This spring, the Traverse City Philharmonic launched Act 2. It's an opportunity for adults with little to no musical experience to learn how to play an instrument.
Over the next ten weeks, the Act 2 participants will learn the fundamentals of reading music, how to handle their instrument and how to play in an ensemble.
Classical IPR has invited two Act 2 participants to give us regular updates about what they're learning and how their new skills are progressing.
Meet Sharon Hill
Now retired, Sharon Hill was most recently Assistant Vice President of Leadership and Regional Development for the New York Metro/Northeast Region at the University of Cincinnati Foundation.
During her career, she also worked with Lindner Center of HOPE, Ronald McDonald House of Greater Cincinnati and the University of Dayton, as well as Interlochen Center for the Arts.
Sharon and her husband Greg retired to northern Michigan in 2024, where she now volunteers at Interlochen Center for the Arts and sings in the choir at Central United Methodist Church in Traverse City.
She played the trumpet in middle school and high school, picking up the euphonium in her senior year. She hasn't played in a band since then.
More than half a century later, she's ready to return to the euphonium in the Act 2 band.
She's had an instrument for the last decade, having rescued a euphonium from an antique shop that was otherwise destined for the furnace. Even though she bought it and had it restored, she still hadn't played it by the time she retired.
"I never really played it, because work happened and kids needed running around everywhere," Hill said. "I always wanted to get back to it, so when I heard about Act 2, I realized I could dust it off, try it out and see what it's like."
Hill visited IPR with her euphonium the day after her first Act 2 class to show off what she had learned, including a demonstration of the first three notes she had learned.
The 48 participants in Act 2 first met as a large ensemble, and then they broke out into small groups to learn the specifics for each of their instruments.
Hill and the two others learning the euphonium got some basic tips on playing.
"The embouchure and the shape of your mouth is very different than a trumpet," Hill said. "For the trumpet, it's more of a smiley face, but for the euphonium, it's more of a frowny face - because it's a low sound you're going for."
Hill and her fellow classmates learned how to play three notes on their euphoniums, and then they met back up with the entire band.
Those 48 musicians then all played their three notes together as a band. (Watch and hear them on the TC Phil's Facebook page.)
"It sounded really good!" Hill said. "It was a really good balance, and we sounded great for people who had hardly ever played these instruments before."
She and the other musicians have been assigned "Hot Cross Buns" to practice for the next class.
"I'm really excited to see what we do," she said.
Hill says participating in Act 2 is part of her broader plan for how she wanted to spend her retirement years.
"The one thing that I learned by watching a lot of people retire is that to retire with purpose is a very important thing," she said. "I decided that music was something that I wanted to dive back into because life just kind of took me away from it, and I really wanted to get back to it. This was perfect for the purpose."
The Traverse City Philharmonic's Act 2 band is meeting weekly through June 10. Classical IPR will provide weekly updates from participants in the program.
