By Derek Schlennstedt
If you ever have the urge to make music but never had lessons as a kid — or gave it up due to time constraints — don’t despair because the Dandenong Ranges New Horizons Band helps adults learn or re-learn a musical instrument in a fun social environment.
It doesn’t matter how old you are, you can learn to play an instrument and have fun at the same time.
As part of an annual weekend workshop in March the New Horizons Concert Band is opening its doors to the public for a unique chance to see them perform a range of songs.
Conductor Brian Hogg, said members of New Horizons come from all walks of life with some having never played an instrument while others being retired music professionals.
“This is our eleventh year with this group, started in primarily for adults who wanted to play but never did, or people that played left instruments and then came back.”
“At the moment we’ve got 30 people in the band at all levels of experience.
“We have one person who played in one of the military bands and another who played professionally for years and he is probably our oldest member at 98 and still playing.
“There’s a real range of experience levels in the group, and as a band we play stuff that suit us as an ensemble and something that everybody can play.”
Every year the ensemble hold a major workshop and over a period three days are taught a range of songs which they then play in front of an audience of family and friends.
“On the Thursday they will get some music for the first time and then on the Saturday they are expected to play it,” Mr Hogg said.
“It’s a fairly short lead time to learn four or five new pieces … it’s about being able to demonstrate to themselves and family and friend that this is what we’ve done in the last few days.”
Mr Hogg invited people to come along to the performance and for anyone interested said people were welcome to come on the Friday and chat about joining.
“We’re a really friendly bunch of people,” he said.
“Join us on the Friday day, or just come along to our rehearsals on Thursday’s at the Tecoma Uniting Church.”
The workshop is a three day event taking place at the Tecoma Uniting Church on Thursday 21 March, Friday 22 March from 7-9pm and finishing with a performance from 9am – 4:30pm on 23 March.
For more information about the group go to http://www.drmc.org.au/ensembles/new-horizons-concert-band
