Welcome, everyone, to the 2026-2027 school year!  

Students enrolled in the Robert L Horbelt Intermediate School have the opportunity to join one of Barnegat's biggest teams - The Band!  In addition to weekly lessons, students will have the opportunity to perform in the after school jazz band club, as well as participate in the band club after school.

During the week of September 14th, students visited the band room to learn about the band. If interested, they were given information on joining the band. (If you student misplaced this information, you can find it below in the second paragraph.) Like last year, anyone can be part of the RLHS band, even if they have never played an instrument before or took a year off.  At Horbelt, students can choose to play the following instruments:

Woodwinds: Flute, Clarinet, Oboe, Alto Saxophone

Brass: Trumpet, French Horn, Trombone, Baritone

Percussion: Snare Drum/Bells, Keyboards

Students at Horbelt can also opt to learn keyboard. Keyboards are provided by the school, and there is no cost to play the keyboard. However, there are only a limited number of keyboards available. Therefore, there may not be enough keyboards for all interested students. 6th grade students who played keyboard last year will get first preference followed by current sixth graders who played an instrument other than keyboard last year and finally, current sixth graders who did not play an instrument last year.  After 6th graders have been given the opportunity to join and play keyboard, this process will be completed again for 5th graders. At this point, any student wishing to play the keyboard will be placed on a waiting list.

If your child is interested in joining the band, please complete the second page of the packet they received and return it to me. If they have misplaced the packet, please click here to download it in English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese. Percussionists DO NOT need to bring their entire kit to school. However, percussionists should make sure they have their sticks/mallets and music each week. Their instruments can remain home to use for practice.

All students in the band will receive weekly lessons during their OSS period.  Additionally, we may also meet as a band during their scheduled OSS times later in the year.

In addition to the lessons that happen during the OSS periods, we are pleased to offer two after school extracurricular activities. Jazz Band and Band Club meet after school and are completely separate from the lessons which occur during the school day.

Students will be given Google Classroom information during their first lesson. Due to the fact that all band students need to be manually added to a class in Rooms, Rooms will be rolled out by mid-October month.

If, any time, you have any questions, please feel free to email, or call me at the Horbelt School.

Looking forward to a fantastic year!

Mr. Orecchio