Music has been a part of the Moss family since Ken and Noreen were children.
Ken chose the trumpet when his parents told him they wanted him to take up music.
Noreen’s mother told her to play the clarinet instead of her band teacher’s suggestion of a baritone horn – because her family already had one in the house and it was smaller and easier to lug back and forth to school.
Many decades later, the couple still play the same instruments as they celebrate 50 years as members of the Maple Ridge Concert Band on the 80th anniversary year of the band itself.
Ken and Noreen met in the band program at Burnaby Central, the community they were born and raised in.
They got married in 1974, Noreen had just turned 20 and Ken was 21, two years after graduating from high school and lived in Burnaby one more year before purchasing a house in Maple Ridge.
Then they started looking for a band to join.
Ken first played in the New Westminster Band in 1966. The trumpet was a good fit for him as he was named after an uncle who played the trumpet before he was killed in the Second World War.
“I’m still trying to play the damn thing,” he joked.
Noreen didn’t have an opportunity to play in a band until she entered Grade 8, although she did play the piano for several years before that.
In 1976 they discovered the Maple Ridge Concert Band and signed up.
By this time they had the first of their three daughters and would bring the newborn to practices with them, putting her in the back corner of the room. She would sleep through all the practices, said Noreen.
The band quickly became a regular part of their lives.
“It’s kind of a lifestyle,” said Ken.
Not only have they played in the band, the couple also helped out with the construction of the bandstand in the centre of Memorial Peace Park.
In the early 1990s, the band realized the need for a permanent outdoor concert venue when they began their summer series of Twilight Tuesday Pops in the Park concerts.
And, after extensive fundraising and hard work, they completed the bandstand in 1994 and donated it to what was then the Municipality of Maple Ridge on May 7, that same year.
Ken painted the whole bandstand structure in his garage, before the pieces were put together, including the two-by-four’s that make up the acoustic ceiling, and the green railings.
When they sold their house two years ago, he laughed that parts of his garage still had splotches of that same green paint.
Now, as senior members of the band, the current conductor Dr. John van Deursen will call them out and make examples of them, to teach the other members, who are all making the same mistakes.
Ken said he picks on him a lot – in a joking manner – because he knows Ken can take it.
“If I make a mistake, he tries to make an example of the old guy,” chuckled Ken.
“I usually have some lippy remark,” he smiled.
The Mosses say there are so many perks to joining the band, and they are hoping more young people will consider joining.
They both enjoy the trips the group takes and the retreats.
Last year, they travelled to Vancouver Island and played with the Parksville band – which is conducted by Ed Dumas, who was the conductor of the Maple Ridge Concert Band for decades before he moved to the Island.
Another year they went on a retreat to Loon Lake in Maple Ridge where they participated in musical workshops and worked with a guest conductor.
“It’s a really good group of people,” said Noreen. “And we’re there because we want to be there.”
“It’s just rewarding to play something well,” said Ken.
If you ask them what their favourite piece is to play, they can tell you what they don’t like.
“Hootenanny,” the couple laughed.
“We’ve played it for so many years, you kind of go, ‘ohhhh, again’,” said Noreen.
However, she said, the audience always loves the tune, and the band gets enjoyment from the crowds liking the music.
The band is learning new material all the time.
Noreen’s favourite composer is Frank Ticheli.
“He’ll take a tune and arrange it so that it’s absolutely beautiful,” she said.
She also enjoys Canadian composer Robert Buckley.
Ken enjoys playing the “Poet and Peasant Overture” by Austrian composer Franz von Suppe, which they only started rehearsing at the beginning of this year.
The couple say they need more young people in the band.
“We are an aging group, and we do have some younger people in it, but not very many,” Noreen noted.
There are three levels in the concert band: the ABC or All Beginners Concert Band; the Intermediate Concert Band; and the Maple Ridge Concert Band or the Performance Band.
Anyone can join, no experience is necessary.
All three bands rehearse at Westview Secondary, at 20905 Wicklund Ave., in Maple Ridge.
For more information, people can email: info@mrcb.ca.