Long time Delta band teachers Margaret Behenna and Curt Jantzen are inviting any and all former students to join a night-school course called Delta Music Makers Junior Band.
Only two years experience is necessary, and the age range is 13 to adult, so anyone that took band for two years in the elementary programs, or in Behenna's high school program at Delta Secondary, is welcome. Other members of the public are welcome too.
"Do not be afraid, nobody will be embarrassed," says Jantzen.
"Please dust off that instrument and come join us for a trial 10-week course. We will give you all the help needed to make those musical sounds once again."
A no-obligation gettogether will be held on Thursday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. in the band room of Delta Secondary. It's an opportunity to meet other likeminded folks and discuss the formation of the Delta Music Makers Junior Band.
The course will actually begin two weeks later, running 10 weeks from Thursday, Oct. 4 to Thursday, Dec. 6.
"We may divide the group by age if we get enough students," says Behenna. "That is, we may have a group of youngsters and a group of older teens and adults if the numbers warrant it."
Behenna was a wellloved band teacher for many years at Delta Secondary. Thousands of students played music in her outstanding band program. Since her retirement in 2007, she has been working with Jantzen in the elementary schools of Ladner and North Delta, giving the gift of music to thousands of younger students.
All former students of Jantzen and Behenna, and other members of the public, are invited to join this new venture, no matter how long the instrument has been put away, or how little is remembered. Rental instruments can be arranged through a rental company as needed.
"The music material will be extremely basic, so that everyone has opportunity to bring back those music muscles," says Jantzen, who is the music director of the Delta Music Makers community band and chair of Ladner Bandfest, besides being a well-known elementary band teacher in Delta.
Contact Jantzen at [email protected] or Behenna at mbehenna@ dccnet.com with questions.
To register for the course through Delta Continuing Education, visit http: //web. deltasd.bc.ca/programs/continuing-education.
