Vern has performed extensively as a soloist and band leader with his bands at Five Star Diamond resorts such as Keswick Estate, The Homestead and The Greenbrier and at country clubs, hotels, restaurants and homes in the Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland and North Carolina areas over the past 35 years for weddings,
receptions, concerts, dances, banquets and dinners entertaining audiences of all ages and backgrounds that have included numerous dignitaries and celebrities. His diverse and vast repertoire includes Classical pieces, Pop Rock & Roll hits from the 50's - 90's, Swing and Jazz Standards from the 20'- 40's. His solo classical guitar style while somewhat similar to that of the great classical guitarists is also reminiscent of the
eminent guitarists Charlie Byrd, Chet Atkins, Earl Klugh and Emily Remler whose playing greatly influenced him. He is also proficient on electric and steel string guitars which he often plays when performing with one of his bands.
He has studied with some of the great guitarists:
Emily Remler-Concord Record Artist and Down Beat Magazine Poll Winner
Walt Namuth - Guitarist and arranger for the Buddy Rich Band
Chet Atkins, Lee Ritenour, Leo Kotke, Albert Lee, Jim Hall, David
Brandon, Christoper Parkennig, Larry Coryell, Tim Reynolds and pianist Monty Alexander.
Noteworthy performances include those with all time great Nashville fiddler Vassar Clements, Leroi Moore and Stephane Lassard of the Dave Mathews Band, Emily Remler, Irish Piper Paddy Keenan, John McCutcheon and EMI Records Artist John Zaradin.
Vern performs a diverse repertoire for wedding ceremonies and receptions on the classical guitar, as a singer guitar player on the steel string guitar and on the electric guitar with his dance and Jazz bands. The Vern Fischer Band which is composed of seasoned professional musicians varies in size from duos to trios, quartets, quintets and larger bands of up to nine pieces that may be comprised of additional male and female vocalists, horns, strings, woodwinds, keyboards and drums depending on the requirements of the occasion. He can also perform as a one man band Karaoke style with prerecorded band accompaniment. He and his bands are available for events such as weddings, receptions dances, parties, dinners and concerts.
ABOUT THE MUSICIAN
Classical guitarist Vernon Fischer's love affair with the guitar began over fifty years ago when he pulled his uncles old
arch top guitar from behind an overstuffed chair in the living room of his grandmother's home in Baltimore Maryland and has had a guitar in his hand ever since only putting it down to learn to play the mandolin, bass, banjo, ukelee, drums and hand percussion, harmonica, keyboards and fiddle. Music has been not only a passion but a way of life for him. Self taught, he started his professional career by playing in dance bands for teen clubs and junior high school dances in his early teens in the mid sixties moving on to play in top fourty show bands in the Washington DC and Baltimore area in the early to mid seventies. The late seventies and eighties saw him playing in jazz, old time and British Isles bands for dances and night clubs, in Baltimore and Washington DC area and finally in the Charlottesville area where he had relocated to, as well as teaching full time at local music stores and at Piedmont Virginia Community College. Along the way he studied extensively with jazz guitarists and recording artists Emily Remler-Concord Records, Walt Namuth of The Buddy Rich Band, jazz guitarist Larry Correll, Tim Reynolds with The Dave Mathews Band and did workshops with John Zaradin, Christopher Parkening, David Brandon, Chet Atkins, Jim Hall, Pat Matheney, Albert Lee, Leo Kotke and Lee Ritenour. He performed with internationally known artists such as fiddle great Vassar Clements, folk musician John McCutcheon, Irish piper Paddy Keenan and classical
guitarist John Zarradin. In the mid nineties his skill with the classical gutiar earned him the full time position as house musician at Sir Bernard Ashley's Keswick Hall which he held for over four years after which he relocated to Charlottesville's prestigious Farmington Country Club for a three and a half year tenure in a similar capacity. From Farmington he returned to Keswick Hall under the ownership of the Orient Express for another two and a half year run. Over the past thirty five years he also performed for numerous wedding ceremonies, receptions, dances, dinners and corporate events. Vern's interest in the guitar has led him to
acquire and play many of the most popular models of guitars playing styles appropriate for that type of guitar that include Classical, Jazz, Bossa Nova, Steel String Finger Style, Rock and Roll, Country, Old Time, Blue Grass, Blues, Ragtime and folk
Music. His style is melodic and reminiscent of guitarists Charlie Byrd, Earl Klugh, Emily Remler and Kenny Burrell who greatly
influenced him.
While at music festivals in the late eighties and working at the Outer banks of North Carolina in the early nineties he began to sing and accompany himself with the guitar as a means to get more work and as a result his first CD Island Dreams and Fantasies was recorded in 2005. He cites Johnny Rivers, Jimmy Buffet, Bill Haley, The Moody Blues, Roger Whitaker and The Classics Four as his vocal inspiration. He can fill the dance floor with his enthusiastic renditions of Rock and Roll hits.
Working solo and with seasoned professional musicians he has successfully provided music for countless weddings, receptions, concerts, banquets, dances and corporate events at hotels, country clubs and The University of Virginia for more than twenty eight years in the Charlottesville and Central Virginia area. He has performed for heads of state that include President Bill
Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Vice President Joe Bidden, Speaker Of The House Nancy
Pelosi, The Queen of Quatar, The Spanish Ambassador, governors, senators and congressmen, movie stars Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Peter Boyle, Harry Conic Jr. and Jill Goodacre, Rock Star Mick Jagger, sports figure Howie Long and many others.
you may contact him at vernonfiscger24@hotmail.com or
Ph. 434-295-6360
