Lorraine Marks-Field was inspired to begin her first intergenerational orchestra when trying to find a way to encourage her young music students to practice their own instruments in New Jersey.
As a little girl Field played the viola, taught by a retired cellist with the Radio City Musical Orchestra. She remembered her own interest developing when he invited her to sit and play with his retired string quartet.
“ I had an after-school program, and that was the seed and the start of my intergenerational orchestra, was teaching adults, senior citizens with children,” Field told WLRN.
When she moved to Florida in 2003 she couldn’t help but start another orchestra, seeing an interest and need in the community. Field, who had been teaching at The Spanish River High School in Boca Raton, was given a space by the school to practice and start the orchestra with the help of the Century Village Orchestra.
This would be the birth of the Florida Intergenerational Orchestra of America.
Describing herself as a “pariah conductor”, Field defies the traditional aspects of an orchestra, defining success in unconventional ways.
“ This orchestra, of course it's about the music, but the music is the backdrop to creating the relationships, and not only the musicians and the students together, but bringing the audience together,” she said.
The orchestra is entering its 21st season with musicians as young as 2-years-old and as old as 97, totaling about 65 members.
Field doesn’t believe in turning others away if they want to join, hosting open rehearsals throughout the season.
“ We had one man that was dropped off a few times with an ambulance service, because towards the end of his life he wanted to still play his trombone,” she said. “ We are a community, and nobody gets turned away.”
The orchestra holds 3 to 4 themed concerts each season – playing across various genres at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Boca Raton. From classical to Broadway to children's music, appealing to all ages.
In the back of their concerts people can find a table set up with coloring books, crayons, little toys, bubbles and candy, inviting parents and their children to sit together to watch the concert.
“They can make noise. They can run around. But you know what? Every time... I don't even hear them,” she said. “I'm conducting the orchestra in the front, and sometimes I call out the children to march around. All of a sudden, all these children come out of the audience and there's like 25, 30 kids marching around or playing little sticks.”
As a conductor, Field views the orchestra as a place of acceptance, where people meet and express themselves with the music.
“One of the parents of one of the students that had special needs came up to me at the intermission of a concert and almost had tears in his eyes. He was so proud of his son being in the orchestra,” she said. “He was in the midst of the orchestra, and he would play his cello, and the father was just... It meant so much to the father that the son could feel a part of something.”
For more than 2 decades, the orchestra has welcomed people from all different stages of life. Whether you’re a child, college student, working professional or a retiree and to Field, the orchestra is “magical.”
“I know when I look out at the musicians, they're smiling and they're looking at me, they're taken to another place,” Field said. “Music is a place where you're solely focused on what you're doing, and it's such a rewarding and fulfilling experience to be sitting in an orchestra amongst other people.”
Rehearsals for this season begin October 22nd.
For more information, https://www.flioa.org/
