BY KEVIN SHALVEY

As a member of the McKelvie Middle School band, Colby Rondeau’s favorite song to play on his tuba is the “Tartan Overture.”

It’s one you might never have heard of because his teacher, Norm Blanchette – who’s retiring after 25 years in the Bedford School District – wrote the song about seven years ago. 

Rondeau, David Perrella and Ellie Noyes, all 13-year-old McKelvie seventh-graders, said they’re going to miss Blanchette, who has taught them how to play instruments since the fifth grade.

“He’s really into it. He really likes to help us out,” said Rondeau.

“He likes to work through each section and make sure it works before moving on. He doesn’t want anybody to be behind,” said Perrella, who plays the trumpet.

And, the three students said it’s not always easy working with middle schoolers.

“We’re tough to work with, sometimes,” said Noyes, a trumpet player. “We’ve sometimes got a fresh attitude. Teenagers can be tough.”

About five years ago, Blanchette shifted gears from a general music program at McKelvie into what is now an instrumental program, which includes fifth-graders at Peter Woodbury, Riddle Brook and Memorial schools.

Each year, Blanchette teaches about 200 students from fifth to eighth grades. So, if you figure out roughly how many Bedford students he’s taught over the past 25 years, it would be in the thousands.

“I would see them all basically once or twice a week,” said Blanchette.

His schedule includes before school, lunch and after-school practices at the schools.

“Basically, I’m running around from building to building all day,” he said.

Originally from Manchester, Blanchette started playing the trumpet before learning to teach all the instruments at what was then Plymouth State College.

Before coming to Bedford, he spent nine years teaching in Maine.

Now, he schools Bedford youth on brass, woodwind and percussion instruments ranging from oboes to saxophones to French horns.

“After so many years, it’s like I’m a jack-of-all-instruments, but a master at none,” Blanchette said, letting out one of his whooping laughs.

But he still plays the trumpet.

“You always keep your hand in it,” he said.

Blanchette is also conductor of the Alumni Band of the New Hampshire National Guard, which is putting on a public concert Monday, June 18, at the Hillsborough County Nursing Home at 400 Mast Road in Goffstown.
So what’s Blanchette going to do during his retirement?

“As I tell everybody, as little as possible,” he said.

But he already has a 16-day European vacation planned.

“The summer is the summer. Teachers always have it off, but I think it will hit me in September,” he said.
Blanchette might be leaving, but his students are going to keep playing. Rondeau, Perrella and Noyes are going to continue playing their instruments at least through the eighth grade.