around the world, National Endowment for the Arts grants and a Grammy nomination for his composition, “Inspiration.” In 2010, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship Award for his composition, “No Beginning No End.”

As for PWI, Werner hopes to see the institute’s exercises and lessons become formal courses that break down the steps of his book. Matt Marvuglio, Berklee’s Dean of the Professional Performance Division, intends the PWI to become part of a master’s program at some point.

Werner lives in the Catskills with his wife Lorraine.