It’s just minutes until their first public performance. The warmup room is a cacophony of nervous chatter, nervous laughter and a few nervous notes blown into instruments.
“All right, we’re going to start with `Merrily We Roll Along,’ then go right into `Lightly Row,’ ” band director Mary Ann Flock instructs her 13 beginning band students. After giving them a pep talk to reduce their jitters and fielding their last-minute questions, Flock follows the New Horizons Band to the stage.
They get through their first few numbers, the notes coming slowly and painstakingly, but the songs clearly recognizable.
Each song is a triumph, warmly applauded by this audience of 150 attending a Senior Advocates breakfast at Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove. The band is not quite ready for Carnegie Hall yet. In fact, because each member is over 50 years old, it likely never will be. But that’s not the point. The point is music for the sheer enjoyment of it.
“It’s just as important that they’re having a good time as it is that they’re learning,” says Flock, who teaches and directs in the Fine and Performing Arts Department at Benedictine University in Lisle. The school sponsors the band through New Horizons, a national Rochester, N.Y.-based group that provides grants to support senior citizen bands.
“Our purpose is part of the mission of the school as well as the department: to serve everyone from birth to past retirement,” says department chair Lee Bash, proudly watching from the back of the room as the sound of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” fills the room. “Mary Ann really communicates with the people in the band well, she relates to them well, and there’s clearly a mutual respect there.”
When the band first formed in February, Flock found that she had one group of musicians who had never played an instrument before, and another who had put down their instruments during their youth and now wanted to play again. She divided the group lessons into two skill levels, but the entire band also meets for a full ensemble rehearsal one evening a week.
For their first concert, the full group performed several songs, followed by the advanced group doing more complex pieces such as “Anchors Aweigh” and “Bill Bailey.” The entire ensemble concluded the program with “Jingle Bells.” Yes, in July.
“You guys were terrific,” Flock says enthusiastically as the group gathers after the performance.
Someone points out that there were a few mistakes made.
“That’s all right,” Flock responds. “Wrong notes will happen.”
“I didn’t hear any,” says a beaming Beatrice Maher of Wheaton, who plays the French horn. “I thought it was perfect.”
“You weren’t listening,” responds Nick Pearl of Wheaton.
The group laughs, the earlier tension replaced by a sense of triumph.
“I was nervous, but it got better when we got up there,” says Lorraine Keener of Downers Grove. Keener says she practices her flute an hour or more a day, when she can fit it into her schedule.
Does Flock order a certain amount of practice each day?
“No,” the director responds, “I just know when they haven’t.”
Percussionist Karen Mason of Carol Stream anticipated the concert with excitement. “I have the soul of an entertainer,” she says with a smile. “I was nervous, but it felt good. I’m looking forward to learning more complex pieces.”
Flock believes that concert nervousness and exhilaration go together. “Once those first notes come out,” she says, “they realize, `I’ve done this before,’ and it’s fine. I think they did great.”
In addition to forming new friendships and learning new musical skills, many band members believe that playing also feeds their spirits.
“It’s uplifting,” says Pearl, who plays baritone horn. “It’s an opportunity to get back into something I haven’t done in a long time.”
“I’m very proud to be part of this group,” adds Maher.
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New members are added to the New Horizons Band on an ongoing basis. Members must be age 50 or over. The $20 a month fee covers lessons, rehearsals and music books. Phone 630-829-6332.
