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Next Concert: The bank will join the Handbell Choir of Westminster Presbyterian Church on Sunday, April 5 at 4 p.m. to present a spring concert, “Let the Bells Resound!” The church is located at 724 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, N.Y. Donations will be accepted at the door. |
But he’s not pacing the sidelines and clutching a clipboard anymore. Instead, he’s proudly holding a flute — and creating music with the New Horizons Band of Western New York.
The 74-year-old Gibbons lacks any sort of a musical background. Though he fell in love with big band music while growing up during the Great Depression, his musical horizons were not all that extensive. But, as someone who played football at Bishop Timon and the University of Buffalo, and went on to coach the sport for nearly 40 years, he definitely admires the parallels between football practice and band rehearsal. Both gather individuals with different skills and talent levels and shape them into performers who function as a single unit.
This former Dunkirk High School physical education teacher, who holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Buffalo, is among nearly 50 musicians of widely varying abilities that comprise the New Horizons Band at SUNY Fredonia. But they do have one thing in common: they’re all at least 50 years of age.
Formed four years ago by Dr. Katherine Levy, associate professor of Music Education, the band provides rare opportunities for “chronologically gifted” adults — even if they have absolutely no musical experience — to learn to play an instrument and play music with others. Levy is the band’s director, while music education students enrolled in the School of Music’s undergraduate or graduate programs serve as teachers for these senior musicians.
“Right from the start, the students were excellent. Dr. Levy is very enthusiastic and all the people in the band are very supportive,” said Gibbons, who retired from teaching and football at Dunkirk High in 1995. Some members are beginners, others are very advanced players, and a few are returning to instruments they played in their youth, he explained. “It’s a very wide range. Everybody helps everybody.”
Known for stressing tackling, blocking and other fundamentals of football, Gibbons believes the band’s director would also make an excellent coach. “She’s a great motivator. The way she sets up practices is the same way we did with football,” he said. Each session begins with an hour’s worth of small-group instruction, devoted to learning how to read music and position the fingers. Then the entire band plays together for the second hour.
“That’s exactly how we ran our football practices; all the ends, guards, interior linemen and receivers would work in their own groups, and then we would come together,” Gibbons added. “Everything is exactly the same.”
To say Gibbons had no musical credentials is an understatement. None of his four siblings learned to play an instrument, nor did his own seven children. However, a tour of Ireland in 2000 — which included visiting his parents’ birthplace and listening to fiddle music in old-style Irish pubs, along with visiting Irish festivals in Buffalo and Cleveland — piqued his interest in Irish music and the flute.
“I thought that music was beautiful,” he remembered.
As a lark after his tour of Ireland, Gibbons picked up a tin whistle and started to “horse around.” At about the same time, he read in a local newspaper that Levy was starting the New Horizons Band at SUNY Fredonia. That was in 2005. He attended an introductory session that fall, but admits to not being able to generate any sound from the flute mouthpiece. So much for playing that instrument, he thought.
But Elizabeth, his wife of 49 years, surprised him with the gift of a flute on his next birthday, so he traded in his tin whistle and became a beginning flautist in the band.
Gibbons didn’t consider himself to be a prime candidate to succeed. “I didn’t know anything… how to read a note. I had no idea.” But the motivation that served him well as a football player and coach, coupled with encouragement from Fredonia’s students who taught him, enabled the retired coach to thrive on a new kind of playing field.
Unlike other community ensembles, there are no auditions for the New Horizons Band. The organization serves as “entry point” for people, age 50 and over, who want to learn to play a musical instrument or simply return to actively playing an instrument that they may not have picked up in decades.
Band members assemble on Wednesday and Friday afternoons in Mason Hall. The band presents two or three performances each year. A joint concert with the Westminster Presbyterian Church Bell Choir is scheduled on Palm Sunday, April 5, in the choir’s home church at 724 Delaware Ave. in Buffalo. Then, on Wednesday, April 29, they’ll perform at Fredonia High School. They have performed previously at the Chautauqua County Home, Dunkirk High School and in a Jamestown church.
“What impressed me with the students was their passion; they really enjoy doing what they’re doing, they work hard and are well prepared when they come to work with us,” Gibbons explained.
He found that learning to play an instrument is very similar to learning a new language. “It gives the brain a little mental exercise,” he joked. As a result, this longtime lover of big band music has broadened his musical horizons to include classical music. And he’s serious about flute-playing, practicing one to two hours every day.
Levy admires the retired coach’s approach to the band as well as his growth as a musician. “He’s very good at continually challenging himself to improve as much as he can, and he just keeps working at it,” she said. “Sometimes you improve a lot in a week, and sometimes you don’t, but he has a can-do attitude that’s lovely to see.”
Gibbons is also wonderfully supportive of beginning members, and uses his own experience to support them, she added. “He’s very supportive, very upbeat. I’d like to have 20 more of him.”
