A year ago, the Santa Monica College Emeritus Band - one of the most unusual music groups in Southern California for its intergenerational makeup and players' staying power - marked a milestone: its 40th anniversary.

On March 22, the 60-member band marks another milestone: N. John Lanni will take the baton, becoming only the second conductor/director in its 41-year history. Lanni will lead the band in a free "Broadway Showtime" concert at 3 p.m. at The Broad Stage, the stunning theater at SMC's Performing Arts Center.

Lanni succeeds Wallace Umber, 84, who founded and led the remarkable band for four decades before retiring in February in Santa Barbara.

I'm thrilled to be following in Wally Umber's footsteps, and it's more than a little humbling, said Lanni, 73, who has played tenor saxophone in the band for 30 years.

On the program March 22 will be "Broadway Showstoppers," highlights from "Camelot," and selections from such classic musicals as "Oklahoma" and "The Music Man." In addition, marches, which have become signature numbers for the band, will be performed.

The group, whose modest roots reach back to 1968 at Venice Adult School, has become a community institution, with its free concerts featuring repertory that includes classical, show music and Big Band jazz.

It is unique 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.

I feel a lot of nostalgia and I will miss the directorship and camaraderie of the band, said Umber, a World War II Army veteran who fought in the Normandy invasion. "It's the only class at Emeritus College where people have come back for 10, 20, 30 years and more."

Umber, who received his master's degree in music from USC, said he has loved teaching people all kinds of music through his directorship and through the performances, particularly compositions by John Philip Sousa, who is almost always featured in the group's concerts.

The band has also created a lot of intergenerational rapport among the players, he said.

Wally Umber is an institution in himself, said Emeritus College Associate Dean Maggie Hall. "His dedication to the students in the ban is legendary and inspirational. And he's a very nice person with a musical mission in life."

Lanni, who is originally from New York, has been a musician since childhood and still performs on the Conn tenor saxophone that he had in high school. When he moved to Los Angeles in 1952, he formed the first of what would be several musical groups.

He attended and graduated with the Charter Class of San Fernando Valley State College - now California State University at Northridge - in 1961 and was president of the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia National Music Fraternity at the campus.

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.

With the Emeritus Band, he is now in charge of a group that has seen members come and go over the years, but the staying power of many of the musicians has been remarkable. The band counts 28 members who have been with the group 10 years or more, and seven of them have served for 30 years or more.

Indeed, one of its musicians has been with the band almost since it was founded; trumpeter Morton Miller is celebrating his 40th year with the group.

Its members have included doctors, lawyers, law enforcement officers, and former Big Band musicians.

Started at Venice Adult School in 1968, the band performed at many venues in its first decade - including the 1972 All-City Adult School Commencement at the Hollywood Bowl - before falling victim to passage of the property tax-cutting Prop. 13 in 1978.

Umber continued the band on his own for one year before then-SMC administrator Archie Morrison asked him to bring it to SMC. For two years, the group played as part of the college's regular academic program before being moved over in 1981 to Emeritus College.

Though Emeritus College is a non-credit program geared to adults 55 and over, its classes and programs are required by law to be open to all age groups.

The band performs three times a year at SMC or nearby venues and also does one or two community concerts each year at such locations as the Third Street Promenade, drawing anywhere from 200 to 400 audience members.

For further information, call (310) 434-4306.