http://ipraudio.interlochen.org/SeniorMusicians.mp3
By Kyle Norris, Michigan Radio
Many people learn to play an instrument when they're little, but more and more people are learning to play later in life.
Heard of band camp for adults yet? There's one at Interlochen.
Adults play for the same reasons kids do, because it's fun and it's about being part of group. And for some, music provides an escape from financial stress.
In the basement of a Grand Rapids church sit four saxophonists, two trumpeters, a trombonist, a baritone player, a pianist and a guy on drums. A lot of these folks are brand-spanking new to their instruments.
This is a rehearsal for the Beginners Swing Band. Most of the musicians here are in their 60s and 70s.
Pat Conlon plays the big, baritone sax in the group. He played clarinet growing up, but stopped for 25 years. He got back into music when he retired 10 years ago.
He says playing music with people is a blast.
"It is totally distracting," he says. No matter what's going on in life, when you're playing music nothing else is in your head. It's like big tranquilizer for a lot of us, just plain fun."
And he could use some fun. Right now, Conlon has some money problems on his hands.
"I'm like most folks, I got great big hits in my IRA accounts pushing us up against the wall," he says. "We're very unhappy campers financially now. But this is away from all that."
"So many of us took a hit in the stock market but what are you going to do?" asks Nancy Summers Meeusen "Are you going to sit there and covet your little piece of the pie or are you going to make yourself happy?"
Summers Meeusen directs the West Michigan New Horizons Music Ensembles. This swing band is a part of that group. New Horizons is an international organization where seniors learn to play instruments together. There are ten chapters in Michigan.
Summers Meeusen says she has seen people gravitate to music, despite some tough situations. In the past, there've been musicians in their group who were homeless, yet managed to pick up an instrument on the cheap. They would pay membership fees not with money, but by doing office work for the group.
Music certainly makes Eilene Riggs happy. She lives in a log cabin in Saline and plays trombone. In the summer, she practices on her front porch.
"This one is Joy of Man's Desiring by 'Baaa', or Bach, I don't know which it is pronounced some say 'Baa,' I say Bach..." she talks of the piece she is working on.
Riggs played trombone for a short time in high school and loved it, but didn't play after that. Still, music captured her heart, just, from afar.
"Oh when I'd see a band, I'd say Bill we gotta stop and listen to this band," she says. "If there was a parade I had to be there to listen to it, because that was just the drum beat made my heart race. I just loved the music. I'd hear the trombones and think, 'Oh boy, I want to do that again. I want to do that so bad.'"
Riggs bought a trombone at a garage sale and began playing with a New Horizons band in Saline. Music has helped her offset recent losses in her life. Her husband lost his job, and she had to quit work in order to help care for her grandchildren. So her family has made some big life changes, including cutting back on travel.
But Riggs says music can take her places: "We did one march that was a Mexican march, and I traveled to Mexico once, and it made me feel like I was in Mexico again."
Music also literally takes her places. Riggs went to band camp for adults last year, at Interlochen. She says the experience was magical, that it was the high point of her life.