When it comes to bands, Delta's musical roots reach back to 1889, a time when Ladner's Landing was still a tiny fishing and farming village accessible only by boats or horses.
Fast-forward 125 years to today where the community's long-standing band music tradition has reached a milestone - Delta Concert Band's 50th anniversary.
Making music and community involvement have fit hand-in-glove from Delta's earliest bands through which direct lineage can be traced to Delta Concert Band, the performing arm of the non-profit Delta Community Band Society that was formed in Ladner on Oct. 29, 1964.
Today's version of Delta Concert Band (DCB) is a 45-member group of highlyskilled adult amateur musicians from throughout the Lower Mainland who range in age from 18 to 80 and have a broad mix of backgrounds.
Like concert bands generally, DCB plays a wide variety of music and over the years has established a reputation for high-quality musicianship, regardless of which musical style - swing, rock, classical, marches, musicals, movie scores or pops - follows its downbeat.
In fact, DCB's musicianship has also helped attract a long line of respected music directors over its half-century, including current music director Jim Tempest, a professional teaching musician who joined the band in 2006.
"I saw DCB as an opportunity to work with one of the finest amateur wind groups in Metro Vancouver," he says. "Working with amateur musicians is refreshing because the desire to play for the sheer joy of making music is primary. This band energizes me and reminds me of why I chose to make music my profession."
An accomplished trombone player, Edmonton-born Tempest was raised in B.C. and took his music degree at Western Washington University in Bellingham. His music studies continued in London, England and since returning to Vancouver in 1984, he's been active as a professional musician and educator. He received his MA (music education) from UBC in 1995.
From his perspective atop DCB's podium, Tempest acknowledges that he's enjoyed watching a good band get better.
"In the past seven years I've concentrated on improving the ensemble's musicianship," he explains. "The band has grown in size and depth but also in its ability to play more sensitively. Its sound has become more blended. Of course I want to continue this musical growth."
Continuing to fine tune musicianship is only part of DCB's mandate. Community service is also important and here the band uses its music to serve young and old alike.
"This band is a link across generations," Tempest explains. "Very few other activities involve teenagers through seniors, all working side-by-side as peers to reach a common goal."
DCB's two bass clarinetists are a prime example. One joined the band in 1968 and the other in 2012 while still in high school.
"They could easily be grandfather and grandson but when they sit down to play, the 50-year gap between them simply disappears," Tempest notes.
The cross-generation link also extends externally as the band plays regularly throughout Delta in seniors homes, at community celebrations and ceremonies as well as for high school and younger audiences. One of its annual highlights is playing at the Ladner Bandfest where it joins adult bands from throughout the Lower Mainland and beyond for two days of free concerts.
The highly-successful Bandfest was founded by the Delta Music Makers, another active adult community band that performs with DCB annually at Christmas. This year's Bandfest is set for June 7 and 8 at Memorial Park.
Another important part of DCB's mandate is passing the musical torch.
Like other adult community concert bands, DCB provides high school and university-trained musicians a place to play once school is done. But DCB also provides financial help to a chosen few music students who want to make music a career.
Each year, DCB provides a $1,000 bursary to a qualifying Delta Grade 12 graduating music student to further those studies. In addition, DCB is holding a special concert in May to help raise funds for the North Delta Secondary and Delview Secondary music programs. It's also participating in the Corporation of Delta's annual free Concerts in the Parks series again this summer.
DCB's full performance schedule is available at www.deltaconcertband.ca.
And DCB itself was a recipient of community-minded corporate generosity last summer when Vancouver-based Porte Development, an established real estate developer active in Delta, presented DCB with a special arts donation. Membership dues and proceeds from concerts also support the DCB's operating costs.
During this 50th anniversary year DCB is also attempting to launch a large, longterm community project that, if successful, will solve a long-standing problem.
All community performing arts groups - concert bands, choirs, symphonies, dance groups, etc. - experience difficulties in finding appropriate and affordable rehearsal facilities with adequate and secure equipment and music storage.
"Delta desperately needs a community performing arts centre for rehearsals, storage, administration and even performance spaces where the common costs could be shared," says Tempest. "Since 2006, for example, DCB has had to move three times and currently enjoys space only through the good graces of a local high school. Such a performing arts centre would give all local groups a home and would allow synergies for artistic growth."
Several other B.C. communities have built or have renovated an existing building for the same purpose, he notes.
"I firmly believe if a community performing arts facility existed in Delta, it would be filled with groups from across the region the day it opened. We hope other performing arts groups join us in this quest."
And while that's in the future, DCB also keeps an eye on Delta's rich band history.
A long-standing DCB member, tuba player Jim Love, wrote and published a history of the community's earliest concert bands. The Sound of Brass, Ladner, British Columbia 1889-1912 is a 151-page text and pictorial tribute to that rich history.
The book includes a fitting forward by Edgar Dunning, one of DCB's founding members who was also a past-owner and long-time columnist for the Delta Optimist. Dunning was a huge supporter of DCB and a regular at many rehearsals and concerts up until his passing at 100 years of age in 2010.
Down the road, DCB hopes to take an historically-significant playing trip to the Netherlands and northern France in the spring of 2015 to mark the 70th anniversary of the Second World War liberation by Canadian and Allied troops. It also had a highly-successful playing tour of Maui in 2011 and this June will host a visit to Delta by the Maui Community Band as part of the 50th anniversary.
"For any community group to last 50 years is a testament to its value to the members and to its role in the community," says Tempest. "That DCB looks at its 50th year as a point of departure for new and exciting things rather than the end of an era speaks to the need for this band in the community and the desire by the community to support its musical role."
