Even at the age of 2, Calvin Berry III had sticks in his hands and was tapping on a drum set.
“My dad was a drummer … I got started real early,” Berry said. “And I never looked back.”
The Destrehan High School alum and Destrehan native says that even today at the age of 47, he goes to the drums as his stress relief, practicing and playing. It’s a passion he’s had all his life. Now, he helps stir up that passion in the younger generation.
Berry established The Master’s Touch Drumline more than 20 years ago, in August of 2003. Through it, he was teaching elementary age students with no prior experience to start in an after-school drum line. In 2005, He started All-Star Drumline. which is independent of the school programs for students age 12 through high school to give the advanced students a chance to learn at a greater level and to perform for private and public events. Months later he started another, MiNi-Me Drumline, also independent of the schools for students’ ages 4 to 12.
Following the latter of those creations, Berry opened The Master’s Touch Academy of Music, and its success led to him expanding his school – today, it operates from three different locations.
“Man, you see kids’ lives change, and it’s why you do it,” Berry said. “You see a kid who’s a part of the program, maybe they’re shy or reserved, maybe they’re struggling academically, and you see them turn it around. You see them perform week by week and work and improve, and you see them start to shine. Those kids keep me going, seeing them progress.
“I feel like I don’t work a day in my life. I get to do something I love, touch lives and I’m able to feed my family by doing it.”
Berry realized he enjoyed helping others facilitate their love of music in his 20s. He attended Southern University and then Jackson State. Upon returning home, he volunteered his time at Destrehan High and other schools, helping with those band programs.
But this wasn’t yet where he saw his career going.
“I never saw teaching for me,” he said. “I always wanted to play music, being a drummer and I’d been involved with music my entire time in school. I played sports, too, but the drums were No. 1 for me.”
Berry studied to be a mechanical engineer, and was working in engineering before being laid off in 2001. A visit with his pastor yielded some life-changing advice – use your gift, he was told.
Around that time, the movie Drumline was released in theatres. An idea was born.
“I stepped out there completely on faith,” said Berry. “I started asking schools if they’d like a drumline program. The first ones shot me down. Our Lady of Grace in Reserve gave me my first yes. That’s how it got started.”
Berry has worked with many schools since, including St. Charles Catholic and St. Charles Borromeo locally.
“I would go to schools and just teach kids who had no experience,” said Berry. “It was an after school program, mentoring – and it just blew up.”
One school became three, five, seven – and ultimately, his own school.
Berry’s Master Touch Drumline is the official drumline of the New Orleans Pelicans, a job it tried out and volunteered for in 2003 upon the team’s arrival and one it secured officially in 2007.
Berry also works as a consultant on the collegiate level with Jackson State’s Sonic Boom of the South, bringing him back to the school he attended.
“I was asked to take over the drumline, because the kids from Master’s Touch who went on to school there, he felt they were stand-up students with great character,” Berry said.
He said one of the things he loves most about teaching music is how it brings so many people from different backgrounds together.
“It’s family … (a band) is a family,” Berry said. “I love the diversity. We have males, females, black, white, Spaniard … everyone plays together as a unit.
“It’s been an awesome journey. This is our 20th year, coming up, and I’m looking forward to celebrating pretty big for that.”
