Winds of Change New Albany Winds stands still during pandemic By Brandon Klein
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sical instrument doesn’t wear out the body as much. “It does the body good,” Falk says. The NA Winds is open to all ages from high school students to members who play into their 70s and older. The band’s repertoire of instruments include flutes, oboes, bassoons, clarinets, trumpets and percussion.
“We have a mix of experience levels,” Falk says. The NA Winds has performed at a variety of events and venues in central Ohio including Concert of the Commons at New Albany High School and Night Moves at the Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts. www.healthynewalbanymagazine.com
Photos courtesy of Darren Falk
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n a normal year, the New Albany Winds would be in the midst of its 2020-2021 season, but this is of course no normal year. The community band has paused operations because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The local nonprofit usually performs in late September through mid-June, but because of the virus, the NA Winds has gone quiet. The group began in 2007 as an outlet for adult musicians to continue to perform and to give high school band members the opportunity to play alongside adult community members. As the band develops plans in response to the pandemic, Darren Falk, a co-director of the band, says a community band is essential to provide people a way to play a musical instrument after high school and college. “Music is something you can do for a lifetime,” he says. Playing a musical instrument can be good for your brain, too, Falk adds, because it engages the behavioral, affective and cognitive aspects, and in comparison with sports, playing a mu-
