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March 2024 NEWFOUNDLAKELIFE.COM Page 9 Community
New Musical Horizons and New Experiences Await
By: leslie sanDeRson
Have you ever wished you could play an instrument, but never learned? Did you play clarinet or flute back in the day, and tell yourself you’ll pick it up again? Is your New Year’s res- olution to start playing drums? Aha! New Horizons Band of the Lakes Region can help you play in a band, with or without expe- rience! Really.
The Band provides an entry point to music-making for adults, and encourages community members who love making music to participate. Many New Hori- zons musicians started in their retirement years with no musical background at all. Led by Debbi Gibson, former Laconia High School Music Director, the Band has about 30 local volunteer mu- sicians.
The Band has instruments it can lend to those who want to try and can help them find lessons. Through a partnership with The Music Clinic in Belmont, the Band has practice and storage space. Rehearsals are there on Tuesday nights from 7:00 - 9:00 P.M. The Band performs in the Lakes Region for town concerts, retirement homes, schools, and other organizations and events. New Horizons Band has enter- tained hundreds at Meredith's Fourth of July celebrations before the fireworks and at Sanborn- ton’s Old Home Day. Concerts
New Horizons Band. Jane Hart is standing 4th from left; Brian O’Meara is standing 3rd on left from the middle; Debbi Gibson, standing at the end on the right.
fund- raiser in 2018 and began occasional lessons to up my skill.” She joined the Band in 2022, and participates while she is in New Hampshire. “Members are colle- gial, joke, and work hard.”
The group is accepting, non-judgemental, and encour- aging. “I have never heard any- one be critical of another band member,” says O’Meara. Its unofficial motto is “your best is good enough.” Musicians of all levels are welcome. Tuition is minimal and there is financial aid available. New Horizons Band seeks new venues to play in the Region. The Band also en- courages anyone with a desire to play to visit and join in. Contact Debbi Gibson or Brian O’Meara at nhbandlr@gmail.com or visit the website at www.newhori- zons-lakesregion.org.
has musical potential that can be developed to a level that will be personally rewarding. Many band members have re-discov- ered their love of performing in their youth after years of working and raising families.
A flute player as a teen, O’Meara says he quit playing at 15, “and fast forward 51 years, I didn’t touch a musical instru- ment for all that time.” When he retired, he acted on a long-time wish and bought a used oboe. In seeking a teacher, he met Mary Divers, who established the Lakes Region Band in 2007, and encouraged O’Meara to join. O’Meara now plays the bassoon.
Jane L. Hart, a Bridgewater seasonal resident, was introduced to the clarinet in 5th grade. “I began clarinet lessons with a school instrument, receiving my
own Leblanc B flat clarinet at Christmas, and continued play- ing in high school concerts and marching band,” says Hart. After decades, she rekindled her inter- est. “I found a clarinet at New- found Country Store yard sale
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Brian O’Meara is not only a
band member, but also the Pres- ident of the Board of the Lakes Region Band, one of four New Horizons Bands in New Hamp- shire, and part of hundreds of bands in the New Horizons In- ternational Music Association. O’Meara says that everyone
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