<p>Another great summer festival for singers that I don’t see listed here is Music Theater Bavaria, in Germany. Primarily for college students, but they also accept applications from rising college freshmen. They have an opera studio and a musical theater studio - my S really loved it, for both the training and the cultural experience.
[Music</a> Theater Bavaria - Summer Musical Theater Training Program](<a href=“http://www.musictheaterbavaria.org%5DMusic”>http://www.musictheaterbavaria.org)</p>
<p>Cosmos, THANK YOU!!!</p>
<p>I am looking for a festival that an already formed string quartet could attend and hone their skills. Although young (middle school aged kids), they are all serious musicians and the ensemble is professionally coached one evening a week. After working on developing repertoire for almost a year, they have finally started performing to overwhelming response.</p>
<p>So now we are looking for summer programs they can apply/audition to as a group. They have all attended summer music festivals as individuals in orchestra and chamber programs, but none that would encourage a group to apply.</p>
<p>Does anyone know of a music festival with an intensive program which works with an existing quartet?</p>
<p>glassharmonica</p>
<p>Castleton produces some wonderful productions. THe CATS program gives the mostly college age and older students opera chorus experience, with some small role opportunities, under the direction of Lorin Maazel. There are concerts and other performances, as well, for which they sometimes travel to other locations. The students have language diction classes, master classes, and voice lessons. The program is fast paced - the setting is rural - very rural! Beautiful farmland about an hour-and-a-half outside of DC. Great opportunity.</p>
<p>Hi Team_mom! I have two possibilities.</p>
<p>My D went to Britt Festival in Oregon a few years ago - a two-week string quartet academy (although she was placed in a quintet). At least one of the groups there was a pre-formed group, and I remember that the application allowed for that. [String</a> Quartet Academy | Britt Festivals](<a href=“http://www.brittfest.org/stringquartet]String”>http://www.brittfest.org/stringquartet) The website gives the starting age as 16-ish, though. I looked at the website a bit, and see that the teachers are different from when D went there, so I don’t know anything about them. As I recall, the camp director was a bit disorganized, but D really enjoyed her experience.</p>
<p>She really liked the string quartet that worked with them, so I looked them up - the Arianna String Quartet. It looks like they work now at a different chamber music program - [Madeline</a> Island Music Camp | Intensive Training and Performance Programs for Serious Musicians on Beautiful Madeline Island](<a href=“http://www.music-camp.org/]Madeline”>http://www.music-camp.org/) in Minnesota. This one is for ages 14-24.</p>
<p>team-mom: Soundfest, Castleman’s Quartet Program, and the David Einfeldt Chamber Music Seminar all come to mind. Soundfest has several levels of student, so a middle school group would have peers, and the Einfeldt program tends to attract young high schoolers who play at a fairly high level. </p>
<p>A great quartet is a wonderful thing for young musicians, in our experience! Hope they can stay together for several years.</p>
<p>thanks Binx!</p>
<p>Oregon is a bit far and the pre-formed ensemble program at Madeline Island is for ages 18 and older. It looks like a great program and a beautiful place though. Wish it was a better fit for Q48.</p>
<p>The ensemble was invited to be part of a masterclass with the Shanghai Quartet at MSU later this month. I will ask them what they suggest, but then it’s getting sort of late for applications.</p>
<p>So far, all the programs I’ve seen are for individuals (starting at ages 14-16) or for pre-formed groups of young professionals. I wonder if there’s a gap in there? Wanna start a summer camp for ensembles-13 and over so Q48 can go?</p>
<p>Stradmom;</p>
<p>I’ve called Hartt - they sound “intrigued” but I’m not sure if that would work. Castleman overlaps with the early June Bar Mitzvah of one of the kids.</p>
<p>But Soundfest actually has a group application form: yea! This may be it! Has anyone worked with the Colorado Quartet?</p>
<p>The Colorado Quartet used to be in residence at Bard. And Stradmom’s daughter is studying with their violist.</p>
<p>D2 studies with the violist, Marka, and has found her very supportive and nurturing, and she found the other quartet members very friendly. She also attended Soundfest a couple of years ago in the college division and worked part time as a counselor/coach for the younger groups. It’s a small, positive festival. My understanding is that it has moved to the UConn campus this year, so none of the information I have about housing or meals would be relevant, but the Uconn campus is nice and has some good performance spaces, and there’s a walkable little bit of town with ice cream shops, Starbucks etc. for free afternoons. At Cape Cod, the students shared (supervised for the little ones) rental housing around town - don’t know if they would do that or just take a block of dorm rooms.</p>
<p>D2 actually just walked into the house, so I asked for her opinion. She felt that it was a great community and very positive atmosphere. There were various levels of proficiency among the participants, but it was noncompetitive, and there were certainly some excellent players there (including some of the younger ones when we attended a concert). She wasn’t clear about preformed quartets but said she definitely recommended it.</p>
<p>Another idea might be Point Counterpoint Chamber Music Camp in Vermont [Chamber</a> Music Camp on Lake Dunmore in Vermont - Point CounterPoint](<a href=“http://pointcp.com/]Chamber”>http://pointcp.com/). No personal experience but I’ve heard good things about it.</p>
<p>all great suggestions. Will look into them all. thanks</p>
<p>The Muisc Festival at Walnut Hill has OUTSTANDING faculty memebers (NEC, Curtis, Boston Conservatory, Harvard, etc.):</p>
<p>[中華表演藝術基金會</a>; Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts](<a href=“http://www.chineseperformingarts.net/contents/festival/index.htm]中華表演藝術基金會”>中華表演藝術基金會 Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts)</p>
<p>Lang Lang used to attend this camp as well. Note that the majority of the students are from Asia. The official language is English though.</p>
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<p>My kids did this in their early high school years at Bowdoin. I am pretty sure that, with middle school kids, a parent would need to go along, as they would be too young for the Bowdoin dorms.</p>
<p>You may be able to bring a preformed ensemble to Apple Hill. They take kids as young as 12, but one of their missions is “peace through music” so they do like to mix up ensembles. Call and ask.</p>
<p>Kinhaven and Greenwood are both wonderful chamber music camps for this age, but, while they might accept every member of your ensemble, they might not allow them to play as a preformed group. I would suggest calling and talking to them.</p>
<p>I know that Meadowmount did allow preformed groups (because we looked into Meadowmount the year we chose Bowdoin.) They do take kids as young as twelve, so there is another possibility. Chamber music is not their strongest emphasis, but they do have chamber music and they have excellent chamber coaches.</p>
<p>First time poster, but looong time lurker. I have a daughter who is a violinist. We are looking for a possible camp for her to attend. We were alerted to this one, but I haven’t seen anyone mention it at all. [Curtis</a> Institute of Music summer program for high school students | JKCP](<a href=“http://www.jkcp.com/program/curtis-summer-music-program-pre-college/]Curtis”>10 Summer Leadership Programs for High School Students | Just Keep Carving Paths) Does anyone have any personal information about it?</p>
<p>The Julian Krinsky camps appear to offer a variety of themed summer experiences. To my eye, this one happens to rent out space at Curtis but may not necessarily be associated with the conservatory at all. (If you look under “faculty,” it says something to the effect that “we are building an excellent faculty for this summer” but lists no names. If Curtis was really involved, there would be specific mentions of faculty names.)</p>
<p>That said, it could still be a wonderful experience. There are plenty of fine musicians who teach at summer programs and spending time at Curtis with other aspiring musicians could be significant for a young musician.</p>
<p>My D was at Britt both last summer and 2010, and she had a fine time there. The Arianna SQ did a great job coaching everyone both as individuals and as a quartet. You are assigned to one SQ group and stay with them for 2 weeks. Repertoire was very standard (WAM, FJH, etc) and there were several opportunities to perform (sometimes as an giant SQ, with all 36 playing the same piece) in front of audiences large and small. It will be a different SQ coaching this summer, the Calder, but I imagine the format and content will be similar (maybe a little more modern).</p>
<p>The Julian Krinsky camps appear to offer a variety of themed summer experiences. To my eye, this one happens to rent out space at Curtis but may not necessarily be associated with the conservatory at all. (If you look under “faculty,” it says something to the effect that “we are building an excellent faculty for this summer” but lists no names. If Curtis was really involved, there would be specific mentions of faculty names.)</p>
<p>That said, it could still be a wonderful experience. There are plenty of fine musicians who teach at summer programs and spending time at Curtis with other aspiring musicians could be significant for a young musician. </p>
<p>Thank you for your astute observation. I was wondering why no faculty was listed as well. It seems you are correct ,that it is just the facility that is used. My daughter applied to Greenwood instead and was accepted there.</p>
<p>TVenee, Congratulation to your child about Greenwood. Can I ask you if this was for junior or senior Greenwood? My younger son who went to Greenwood for 3 years in junior session auditioned for senior session this year and we are still waiting to hear. How and when did you find out? Email or through the mail? He got into Kinhaven and we need to let them know soon if he is coming. My son enjoyed Greenwood in the past and hopes he gets to pick between them. Thanks for the info.</p>
<p>I’m happy to report a *1 for piano solo at the Wisconsin School Music Association District Solo & Ensemble Festival, moving me on to state next month!</p>