In 1996, a homeschooling family was looking for music instruction for their two young children, Patrick and Katie.  They answered an advertisement for Donn Hallman who was offering recorder lessons for students.  The children enjoyed their class with Mr. Hallman and recommended his class to Kevin, a friend of theirs.  Soon, another homeschool family enrolled their son, Ammi; and later that year Patrick, Katie, Kevin, Ammi and Mr. Hallman gave a little performance at Wycliffe Bible Translators in Huntington Beach, CA.  It wasn’t The Performance That Brought the House Down, but it did spark a friendship among the musicians and a desire to carry on and achieve.  Kevin then invited another homeschooler, Miki, to join them on the flute and perform Christmas carols at various locations.

In 1998, the little group began rehearsing on a weekly basis at the Village Bible Church (almost in secret) in Garden Grove with an instrumentation of recorders, flutes and some trumpet thrown in by Mr. Hallman.  Ofra, a violin player with a very humble demeanor, volunteered to learn how to play Mr. Hallman’s spare trombone, and another student’s mom kicked in with her electric bass along with her son, Sho, on the drums.  By this time, Patrick had switched to flute and Katie took the plunge to learn to play the trumpet.  The band was born.

The early performances were humble.  They played for the outpatient therapy center at St. Jude Hospital’s Continuing Rehabilitation Center, the Seal Beach Women’s Club, the Easter Seals Adult Day Care Center, and various church groups.  But the group still had no name, no logo, and very little publicity.  They students went to lunch together after rehearsals and had such a good time they decided to call themselves the “Let’s Do Lunch Band.” 

A few years passed, and the band matured and added many, many players.  A Beginning Band was formed for newer musicians, as was a traditional recorder class.  In the homeschool community the band is now recognized for its depth of abilities and musical versatility as well as its service to the community in both performance and in providing food vendor booths for concerts and city events. 

The band soon began receiving invitations to perform at major community venues such as Youth Expo, the Orange County Fair, Imagination Celebration and many others, and the original “Let’s Do Lunch Band” became The Alpha Winds (aptly named as Alpha means “highest” or “first”).  The Intermediate band was named The Sound Waves and recorded the achievement of becoming the State of California’s very first all homeschool marching band, and has marched in numerous parades including the Lompoc Flower Festival and the Seal Beach Christmas Parade.  In 2003, the band changed its name to Orange Coast Musical Arts.