Music Festival Master List

Does anyone have any experience with the Benefic Chamber Music Camp at Ball State?

My son might not make it to any festival this summer. Too busy with makeup work from being gone for auditions and then he has to practice and make a decision where to go. He might just do the same small ones as last year.

Iā€™ll put in a plug for Eastman Horizons, a 3 week conservatory prep program that they have hosted for over 25 years. It simulates the real class environment of a conservatory and really helps a rising Senior to understand what they are getting themselves in to. Our Dā€™s musical ability grew tremendously, but she also learned from a great Theory teacher, did a music history class and worked on several other subjects. They give a graded report card at the end, which is a nice supplement to the high school transcript. They stay in the Eastman dorms and the program is very well monitored. She made some great friends that she has stayed in touch with through the application and audition process.

Another festival I havenā€™t seen mentioned here is the Marrowstone Music Festival. It is sponsored by the Seattle Youth Symphony at Western Washington University. It is a pre-college and college level program. I think their priority applications are due today but they may take them after today (April 10).

Does anyone have any experience with IMIF in Maryland?

son going to Green Mountain Chamber Camp.

Son is returning to Aspen Music Festival. Heā€™s counting the days!

My son is a senior in a conservatory studying violin performance. He is looking for summer music festivals in Europe in 2016. He has attended many high level music festivals in the States but would like to experience European scene. Any suggestions?

A lot of people seem to enjoy the Schleswig-Holstein Festival. Thereā€™s one in Fontainebleau that is more chamber-oriented that many seem to enjoy. The Moritzburg Festival is one that my daughter would like to attend some day. She has always been at domestic (US) festivals but last year she went to Verbier and enjoyed that a lot even though her primary focus isnā€™t orchestra. The playing was at a very high levelā€“best orchestra she has ever been part ofā€“and the conductors were terrific. She thought (and her teachers supported the idea) that itā€™s important to get a sense of the music world outside of the states. Those are just a few off the top of my head. There are so many festivals all over Europeā€“when I talk to young people her age I learn they are going to festivals all over, in Scandinavia, Italy, etc. Good luckā€“it sounds like a great idea.

Thank you, glassharmonica. I too believe young musicians need to learn more about music scenes outside the States. My S is applying to a graduate schools in the States but he would like to try few years of European schools. It would be a great experience for him to attend few summer festivals first.

@Octaves if your son is interested in performing new music, that would be an entirely different set of festivals, as well. I hear about them for composers - but instrumentalists also apply.

@Spiritmanager, I would like to see a list of new music festivals! My D is very interested in new music.

@Compmom has done a lot of research into European New Music Festivals and knows more than I do. A few I know off the top of my head:
Cortona http://www.cortonasessions.org/#home1
Darmstadt: http://www.internationales-musikinstitut.de/en/
soundSCAPE http://soundscapefestival.org

@Octaves, I have some additional European festivals to explore. (Perhaps this discussion would be better in its own thread??)

This info may be out-of-date, quality can change gradually over time and ā€œmineā€ were in this position from 5 - 10 years ago. But, your S might look into The International Holland Music Sessions. Iā€™ve also known several conservatory grads and undergrads that performed with AIMS Graz summer orchestra. There used to be new music and chamber music programs going on at the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme. Looks like that may have changed focus, but maybe next yearā€™s offings arenā€™t up.

As GH says, Verbier is hard to beat for consistent quality. If your S liked the orchestral aspect of MAW (you said heā€™d been to high level programs so Iā€™m guessing maybe MAW???), heā€™d probably like Verbier. And, again reiterating GH, Schlesswig-Holstien is also well regarded.

My suggestion to ā€œmineā€ at this age was that if it wasnā€™t a tuition free festival or they werenā€™t offered big scholarships, maybe they could find a different festival. But, Iā€™m sure you are well aware of that!

This list that I had on file was for composition, some have performance, others donā€™t. Graz is a good idea, and the Netherlands is great place to do music too. This list is from 2013-14 so dates are ballpark.

NEC SICPP June 13-21

European American Musical Alliance, Paris (Nadia Boulanger founded, ā€œharmony and counterpoint bootcampā€)

Fontainebleau July 7- Aug. 2

Soundscapes July 4-17, Italian Alps

Atlantic Music festival, July 7-Aug. 3 (Maine)

Darmstadt Summer Course/also Electronics Atelier Aug. 2-16, courses in German and English

Etchings Festival July 7-14 (tied to VCCA, IE)

Joel Hoffman runs a program in Croatia. He used to run Music X in Europe.

Bartok Festival, Czechoslovakia (Stroppa)

Akademie Schloss Solitude (composition)

IRCAM in Paris (check summer programs)

highSCORE New Music Festival, Italy

Festival Archipel, Geneva, rock influence, electronics

Edinborough Festival

Iceland New Music Festival

Thank you. S has been to MAW, Perlman, Taos, Kneisel, Bowdoin last few years. He is defineltely applying to Vervier but I wanted to know if there are some other options. The cost of attending these festivals in Europe is worrisome since we became so used to free or almost free music festivals in the States.

Verbier is freeā€“they pay your airfare and give a slight stipend for the meals not covered in the cafeteria. They used to also pay a salary stipend, but thatā€™s no longer the case, alas. Iā€™m pretty sure Schleswig-Holstein and Morritzburg are also free and include airfare. I donā€™t know if you son is interested in Japan, but a few of my daughterā€™s friends have gone to the Pacific Music Festival, which is the same dealā€“free, and pays airfare.

My daughterā€™s been to MAW, which is a great festival, but the orchestra level at Verbier was much higher.

Verbier sounds perfect but I will let him look into few others mentioned. Thank you everyone.

Itā€™s hard to get into Verbierā€“but Iā€™ve heard your son play and he is definitely of the right caliber.

Thank you, glassharmonica for your confidence on my son. He will have to apply for several others just to make sure he will have a place to go.