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Verlene Schermer
            Karmalu Productions		 Verlene

Life Stages Photos

The photos inside the CD wallet are small, and there was no room for captions, so here are larger photos along with descriptions of each!

Verlene with Mom
These first five photos were taken at the home in San Jose where I grew up. In this first one of me with my Mom next to the piano, I was around 4 years old, and this was the year she started teaching me piano. I also sang the song "M-O-T-H-E-R" at the Mother Daughter banquet at the church that year with Mom accompanying me on piano. My singing debut. At the time, I thought all little girls sang with their mommies.
Verlene at 13 with violin
Here I am posing for a photo after playing a violin solo in the Honor Orchestra Spring Concert when I was 13. I played second chair first violin during Junior High School in this district wide orchestra. Only two of us played solos during the concert. I believe the solo I played was the Fifth Pupil's Concerto by Friedrich Seitz, Op. 22.
Guitar as a teen
In this photo, I'm rehearsing with my duo partner, Ted Wilhite, on my brand new Martin Guitar. It was a gift from my parents for my 15th birthday. Our repertoire included folk-pop songs such as Blowin' in the Wind, Where Have All the Flowers Gone, Day is Done, Let's Get Together, Susan on the West Coast Waiting, and Catch the Wind.
At the piano
This photo was also taken at my parents home, but I was longer am living there at this point in time. We had a tradition of playing a mini-concert after Christmas dinner, and just about everyone had a song to play or sing -- but not necessarily Christmas music. As we were growing up, my siblings and I would each play a recital piece or a piece we had recently performed in a school concert. The tradition carried on as we became adults, and my nieces and nephews began to contribute to the Christmas Eve concert -- making for a long but lovely evening! In this photo, I was accompanying my husband, Jon on trombone -- a jazz standard most likely. This puts me at around 30 years old.
On guitar with Tori
This photo was also at my parents house years later at another Christmas Eve family concert. Here I am accompanying my niece Tori on Jingle Bells. I think she's 5 years old in this shot, and I'm in my mid- 30s. At the release of Life Stages, in 2018, she was 30 -- same age I was in the previous photo!
Keyboard in Local Hero
Also while in my 30s I joined a band called "Local Hero" and played keyboards for the first several years before opting to be just the "chick singer" and band leader. The Yamaha DX7 was a brand new type of synthesizer, and my very first. We played top 40 hits, country music, and jazz standards at private events such as weddings and company parties.
Verlene Schermer Band
In this photo taken in 2006, you see me playing my Lyon & Healy electric harp in the Bing Concert Series at Stanford Hospital. In the band are Don Frank and Preston Carter. These two awesome musicians have played on several of my CDs and in several concerts with my band "The Verlene Schermer Band."
harp guitar
In 2010, I bought this amazing harp guitar. I played it a lot in my Scandinavian trio, Nykken, and still play it from time to time in my duo, Silverwood. The photo was taken just a month after I obtained the guitar. You can read more about the harp guitar and watch videos of my harp guitar music both from links on that page and on the Silverwood and Nykken video pages.
Jim and Verlene
Here is a photo from a gig where I played fiddle and harp with guitarist Jim Nichols in 2010. Jim is a friend and colleage at Stanford Hospital where we both play for patients, family, and staff. You can see next to me, my Triplett Celtic harp that I played for most of the harp tunes on the Life Stages CD, and my Rees double strung harp that I played for "Because You Choose To" and "At the Heart of Me." It's also the harp I play as a Certified Clinical Musician at Stanford Hospital and clinics.
Silverwood at SH
Here is another Stanford Hospital concert from December, 2006 -- this time with my duo, Silverwood, with my sister Linnette Bommarito! Linnette played flute on 7 of the Life Stages songs. The "decorations" on the harp are actually reflections of the Christmas tree lights on the tree I'm standing in front of!
Verlene with Nyckelharpa
This is my nyckelharpa -- it's a Swedish keyed fiddle and I played it on one song on the Life Stages CD. I also played it on several tunes on the Nykken CD, and have played it in concerts with Mountain Dulcimer player, Neal Hellman. This was from a concert in 2009 with my trio, "To the Moon."
At SH on double strung harp
And the last photo in the CD montage shows me playing my double-strung harp for a patient at Stanford hospital. I began playing as a hospital musician at Stanford in 2003, and am still there today. I earned my certification through the Harp for Healing Clinical Musician Certification Program in 2014. I played this particular harp on two of the Life Stages tunes.