JOHN C. SCHMERTZ (JACK)

Jack Schmertz of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the youngest of Bob Schmertz' four children. He is married to Mary Ann Schmertz and has four children, three daughters and a son.

Now retired, Jack was a research engineer with Westinghouse Electric and before that worked in Boston as a mechanical engineer.

Formerly a flautist and piccoloist with the Harvard Band (later with the U.S. Army Band) he provided the delightful wind obbligatos in the 1955 and 1959 albums.

Jack is a long term member of the Pittsburgh Savoyards which is "a semiprofessional, community-based, non-profit theater company funded by local contributions and ticket sales. The group operates for the purposes of perpetuating the heritage of Gilbert & Sullivan comic operas, and providing a hands-on opportunity for interested persons to learn about and experience musical theater. While their focus is the performance of the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, they occasionally perform non Gilbert and Sullivan concerts and other composers' comic operas. The Company has been in existence since 1938, and is informally affiliated with a number of similar groups throughout the country."

He plays the flute and piccolo with the East Winds Symphonic Band which is comprised of musicians of all ages mainly from the east-suburban communities of Pittsburgh. The band is interested in performing serious concert music, but includes a variety of music in the repertoire such as Dixieland, Broadway show medleys, and marches.

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