Michael Binette, a native of Maine, has played in a variety of bands.
He can play the trumpet in a community band in Maine while living in Florida, which is more than 1,000 miles away, thanks to technology.
Through online rehearsals, he has been able to keep playing with the Maine Pops Concert Band.
The Village of La Belle resident, who divides his time between here and Biddeford, Maine, has been a member of the Sunshine Strollers and The Villages New Horizons Band, among other groups.
“You should play with very fine trumpet players,” he stated. “That’s how you gain knowledge. Every rehearsal teaches you something new.”
He particularly enjoyed his initial performance in front of an audience of 800 people at the Savannah Recreation Center.
Binette’s Maine mates have come down to see the New Horizons Band perform on a few occasions. He has taken a photo of himself, 23 Maine colleagues and New Horizons director, Ward Green, in the audience last March.
That was the last time he performed with the band in a live concert. He has been participating in the band’s virtual rehearsals via Zoom since the coronavirus lockdown.
Binette’s musical career reached a pinnacle of success in 2019 when he traveled to New York with the St. Petersburg-based Second Time Arounders Marching Band for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
“It was a rush to perform in front of such a large audience,” he said.
The band conducted several rehearsals to prepare. The group had another rehearsal the night before in New York.
The band was moved to an armory early on parade day, where the other groups were assembled. For the NBC cameras, they had a 3 a.m. rehearsal.
That night, Binette may have had at least an hour of sleep.
“No one wanted to be late for the bus,” Binette said.
After about an hour on the parade road, the band had to come to a halt near a red line while the group in front of them played for the TV audience.
Binette explained, “Once they tell you to go, you go. You would go through the process and then play for a second or two.”
Binette’s phone was busy during the parade, with friends calling him and sending pictures of him on TV.
He was raised in a musical environment, with his father playing trombone, baritone, trumpet and drums.
“He had a lot of potential,” Binette said. “He was an outstanding guitarist.”
Binette preferred the trumpet when he was ten years old.
“I’m not sure why,” he said. “I liked the way it sounded.”
He learned how to play the brass instrument from his father. He joined the marching and concert bands at St. Louis High School in the seventh grade.
Binette went to trade school after high school and worked for John Hancock Financial for more than 40 years. At Christmas parties, he would sometimes bring out the trumpet to play with his father, but that’s it.
Him and his father joined an alumni band from St. Louis High School that was starting in 1989. The band performed at nursing homes, marched in parades and gave concerts.
“Having (my father) in the same group as me was pretty neat,” Binette said. “I was now playing with more experienced players. I needed to up my game.”
– Attributed Source, The Villages Daily Sun