The baton is about to drop on Delta Concert Band’s 60th anniversary celebration, as the highly-regarded musical fixture in the community prepares for a champagne-popping performance this weekend.
Delta Concert Band (then called Delta Community Band) was formed in Ladner on Oct. 29, 1964, and the Delta Community Band Society was incorporated under the Societies Act in 1967 to run the band’s financial affairs, according to a history on the group's website.
Sixty years on, the now-North-Delta-based group, comprised of more than 50 people from many different walks of life who range in age from 19 to 90+, will come together on Saturday (May 24) in the auditorium at North Delta's Seaquam Secondary (11584 Lyon Rd.) to do what they do best: present an entertaining concert that has something for everyone, from swing to rock, classical, marches, songs musicals, movie scores and pop.
The band is planning to recognize its roots by performing a few pieces from the 1960s, and may even have a few former members in attendance after the band put out a call to past players this earlier spring.
All of this is happening under the masterful baton of the band’s longest-serving music director, Jim Tempest, who took over in 2006 from past conductor Jim Littleford.
A professional teaching and performing musician, Tempest was the senior director of music for the Canadian Army before retiring in 2019, and has been a faculty member of Vancouver Community College's music department since 1995, teaching trombone and brass pedagogy and leading the Mount Pleasant Brass, an ensemble of students and local musicians that serves as a key part of the music school's community outreach.
According to an event press release, Tempest in his role as director has played a key part in "making a good band get better."
Over the years, Delta Concert Band has provided a rare "inter-generational link," the release notes, where young university or high-school students sit elbow-to-elbow with retired seniors and work towards achieving the same musical goals.
This also extends to the community at large, where the band often plays in seniors homes, at special community celebrations and ceremonies, and alongside local students at their school concerts. The band also regularly plays throughout the Lower Mainland, and over the years has made trips further afield, including to Europe, the United Kingdom and Maui, Hawaii.
Delta Concert Band's 60th Anniversary concert commences at 2:30 p.m; admission is by donation at the door.
Next month, the group will be one of 20 bands (and its members, among 700+ musicians) performing at Ladner Bandfest. Organized by fellow local community band Delta Music Makers, this free annual music extravaganza at Ladner's Memorial Park happens June 7 and 8, with Delta Concert Band performing the Sunday at 4:40 p.m. For the full schedule, visit deltamusicmakers.org/ladner-bandfest.
Two weeks later, on June 24, the band is holding its annual Spring Concert at North Delta Centre for the Arts (11425 84 Ave.), downbeat at 7:30 p.m.
Later this summer, Delta Concert Band is performing at the Kitsilano Showboat in Vancouver (July 11, 7 p.m.), then playing one the city's annual Summer Concerts in the Park at Sunshine Hills Park in North Delta (July 22, 7 p.m.).
For more information, visit deltaconcertband.ca.
