POTSDAM -- Potsdam resident, Ronald E. Berry, has been elected as President of the Board of Directors of the New Horizons International Music Association (NHIMA) for 2014.

He was elected to the Board of Directors in 2012, and has served on the Communications Committee and as Vice-President in 2013. He is currently heading an ad hoc committee to revise the organization’s Policy Manual.

New Horizons was founded in 1991 by Eastman School of Music Professor, Dr. Roy Ernst, who believed that learning to make music is not the sole domain of young people, and thus he set out to encourage senior adults to unpack their instruments from high school, or to start something new, and make music with a group of peers.

Ron had unpacked his horn in 2005, and became active in New Horizons in 2007 by attending his first adult band camp.

There was no returning to ‘normal life’, and by 2009, Ron had started his own New Horizons group with the assistance of music mentors in Potsdam and the Crane School of Music.

The New Horizons Band of Northern New York, now in its fifth year, has 44 members from Potsdam, Canton, Massena and surrounds. Worldwide, New Horizons groups (bands, orchestras and choruses), number over 200, with nearly 10,000 participants.

The bulk of these groups are in North America, but Australia, Ireland and Italy also have groups. More information about New Horizons can be found at www.NewHorizonsMusic.org.