The Hudson County Intergenerational Community Band – which will have its debut performance on Dec. 10 at the Jewish Community Center – has roots that go back a decade.
Organizer Beth Cohen said the idea of a group that would bring together older and younger musical performers, amateurs with professionals, began to form when she moved to Jersey City in 1996.
Originally from Boston, Cohen, a professional musician and conductor, saw Hudson County as fertile ground for its own classical music scene.
“I thought musicians here shouldn’t have to go to New York City to play their music,” she said.
Cohen, of course, started by looking for existing organizations in Hudson County that offered a performance venue to people like her who wanted to play classical music.
“I went to New Jersey City University and other venues, but you had to register for a class,” she said. “No one seemed to have anything where a musician from the community could play.”
The more she looked, the less she found, and believed something needed to be created. So in a move designed to find out if other people felt the way she did, Cohen took out an advertisement in The Hudson Reporter, looking for musicians who wanted to play chamber music.
“I was thinking that other people who wanted to play classic music or jazz might feel the way I did,” she said. “I was right. I got about 30 responses.”
That’s when she realized that Hudson County was ripe. In April 2005, she began a grass roots organization that would help provide a community venue for musicians.
“I saw all these people out there without a connective force, all lonely musicians who were looking to play their music,” she said. “That’s when I started the Web site Hudsoncountymusic.com.”
The Web site became a network that allowed musicians, amateur and professionals to communicate.
“This was a grass roots campaign,” she said.
Cohen reached musicians by putting up posters where musicians played in the county. The network grew into the hundreds as musicians came on board.
The not-for-profit organization distinction came next.
But on Dec. 10, Cohen will see a realization of a decade-old dream, a public performance that includes musicians of every caliber: students, amateurs and professionals.
Led by a Jersey City conductor, the Intergenerational Orchestra will perform at the Jewish Community Center in Bayonne, which donated space for rehearsals and the performance.
Students from local schools will participate, as well resident musicians from North Bergen, West New York, Hoboken, Jersey City and Bayonne.
“We’re hoping to expand it to people in other communities,” she said.
The performance also got a little seed money from the Hudson County Cultural Affairs office and the state from a competitive grant that awarded the organization $2,400 to cover promotion and marketing.
“This is the first time playing out,” she said. “We had four rehearsals.”
But the performance is only one small part of the overall agenda. Students from local school music programs – many of whom are very good already – will sit side by side with professional and amateur musicians, getting benefit of their experience.
“These professionals are unpaid or barely paid depending on what we made at concert,” she said. “But what they are offering others is invaluable.”
Cohen said this is being done on a “wing and a prayer.”
“But we’ve started something; we’ve established a community band,” she said. “Many of these people have other professions. Some used to play instruments in high school and still want to play. Some are professional musicians. Some are students.”
The age of participants in the intergenerational orchestra ranges from 10 to 67, she said.
The concert will be held on Sunday, Dec. 10 at 1 p.m. in the Bayonne Jewish Community Center, 1050 Kennedy Boulevard near W. 44th Street. The group of professional, amateur and student musicians will perform selections that include Fiddler on the Roof, Danny Boy, the theme from The Odd Couple, the Colonel Bogey March, Slavonic Dance and others. Suggested cost is $5 at the door. For more information call JCC at (201) 436-6900 or by e-mail to info@hudsoncountymusic.com.