[3] He continued his keyboard studies with Berthe Roy, and became proficient enough to inaugurate the organ of the church at Bienville when he was 13 years of age.
There he studied 1923–1926, taking piano with Sylvia Hérard and Simone Plé-Caussade, Music Theory with Georges Caussade (theory), and organ with the well-known organist from Bordeaux, Joseph Bonnet,[4] for whom he also substituted at the organs of the church of St-Eustache.
In 1926 he returned to Canada for a concert tour, after which he was organist at the Church of the Visitation in Detroit for several months.
[13] Bernier he continued teaching counterpoint, fugue, and composition and [organ] until the eve of his death on 7 November 1988.
[7][14] Among his students were Don Shirley,[15] Helmut Braunlich, Haig Mardirosian, and Dieter Lehnhoff.