Age will never be a deterrent to my playing!” exclaims multi-instrumentalist Judy Siegrist. “I’ll always find a way to make music. If I lose my eyesight, if I lose my hearing, if my hands become immobile, or if I lose my voice, I’ll still make music in my heart!”

Siegrist, a former medical office manager in her 50s, is expressing a desire common among members of her generation as they look forward to their retirement years.

The truth is that today’s retirees are determined to stay active during their new life away from work and child rearing—after all, research shows that active seniors live longer and have a better quality of life—a fact that is changing the definition of, and the outlook on, retirement.

Work Hard, Play Hard

In the past retirement meant a handshake from the boss, a company pension, and years of rest and recuperation. Today, retirement—for those who choose it—can mean an opportunity to do something long neglected, often at a pace and intensity associated with a career.

You might say that a motto associated with the young is just as appropriate for today’s retirees: “Work hard, play hard!” For many music makers, the retirement years are a chance to pursue their passion with a commitment they used to dream about.

The message is: to have a successful and healthy retirement, find an activity you love doing and dedicate your time to it. Older amateur musicians might chime in, “And make sure that activity is music!” After all, a music hobby is so multi-faceted that your mind and body are sure to be as occupied as they were during your work life.

“I love to spend hours playing my different instruments at home,” explains Siegrist, a resident of Kerrville, Texas. “Sometimes, I work on particular skills or perfecting a piece from my repertoire.” But Siegrist doesn’t just challenge her mind at home alone. At least once a week, she gets together with other music making friends to work on their ensemble performance repertoire.

Are You In or Out?

There’s plenty of support for the theory that retirement isn’t what it used to be. In fact, it’s hard to pin down exactly what it is. On the one hand, Bloomberg news reports that older Americans are in the labor force at their highest rate since 1972—36% of those 55 and older are working or job-hunting.

On the other hand, those who can and want to are getting out of the workforce as soon as possible. Across the country people are retiring (or, to use a fashionable term, “downshifting”) as young as 55.

With average life expectancy on the rise—according to the National Institutes of Health—a retiring 55-year-old can expect to enjoy retirement for about one third of their life span.

It should come as no surprise, then, that healthy pastimes popular with older Americans are flourishing. Golf courses and elderhostel camps are full, and so are music camps and community bands, with more than 2,500 bands going strong across the US.

New and Improved

Judy Schmidt is typical of today’s 50-somethings. At this stage in her life, she is transferring her passion for work into a passion for recreation. “I turned 59 in July and hope to work for another six to seven years,” says Judy Schmidt, of Atlanta, Georgia, who currently works as a research coordinator at Emory University, “but I continue to play with my band and attend music camps regularly.”

It’s often said that Americans work harder than any population in the world, often foregoing vacations or working while recuperating from illness. Something Schmidt says shows that this work ethic is fast becoming a play ethic as well: “Even after I needed to leave work on medical disability a few years back,” admits Schmidt, “I still attended band rehearsal and kept my practicing up.”

Instrument-maker Jeff Leitis, 58, of North Hollywood, California, is another retiree who has transferred his creative energy into making music. He didn’t just go back to his musical roots after his retirement, he began a whole, new, and very involved project when, together with some of his friends, he put together a surfer music band. Lately, he has been rehearsing with his band three times a month and performing live once a month.
Leitis first began playing the guitar in high school, “but then I didn’t play at all after college,” he says. He returned to his guitar 25 years later, when he reached 50. “I came back and started playing solo,” he explains, adding that to improve and to hold on to every note for posterity, he began to record himself.

There’s no doubt this rekindled relationship with his guitar has been very beneficial and educational, notes Leitis, who combined his occupation with his hobby. “I use the guitars I build to practice on,” he says. the tradition of doing annual reunion shows, held at their old venue, The Cottage Hotel in Mendon, New York.

Never Too Late

Leitis, Siegrist, and Schimdt are beginning their retirement. But Myron and Anna Doty of Tacoma, Washington, are well into their retirement years. They look back on those years and say with confidence that staying active has been beneficial for both of them.

But the Dotys haven’t been playing music throughout their retirement—it says a lot about their approach to their senior years that in their 80s the pair decided to learn how to play. Talk about “It’s never too late!”

“I never played a band instrument. I’d always been interested in playing, but I didn’t get the chance when I was younger,” Myron, 88, admits. Then he and his wife saw a newspaper ad for their local community band. “We called the conductor, and we found they had openings,” Myron explains. With assistance from the conductor, he chose trombone, bought an instrument, and found a teacher.

Myron has played in the community band for five years, joined by 85-year-old Anna, who plays percussion. “We practice once a week and perform six times a year with the Civic Northwest New Horizons Band,” says Myron.
Myron and Anna have found making music a boon for their senior years. For one, music has been a therapy during periods of ill health, they say. It also has been a way for the couple to maintain a social network, which experts say is crucial for avoiding age-related decline in body and mind. “The band is a great group of people to be associated with,” Myron confirms.

Music Making Challenge

“I enjoy the camaraderie and the public acknowledgement of playing in the Hampton Roads Metro Band,” says Len Carter of Chesapeake, Virginia, who is now finding the time to make his lifelong love of music even more a part of his life.

“I played through junior and senior high school,” says Carter, a 74-year-old former Navy combat systems officer, “but after that I joined the military and didn’t play, except for one month when they needed a French horn player on a Navy ship.”

“I missed music and didn’t like being away from it for so long,” Carter continues. So when he retired—from his civilian career in 1990—he began to play again, this time the baritone and euphonium. “I picked music up again without any problems,” says Carter, who has added trombone and bugle to his brass repertoire. (He enjoys euphonium most of all. “It has the lowest sound, an octave lower than the others,” he says.)

Eight years ago, Carter began playing in the Metro Band, but he didn’t stop there. The former military man somewhat naturally gravitated toward adult drum and bugle corps—he plays bugle for the Khediv Drum and Bugle Corps—perhaps the ultimate music making challenge for someone in their 70s given the intense physical aspect.

Excuse to Travel

Like Carter, Schmidt also came from a military background—she was in the Army Nurse Corps during Vietnam before starting her civilian job—and like Carter, she seeks in music the challenges, intensity, and social aspect she has in her career.

Schmidt began playing the piano in grade school and soon after took up flute, piccolo, and, in high school, oboe. But along with many others, she put down her instruments when she became a nurse and a working mother.
Music beckoned once again when the nest emptied. “I moved to Georgia after raising my kids and earned my doctoral degree, and then I heard about the local New Horizons Band,” she says. After attending the informational meeting, she realized this group was just what she needed to rekindle her relationship with her flute.

“I was excited about my flute and band participation again, and I began traveling to band camps around the country, to places like New Mexico and Hawaii,” she says, revealing that a music making hobby can be a great excuse to travel, itself a pastime long popular with those in their golden years.

A Better Person

Music is often postponed, but not forgotten. When careers are established and children grow, it is time to take up a new challenge to keep the mind and body fresh. Across the country musicians are dusting off their instruments, practicing embouchure and fingerings, and re-entering the exciting world of music making.

But why do older Americans choose to devote energy and time to music making, when after a lifetime of work, they deserve to kick back? Are music makers naturally energetic, inquisitive, and industrious, or do people with these qualities play music because it offers them so much?

Siegrist hints that there may be something else beside the social, physical, and psychological benefits that fuels her passion. For her, there is a moral, almost spiritual, dimension to her hobby. As she puts it: “Learning to play an instrument not only expands my capabilities, it also makes me a better person.” Whatever the answer, it’s clear that once the music bug is caught, it’s hard to get rid of.

As seen in Making Music magazine (see link below:)
Each issue of Making Music offers inspiration, instruction, and information for the amateur musician. Read stories about music makers from all walks of life, learn about the latest medical research into the benefits of making music, discover tips to make you learn better and get the most out of your hobby, and much more.