In a room full of musicians, Dan Seiler stands out. It’s not just because he practices for at least an hour a day and takes private lessons to improve his skills. It’s also because he has 50 years on the saxophonist in the next chair.
Picking up the instrument again after going decades without playing has taken Seiler back to high school, in more ways than he imagined. The retired real estate agent has begun rehearsing and performing with the Pitt County Schools Early College High School band.
“I need to log in time,” Seiler, 68, said of his reason for joining the band last fall. “It’s hilarious to see the old guy roll in with a bunch of high school sophomores.”
Seiler, who plays tenor sax, joined a trombonist and a trumpeter last year as participants in a high school music class as part of New Horizons Band. The program, held at Pitt Community College, is for senior adults who became musical drop-outs of sorts after high school or college.
“It’s such a wonderful program,” said Michael Stephenson, coordinator of music and drama at PCC. “It’s basically for people who are 55 and older to get back to playing musical instruments, band instruments, particularly.”
Founded in 1991 at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, New Horizons has grown over three decades to include more than 185 instrumental groups across about 40 states and four countries.
Greenville had its first chapter as early as 2001, with groups hosted by Music Academy of Eastern Carolina, a nonprofit community music school that Stephenson founded with his wife, Cheryl. But after Music Academy relocated to Jarvis Memorial United Methodist Church, Stephenson decided to bring New Horizons to Pitt Community College, combining it with the Early College High School band, a relatively small ensemble that gives a few concerts a year and performs at some of the college’s special events.
“It just seemed so positive,” Stephenson said. “I just think that it became a lifelong learning experience for everybody involved.”
Seiler, who moved to Greenville from Fredricksburg, Virginia, three years ago, set a retirement goal for himself to relearn the saxophone, which he started playing as a teen.
“I started in middle school in Pennsylvania and was terrible there,” he said, laughing. “I moved to New Hampshire where I had a retired Marine captain as a band director, so I straightened up and flew right.”
Still, after high school, Seiler gave up the instrument until his wife bought him a saxophone as a gift about 15 years ago. He tried to teach himself to play again, but with no group rehearsals or music lessons to attend, there wasn’t much progress. After he moved to North Carolina, he began studying with music instructor Lisa Ours and later joined the Tar River Community band.
“Several people that I play with come from the same background,” he said. “We played in high school; we haven’t played in 40 years. We’re coming up to retirement and we want to play again.”
Unlike their high school counterparts, New Horizons members do not receive a grade or course credit. But Stephenson cites numerous benefits for participants.
“There are so many health benefits involved with just playing a musical instrument like that,” he said. “The breathing aspect is certainly one of the most important parts, but also being able to keep your brain mentally focused and working on a goal like that. I think some of the benefits include keeping your quality of life but also longer life. Being around music makes us feel younger.”
One of Stephenson’s favorite stories stems from an earlier experience with New Horizons when the group began rehearsing at Cypress Glen retirement center several years ago.
“One of the ladies that was participating in the band always used a walker everywhere she went,” he recalled. “She brought the walker to the rehearsal, she played her trumpet, and at the end of the rehearsal, she left her walker. She forgot that she needed her walker until she got way down to the end of the hallway. If that doesn’t speak to the power of music and the way music affects us positively, I don’t know what else does.”
Stephenson has seen benefits for the younger players as well. Interacting with older musicians can fill a void for students who do not have close relationships with their grandparents, he said.
Music, it seems, helps to bridge the generation gap. That is demonstrated when high school students inquire about their senior adult classmates if New Horizons members miss class. It is also evident in the way senior-adult band members celebrate their young band mates’ musical accomplishments, such as being selected for all-county band.
“There’s just a spirit that develops, this sense of community,” Stephenson said. “It’s not just a mentorship, but it gives the younger people and opportunity to see positiveness from an older generation. They’re not so scary. They’re just like us. Every generation has something to offer.”
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