New Horizons Band - Hagerstown
Welcome to the New Horizons Band Web Site. Please take a few moments and read about us and our activities in the community
This is a picture of the New Horizons Band with Director Larry Weber as we performed at our concert for the Hagerstown Cultural Trail Grand Opening on June 17, 2017.
The band continued its activities 2019 with public concerts at the Founder's Day in Sharpsburg, Renfrew Park in Waynesboro, and Air and Wings Show and others.
Making music keeps New Horizons Band members ‘young’
The Herald Mail Janet Heim, July 10 , 2017
From Left - New Horizons Band Directors, Larry Weber, Director Emeritus and Pat Beard, Interim Director of Band and Pops Ensemble
Making music is something people can do through all stages of life.
And that is the point of New Horizons Band, to offer an outlet for musicians 50 and older to continue developing and showcasing their musical skills.
"We enjoy the opportunity to make music until we can't breathe anymore," said Lawrence "Larry" Weber, director of the Hagerstown New Horizons Band.
When the previous director resigned last winter, the steering committee asked Weber if he would serve as director of the all-volunteer organization.
"I said as long as my body and mind and spirit holds out, I can do that," said Weber, who has been with the band about three years.
A 1957 North Hagerstown High School graduate who played trumpet in the marching band and was student director, Weber never followed through on plans to go to a music conservatory.
Instead, he stayed involved in music by directing a variety of choirs and orchestras, while working in fundraising, higher education and as a pastor.
Assistant Director Pat Beard, who is a fiber artist, has played clarinet with the band for more than 10 years. Beard started the pops ensemble, which she directs, about five years ago.
The goal for the band — which has about 30 musicians in the concert band and 20 in the pops ensemble, with some of the musicians playing in both — is to provide education, socialization and performance opportunities, Weber said.
In the concert band's 20th anniversary season, the directors are recruiting and hoping to expand it.
They stress there are no auditions. Joining is an opportunity to dust off instruments that haven't been played since high school or college, or a chance to try another instrument.
There are New Horizons Bands across the U.S. and internationally. When the local band was started about 20 years ago, it was affiliated with Hagerstown Community College and offered the opportunity for music lessons.
No longer connected to HCC, the directors and musicians offer what musical help they can.
Those interested in taking lessons can do so through the New Horizons Band in Chambersburg, Pa., which is affiliated with the Cumberland Valley School of Music.
The Hagerstown band, which exists by donations, has an ambitious performance schedule.
The concert band's most recent performance was at the ribbon cutting of the Hagerstown Cultural Trail, while the pops ensemble often takes its music to nursing homes.
"It keeps us young, and I'll tell you, the social aspect of New Horizons is great," said Weber, noting there are musicians in their 80s who play with the group.
The concert band rehearses weekly year-round, other than a couple of weeks at the end of August, on Fridays from 1 to 3 p.m. The pops ensemble rehearses Wednesdays from 1 to 2:30 p.m.
The bands meet at the Hagerstown YMCA on Eastern Boulevard, except in the summer.
This summer, they are meeting at Maranatha Brethren Church on Scott Hill Drive off of Jefferson Boulevard in Hagerstown.
For more information, go to www.newhorizonsbandhagerstown.org,