New Horizons Band encourages local seniors to stay in tune

Mary Pryor, of Guelph, took up the xylophone five years ago by joining the New Horizons Music program.

Now 92, she doesn’t miss a note.

“I love it. I just won’t miss band practice. I go every week and I practice every day,” Pryor said.

The New Horizons Music Program provides an entry point to music for adults who have little or no musical experience, or who have been musically inactive for a long time.

The group meets at the Guelph Youth Music Centre for 12 week sessions in the fall and winter and six weeks beginning in April.

Musicians and instructors meet Thursday mornings from 9:30 to 11:45am.

“It’s not just for seniors, but because we meet Thursday mornings, seniors are predominantly who can take part,” said Brent Rowan, founding director of the program that has been reuniting people with music for the past seven years.

For Rowan, that includes both his parents, musicians such as Pryor, and a large group that includes more than 10 participants from Centre Wellington and Wellington County.

The music program was founded on the principle that music supports good mental and physical health. The programs brochure states: “Gerontologists have long known that socialization is an important factor for good health.

“The evidence is also strong that the ‘use it or lose it’ principle applies to mental abilities as well as physical abilities. The constant mental challenge of learning music is an ideal form of exercise for our brains.”

Rowan explained, “We teach them to read music right from scratch,” noting people come to the band with varying degrees of skill and experience.

“The people chose what they’d like to play, but we will sometimes steer them to what suits them or their physical disposition,” he said.

Part of the 30-piece brass and woodwind band’s public outreach is to perform at the Victoria Park Seniors Centre, four or five times a year.

“Some of our members are part of this group,” said Kathryn Morgan, supervisor of senior services with the Township of Centre Wellington’s parks and recreation department.

Morgan said the members of the senior centre look forward to the performance as part of the many things that go on at the center. Admission to the April performance was by donation.

For more information on the  New Horizons Music program call 519-823-8893 or visit www.newhorizonsmusic.org.