Hello. I have learned a lot from previous posts and really appreciate your readiness to share your experiences and advice!
My question is regarding summer programs for HS students focusing on music composition, mainly classical. My son is a HS junior with ~ 1 year composition experience (and has played piano for ~7 years). He participated in the Illinois Wesleyan Univ summer music composition institute last year and greatly enjoyed it. It was a perfect introduction well-suited for a range of students, and we would recommend it to others. He is already eagerly looking ahead to next summer and is hoping to do something a bit more intensive and a bit longer (ideal would be 2 weeks). Right now the programs that seem to fit those constraints are:
High School Composition Intensive at Berklee/Boston Conservatory
Lamont Summer Academy (composition major)
Clevelend Institute of Music, young composers program (though one week only)
Any feedback on those programs? The others that looked possible focused primarily on performance with an option to be involved with composition, OR were either too long (for him) or too expensive (for us) or appeared to be for the truly advanced composition student. But perhaps I’ve missed other good ones we should also consider?
Though we are on the west coast, traveling east is certainly do-able.
Thanks so much for any comments or suggestions.
Thanks for the suggestions! I’ve also found your and others previous posts on this similar topic, so that’s very useful too. Any thoughts about the Lamont Summer Academy at U of Denver?
I second Walden, which is not only wonderful musically but is a great community to be part of. It is a month long and has wonderful guest composers, teachers and classes. It is in Dublin NH with a view of mountains. They hike on weekends.
Boston University Tanglewood Institute is another great one *BUTI).
We were in a similar situation last year, we are on the West Coast and my son wanted to attend a summer music composition program. Below is a list I made last year when my son was looking for a summer composition program (not sure if all the links are up to date). In the end, the best fit for him and our family (we didn’t want him to be gone for more than three weeks) was the program at UNCSA. He attended UNCSA and had an amazing time. It’s a well-run intensive with a lot of individual attention. The intensive is small (less than ten kids) but they seemed to learn as much from each other as they did from the formal classes. My son doesn’t know any other kids who compose where we live so it was amazing to be with like-minded kids in a collaborative environment.
Thank you for the list and for the comments about UNCSA, which I hadn’t heard about before, and BoCo, which now does their program in summer jointly with Berkelee. I agree that part of the value of the summer experience is the opportunity to meet and work with other composition kids. That was definitely one of the best things about my son’s week at IWU last summer. Since he really doesn’t want to do 5 weeks, we are currently looking at CA Summer Music, UNCSA, Berkelee/BoCo Summer intensive, and Lamont at UDenv. Exciting!
I forgot to ask of OregonMom2021 - - - did your son come away from UNCSA with “products” (i.e., compositions and performances/recordings of them)? I realize that is not the main goal for a summer program, but it does seem like that would be useful for college apps, especially for the summer before senior year. Just curious…
I think having performance/recording of a piece is one of the main reasons to go to a summer program! The longer ones afford time to write a polished piece, on site. For shorter ones, the student cans sometimes bring a piece already written or write a piece in advance for instrumentation provided. For the BoCo program students write a few short pieces while at the program, I believe, with a concert at the end : I initially thought this would produce lesser quality work but the concert I listened to online was pretty darn good.
It can be quite difficult for high school composers to get pieces played for the portfolios they are required to submit, unless they are in an arts school or a conservatory prep program. So yeah, very important benefit of a summer program.
My son did BUTI, and it was an excellent experience. He went to Brevard while he was in college and liked it–my recollection is that there were only a couple of HS composers.
Does anyone know how competitive are music composition summer programs to get into? Does almost everyone who apply get in or are they very selective? My kid has been accepted into what is considered as one of the more “prestigious” ones (please don’t ask me to share which one as I am trying to stay confidential here) and I am trying to get an idea of whether this is an endorsement of talent/ability/potential or just because we have to ability to pay.
They vary. If it’s “prestigious”, then, yes, it was probably competitive. But, it might be determined on the criteria you’re using for evaluating prestige, as well.
The well-known ones, which are most of them actually, are very competitive yes and you should absolutely take his acceptance as an endorsement of talent, raw talent or not. Sent you a private message.
Yes that is true. What is prestigious for one may not be for another. From what I have read here, I think it would be considered one of the top 5 schools for Music composition.
Kid wants to eventually major in music composition. Is completely self taught in composition, but is a very talented musician (plays several instruments, has received numerous awards and State level recognition for performance). This will be the first time there will be any actual instruction in composition. We were pleasantly surprised to hear of acceptance into what we thought was an impossible camp to get into. That’s when I began to wonder how selective they are. Thanks for your response.
Being of a highly suspicious nature when money is involved, my knee jerk reaction is to think “I’m being taken”. I remember throughout high school and even UG studies always wondering if my D was getting accepted just for the money - which is honestly a bad way to go though life - but I was smart enough to keep those thoughts to myself. I think it’s bc I’m not musical. So it’s hard for more to judge the situation. BUT when I look back (my D just finished grad school) it’s very obvious to me that the programs were not going to burden themselves with no talent kids. Music programs tend to look for kids with some degree of talent so he will most likely learn a lot. If it’s a somewhat known program I think you can feel good about his selection and see where it takes him. As you and he start interacting more with others in the field hopefully you will get more comfortable with his skills and talents. Using “he” in general since I don’t think you specified gender.
I doubt there are any composition summer programs which would not be worthwhile. It’s already going to be a self selected group of students who want to spend a week, or many more, composing music! Just being in their company, with teachers for guidance, will be a great experience regardless of how that student compares in skill/talent level at the time.