MUSIC MAN

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November 19, 2024

For information on admission to Notre Dame Prep, please click here. 

Alum was studying classical music as a 7-year-old and went on to a long musical career that shows no signs of slowing down, even as he heads into his eighth decade.

Dan Yessian is an award-winning, Detroit-area composer, producer, musician, and founder of Yessian Music Inc., an internationally-renowned music, production and sound design company that serves the motion picture, television, and advertising industries around the globe.

But this isn't about Yessian. It's about one of his colleagues, Chuck Shermetaro, a 1963 graduate of Notre Dame High School in Harper Woods and an extraordinarily talented musician himself. The lede was about Yessian because it was he who "led" us to Shermetaro after an August recording session in Yessian's home studio on Burt Bacharach's piano hit the airwaves. Outstanding work by the still-active Shermetaro and singer Kenny Watson.

"I met Dan Yessian about 1969 when I subbed with his combo," said Shermetaro. "Shortly thereafter, I became the regular piano player with the band for the next five years. We played weddings, private parties, Holiday Inn cocktail lounges as well as an occasional local radio or TV show. We also recorded a few commercial jingles for local businesses."

Classical music at seven

Since then, Shermetaro worked a long career in logistics and distribution, and as a lab courier for a major Metro Detroit hospital.

But he never left music. Not by any stretch.

In fact, he's still an active musician and works the Fisher Theatre a couple times a month among other regular gigs, according to the Chesterfield Township resident. 

"I'm also with a band that plays at Greenfield Village for all their events that require live music," he said.

On top of that, Shermetaro currently plays in various clubs and restaurants with many musicians and singers from throughout southeast Michigan. Since 2000, he's also been the regular piano player with the legendary Johnny Trudell's ensemble, now called the Jeff Trudell Big Band.

Not a late bloomer by any measure, Shermetaro's formal training in music began when he was quite young. In fact, he was a long way from even becoming a teeny-bopper.

"I studied privately, mostly classical music, for nine years starting at age 7," he said. "Even from that young age, I was drawn to the swing music and jazz I was hearing on the radio. I would sometimes improvise subtle jazz elements into the classical pieces I was supposed to be practicing, but I don't think my parents knew the difference."

Many subsequent years of experience playing jazz, rock, country, pop and dixieland-style music has afforded Shermetaro the opportunity to work with many great musicians and singers in many settings from the Fox and Fisher Theaters and Andiamo Celebrity Showroom to many local and regional jazz clubs, as well as concert halls and amphitheaters. 

But, he says with an authoritative wink, "the venue is never as important as the music and musicians that I'm playing with."

'The best' band director

Also important to his musical career, says the near-octogenarian, was his high school and its band director.

"As a freshman at NDHS, I played piano in the jazz band and various percussion in the concert and marching bands," he said. "At the same time, I knew that the string bass player in the jazz band was a senior and was due to graduate. So I bought a book on the instrument and would go to the band room after class and practice and practice."

His perseverance worked out as he eventually earned the coveted string bass position from Larry Egan, who directed the music and band programs at Notre Dame High School for most of the school's 50 years of operation.

"Mr. Egan was the best," Shermetaro said. "Not only was he a really good trumpet player and conductor, he knew how to assess the talent of the individual members of the band and then select music that sounded great when performed. This is a point often overlooked by many band and choir directors. He was great."

For information on admission to Notre Dame Prep, please click here.

Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org

About Notre Dame Preparatory School
"At Notre Dame Prep, we inspire our students to become the best versions of themselves. We challenge them through an experience of academic excellence, focused on active, project-based learning. We invite them to explore a world of opportunities beyond the classroom. We guide them as they grow in spirituality within a community strong in its Catholic and Marist identity."

Notre Dame Preparatory School is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. Notre Dame Preparatory School's upper school enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame Prep's middle and lower schools enroll students in pre-kindergarten through grade eight. All three schools are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDP is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the National Association of Independent Schools. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School, visit the school’s home page at www.ndprep.org.