Peter Deneen spent 32 years at the helm of the band program at Traverse City East Middle School. Now he’s ready for his second act – and hopes other locals are ready for theirs, too.

Deneen has been hired by the Traverse City Philharmonic to lead a brand-new endeavor for its Community Music School: an adult beginning band program called “Act 2.” Geared toward “adults with little to no prior musical experience who are interested in learning how to play a band instrument,” Act 2 will “cover the fundamentals of reading music, proper instrument handling, basic technique, and ensemble playing.”

In Deneen’s eyes, the class is a second chance for anyone who ever wished they’d taken band back in their school days – a sentiment he says he heard quite a lot throughout his career.

“That came up so often in the 32 years I was at East Middle School,” Deneen says “There’d always be parents of my students saying, ‘I wish I’d played in band in sixth grade.’ Or maybe it was, ‘I stopped playing in band after middle school, and I wish I’d stuck with it.’ They would see how much their child was enjoying band, and they would wish they’d taken advantage of those opportunities when they were a kid.”

Music education opportunities are widely available in Traverse City for young people, but are harder to come by for adults. Addressing that gap is one of the goals of TC Phil’s Community Music School, which launched in 2024 when the orchestra moved into its new digs at Cherryland Center.

“The Community Music School really grew out of a strategic planning process TC Phil did a few years ago, where we rewrote our mission statement and made education and community outreach equal pillars of our organization, along with bringing great symphonic works to the community,” explains Angela Aleo, the school’s director. “Part of the intentionality [of the school] has been making sure that we're servicing all of our age groups. It always draws a lot of attention when you do things for children, but maybe not as much of attention and effort is given to adult programming, which is exactly where this Act 2 idea came from.”

TC Phil has long offered programming for seasoned musicians; an example is Encore Symphonic Winds, the organization’s adult semi-professional band program. But programming for adult beginning musicians – or for people who played in middle school or high school but haven’t touched an instrument since – hasn’t been a priority.

For years, Aleo says TC Phil didn’t have a space to host classes – especially large musical ensembles. Setting up shop at Cherryland removed that pain point, and happened to dovetail with two other factors that made the time right to break into a new market.

“For one thing, there are programs similar to this nationwide, and there’s real growth in this area of adults wanting to learn new hobbies and new interests,” Aleo says. “And then, as we started to develop this idea, it was a serendipitous moment where Peter Deneen was retiring. Even before he retired, it occurred to me that he would be the best person to lead this class, because he is such a great teacher and so well-known and loved and respected in the community. And then when he announced his retirement, I was like, ‘Oh, this is the perfect opportunity.’”

The Ticker spotlighted Deneen in 2020 as one of several local teachers who had become “institutions" over their lengthy careers. In addition to his decades at East Middle School, Deneen is also the longtime band manager and pipe major for the Grand Traverse Pipes and Drums ensemble, for which he plays bagpipes. He retired from TCAPS in 2024.

“I’ve still been pretty busy teaching,” Deneen tells The Ticker. “I have 14 saxophone students that I work with every week, middle school and high school students, and I've also been spending time in all the secondary schools here in Traverse City, coaching saxophone sections and woodwind sections and helping out however I can. So, I never stopped teaching, but it will be fun to have a full class of students again.”

Act 2 will run for 10 weeks from April 8 to June 10, with class sessions held 6-7pm each Wednesday. There is no audition, and no previous musical knowledge is required. Registration is $200, though players will be expected to provide their own instruments. The program will focus on what Deneen describes as “standard high school band instrumentation,” including woodwinds (flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon), brass instruments (saxophone, trumpet, French horn, trombone, euphonium, tuba), and percussion.