Hollister
– You may not know Shirley Sergent personally, but you probably
have appreciated her work.
Hollister – You may not know Shirley Sergent personally, but you probably have appreciated her work.
This local virtuoso has contributed her musical gifts to almost every production in the San Benito Stage Company’s seven-year history, and most recently served as the company’s president.
“Shirley is one of the most wonderful people in the world. She would give you the shirt right off her back, no matter who you are,” fellow stage company board member Sally Hail said. “We are so lucky to have her.”
Though she recently announced her intent to step down from the position and away from the spotlight, she says involvement with the local theater has rekindled her relationship with music and song.
“It’s been a wonderful experience,” she said. “You bet I’m going to stay involved. It will just be a little different.”
Sergent, now 76, took her first piano lessons when she was 4 or 5 years old. Though she said her parents were supportive of her studies, neither were particularly musically inclined.
“My mother’s grandfather had led one of the big bands in Germany,” she said. “So she always said that’s where it must have come from.”
When she was 10 she started singing, and switched her focus from piano to voice in her teens.
“When you’re an accompanist, your name is always in small print on the bottom (of the program),” she said. “But if you’re the soloist, you’ve got it all.”
Sergent studied voice and performed throughout high school, at school events, community functions, and roughly 450 variety shows put on for U.S. troops during WWII throughout the Bay Area.
“They would put us all in – I guess it was some kind of military truck – and we weren’t allowed to see where we were going until we got there,” she said. “We entertained troops going off to war and troops who had just come back. … One time we were worried backstage because we thought, ‘Nobody out there’s really clapping,’ and then we looked and saw most of them couldn’t, they were in such bad shape. It was a group of boys who had just returned.”
Her talents earned Sergent a scholarship to Mills College and she had intended to join the San Francisco Opera chorus after graduation but, like many young women at that time, she was married at 18 and soon was too busy with family life to commit to something as time-intensive as an opera production.
Rather, she took a job at Sherman Clay, a San Francisco music store, selling sheet music and demonstrating new pieces for customers. And it was here that she discovered her next great love.
“When I took my lunch hour I would go all the way up to the ninth floor where they sold organs,” she said. “And I learned how to play that way.”
What started out as a lunchtime pastime became a full-time occupation. Sergent’s first marriage didn’t work out and playing at “organ bars” was one of the best ways for her to support herself and her children.
“I would start at nine o’clock and get off at 2(am),” she said. “I never got much sleep, but I was always there for my kids during the day, and looking back I think that was very important.”
Sergent played at organ bars throughout the bay area for 14 years, and became fairly enmeshed in the local music scene. At a San Francisco sports bar called the Farmhouse, she frequently entertained the 49ers, though she says the players were for the most part poor singers. She established herself as a professional and was well known in the area, but was never in love with her status as a local celebrity.
“It’s a little different when you have to do something. I was an entertainer, so I entertained people,” she said. “I liked it, but it was still a job.”
After she met and married her current husband, Dan, Sergent essentially gave up the life of a professional musician. On occasion she would still play for a friend’s wedding or party for fun, but for the most part she went 42 years without performing.
“We did a lot of traveling because of Dan’s job,” she said. “We spent time in England, in Maryland – it was nice to be taken care of for a change.”
After Dan retired, the couple moved to Hollister in the late ’90s. Shortly thereafter they went to see a performance of “The Wizard of Oz,” San Benito Stage Company’s maiden production.
“It was nice, but I could see that they really needed some help,” she said.
Sergent volunteered her expertise for the next show, a production of the 1970s musical “Godspell.” The premiere was her first public performance in decades.
“I had never worked with something like that score before,” she said. “It really gave me a chance to stretch my brain and I liked working with the cast.”
Since “Godspell,” Sergent has provided the piano for virtually every SBSC production, including the pre-shows featuring local talent for two Stephen Schwartz concerts, who wrote the music for “Godspell” and, most recently, the Broadway smash-hit “Wicked.”
“I’ve really enjoyed what I do, especially working with the children,” she said. “No matter what, they cheer me on and clap for me, and I like them right back.”
Though she still plans to sit on the board of directors, she will be relinquishing her president’s seat to fellow board member Nancy Perales, and will not be playing piano at too many future performances, choosing instead to spend more time with Dan.
“There are a lot of young people who started with the stage company when they were little, and now they’re grown up,” she said. “I think it’s time for them to step forward and take the lead. They deserve it.”
But that doesn’t mean she won’t still rock the ivories at home.
“Music has been everything to me,” she said. “I’m lucky that way. It’s given me a good life.”
Danielle Smith covers education for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or ds****@fr***********.com.
