A Year ago, the Santa Monica College Emeritus Band--in Southern California, known for its intergenerational makeup and players' staying power--marked its 40th anniversary.

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A Year ago, the Santa Monica College Emeritus Band--in Southern California, known for its intergenerational makeup and players' staying power--marked its 40th anniversary. This year, the 60-member band marks another milestone: N. John Lanni will take the baton, becoming only the second conductor/director the band's 41-year history. Lanni succeeds Wallace Umber, 84, who founded and led the remarkable band for four decades before retiring in February. The group, whose roots reach back to 1968 at Venice Adult School, has become a community institution, with its free concerts featuring repertory which includes classical, show music and Big Band tunes. It is distinctive at several levels. Its members range in age from 20s to late 80s; it has included members of three generations of a family; and it has performed at venues large and small, from school auditoriums to the Hollywood Bowl. Lanni has taught in the Los Angeles Unified School District for 30 years, most of those at Ralph Waldo Emerson Middle School in Westwood, where he is director of the Music Department. He directs the only middle school marching orchestra in Southern California.