<p>So glad he was able to go, and hope he has an amazing time!</p>
<p>Dropped S off at Aspen and spent some time hanging out. Completely different from Interlochen - now instead of the oldest kid heâs one of the youngest. The program is very unsupervised - not a whole lot of guidance, although he says his teacher was excellent and the practice rooms for him are mostly baby grands. The free concerts in town are terrific. Itâs incredibly beautiful there. They have weekly hikes but only 4 people showed up for the first one. He did not get into chamber but is doing four-hand which he is fine with. If you send your child make sure heâs responsible and able to survive in a totally unsupervised and unstructured environment. They do 11 p.m. bed checks and shine a flashlight into your face for the kids under 18 - annoying but makes me feel a lot better. The food is decent. Itâs easy to get around by bus and a lot of the kids rent bikes, but the highways seem like a very dangerous place to ride your bike. Iâm going to hold on passing judgment until the full 8 weeks are over, but so far itâs definitely pretty amazing, but a little scary for a nervous parent.</p>
<p>RPianoDad: Iâm with you on experiencing much of Aspen as âscary for a nervous parent.â My S hates the food at Maroltâand he was fine with both Interlochen and Tanglewoodâs notoriously bad meals. In the first week, the cafeteria had a welcome picnic with grilled food. I thoughtâgreatâfinally a meal heâll like. Unfortunately, the only thing they grilled were black bean burgers! I had the same impression you did of the highway my S is biking to get to rehearsals and practice rooms: narrow, steep, and no shoulder. S is loving the concerts and classes. I was glad to hear your S did not get into a chamber group either, as this was an unpleasant surprise for S and us. He says heâs plenty busy with class, studio, master classes and orchestra and seems very happy nonetheless. Iâm withholding judgement until the end of the 8 weeks, too, but am sort of wishing heâd gone back to Tanglewood, where everyone is in the same orchestra, and where he got to do chamber music, which has always been his favorite part of summer music camp.</p>
<p>Thanks to RPianoDad and dec51995 for the Aspen âfield report.â I enjoy reading about various programs. It sounds like both of your kids are getting the most out of their experiences.</p>
<p>My daughter is at Interlochen and loving it! She is used to cabin living, and everyone seems to get along well. She is in orchestra & string quartet. She enjoys attending the other student performances and has made friends with kids in other disciplines. She reports that Vocal Artists are among the easiest folks to get to know; they donât travel in packs but they are super friendly so they are available to join during meals, etc. So kudos to those of you with singers, youâve raised children who have helped make my daughterâs first few weeks welcoming :)</p>
<p>I saw this quote from the Operations Manager of Brevard Music Center, and think itâs worthwhile to share on the Music Festival list. He was asked how BMC has changed over the past 36 seasons:
âIt used to be much more of a traditional summer camp. Intramural sports teams with cabin versus cabin. No air conditioning. Now, the students are a very high caliber; they spend much of their time practicing. Theyâre very focused on their goals.â</p>
<p>I expect music in general has changed in much the same way over the past 36 years. More time is spent practicing, the level of playing keeps going up, and there are kids who are more focused earlier in life. It will be interesting to see if the pendulum starts slightly swaying in a different direction in another generation.</p>
<p>Best wishes to all young artists this summer. </p>
<p>Goodbooks, I love to hear about summer programs too, and was glad to hear your report from Interlochen. S attended two years ago and Iâve stayed on their email list. I love to âlisten inâ on parents getting ready to send their kids off, relive the excitement, and answer the odd question. Ran into this cute video about the new practice rooms at Aspen and thought I would shareâstay with it if you watch because it gets quite funny by the end. Seriousness of purpose or not, arenât our kids lucky to get to share their summers and their love of music with each other? Music camps rock!</p>
<p><a href=âA Day in the Life of a Practice Room - YouTubeâ>A Day in the Life of a Practice Room - YouTube;
<p>S is enjoying Norfolk Chamber Music Festival very much. And the very cool thing is that all their concerts are live-streamedâmeaning that we can watch every performance heâs in! We are really loving this.</p>
<p>Iâm very jealous, Clarimom!</p>
<p>Question - for those with their children in summer programs - we were hoping to use our sonâs recital at Aspen as part of the music supplement for his college applications - but it doesnât appear that Aspen records these so we were going to hire a videographer to attend to make a tape. Does anyone think this is a good or bad idea? We think it would be better than a studio recording.</p>
<p>@RPianoDadâ several of the colleges that my D applied to asked that recordings not be done with an audience. Even in the most disciplined audience, somebody is going to cough, rattle paper etc. </p>
<p>Festival update: D (mezzo soprano) attended Oberlin in Italy for 6 weeks this summer. I cannot say enough positive things about the program. The program includes Italian language classes for college credit, private lessons, coachings, Masterclasses and performances. For instrumentalists, they play for the operas and also attend Italian classes, private lessons and instrumental MC. </p>
<p>Wow, Scuba, the Oberlin program sounds fantastic. Our D is not at that point yet, but just finished her first high school session at Brevard, with which she is head over heels. She loved everything about it (well, the food was just okay but she didnât mind): the instructors, the classes (yoga, improv, masterclasses, scenes rehearsals, private lessons), her cabin mates, the performances, the setting, the social scene. Home run!</p>
<p>@greatchoirâ there were HS juniors and seniors in the program.</p>
<p>Update on summer programs:My high school kid had an incredible time at Tanglewood Young Artists Orchestra. The orchestra sounded amazing and he loved attending the Tanglewood concerts and his private lessons. Simply wonderful experience that I suspect was life changing. College kid had a productive and good summer at Brevard. Program taught him a ton about orchestral playing but did not love some of the other aspects of the festival. Would love to hear from the parents who had kids at Aspen how that wentâŠ</p>
<p>Aspen still has a week left. S played in the AACA orchestra and has had so much fun there this summer. Iâm afraid he is not looking forward to coming home, but that is nothing new, as he didnât want to come home from Interlochen or Tanglewood, either. He has so enjoyed the concerts of fellow students and his own AACA concerts. He sends us recordings of their rehearsals and concerts and the orchestra sounds so good! S especially loved playing under Robert Spano. The one disappointment was that, though S auditioned twice, he didnât win a place in a chamber group. Since this has always been a highlight of summer camp, he was pretty shook up about it. Still, heâs already talking about the long 10 months between the end of this year and the start of nextâŠ</p>
<p>Cellocompmom: did your son enjoy the BSO concerts at Tanglewood? S became a real devotee of that orchestra after last summer. Whenever he wanted a recording of a work, he always looked for the BSO first. Despite the fun of Aspen, I think he missed the BSO this summer.</p>
<p>I have nothing but great things to say about the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. My S learned and performed ten major chamber works over the course of six weeks. They basically were immersed in rehearsals, coaching sessions and performances from morning to nightâand the talent there was just amazing. All concerts were live-streamed, which we were thrilled about, and he also received a professional recording of each performance. He made so many new friends and had a fantastic time.</p>
<p>dec51995, S loved the BSO and all of the soloists. We are from an area that does not have a large professional orchestra so for him it was incredible. He also thought the college orchestra was amazing and really appreciated that a lot of new music was played. He did say that chamber music was not so much of a focus at BUTI and while he did have a group and they sounded great but missed the chamber music experience he has had at other programs but the orchestra experience was amazing and he especially enjoyed working with conductor Paul Haas and performing Mahler 5.</p>
<p>So my S finished Aspen and had a terrific time - he wants to go back next year! - plusses - the concerts are incredible, the atmosphere wonderful, and there are lots of hikes every Monday so he did get some exercise. The main negative is that there isnât a lot of guidance there - meaning if you go in ânot knowing anythingâ thereâs no one to tell you what to do, so if you know someone who has gone before itâs very useful. The average age is 22 (and a conservatory graduate) so if youâre sending your 17-year-old they should be responsible - itâs not even like college - more like graduate school⊠As a result, my S screwed up a number of things which is unfortunate but itâs inspired him to return.</p>
<p>They have master classes and âtalksâ with many famous musicians which are particularly useful, plus a ton of additional classes in all sorts of areas, such as âpiano technologyâ. All in all itâs an amazing program but only for very serious, independent, responsible musicians which can survive a completely unstructured environment.</p>
<p>I hope this is helpful.</p>
<p>Itâs interesting-as your kid gets older, not having a lot of rules becomes an asset. My daughter was at Kneisel Hall this summer where everyone is treated like an adult and there are not even staff around in the evenings. A few of the young artists are young (I think there was one 18-year old) but the age goes up to 30. Over the years my daughter has been to many summer programs and the level of oversight is truly all over the place. Parents of younger kids should certainly check in advance. </p>
<p>Has anyone tried Music for All National Festival
for Honor Orchestra of America? </p>
Has anyone attended the InterHarmony Music Festival in Italy and Germany? Does anyone know how it compares with the U.S. Music Festivals, in particular Aspen and Bowdoin? This would be for piano.