<p>In reading some of the summer music program posts, I became aware that there seems to be a wide range of student supervision. Is there a big difference between high school only programs, high school/college programs and all age programs? Has anyone not been happy with the amount of freedeom some programs give their students? I need to change my name to Borntoplay-Mom.</p>
<p>Yeah, we tend to dislike the ones that have been overly restrictive. The programs my daughter attended while in high school were all over the lot - some very regimented and others providing no supervision at all. One the whole, the ones that accept younger students tend to be the strictest, but she has been in high school only programs that did not provide much supervision. Some of her more interesting experiences have come when she had the opportunity to supplement the planned curriculum by doing things like tagging along with a somewhat older group hitting a couple of DC jazz clubs, or hiking out to explore Koussevitzky's house, or getting a group together to head into NYC for a decent meal rather than another school cafeteria dinner, or jamming until dawn and blowing off the first workshop of the day to sleep in.</p>
<p>There is tremendous variation. It really depends what you're looking for in terms of supervision and the age of your child. High school/college programs are quite unsupervised in general, assuming that the kids are mature, responsible musicians. There is more variation in others. Are you looking at specific programs?</p>
<p>BassDad, your voice is refreshingly relaxed. Jamming until dawn--how much better could it get for a kid?</p>
<p>For an adult too, assuming one can stay awake that long. Our kids have accompanied us to (and, more recently, at) many weekend music festivals ever since they were a few months old. At many of those it is pretty much the norm to find people playing and listening to music at all hours, so my daughter would have been very confused if someone at a music camp tried to insist that she be in bed at the unthinkably early hour of 11 PM.</p>
<p>Hi Borntoplay-Mom, When our daughter was in high school (and middle school) we were delighted with the supervision at her fairly isolated summer music camps (deep in the woods...not much to do except enjoy being in camp) but when she went to a high school/college program last summer she was miserable with the overly supervised situation she found herself in, especially after enjoying the freedom of her freshman year in college, and we found ourselves having to intervene just to get her some off-campus priveleges to go out for ice cream!</p>
<p>At Aspen, the age 15-17 year old high school students live in the same facilities as college students, but are subject to an 11 o'clock curfew, and someone checks to see if they are in their rooms. That's about it for supervision and organized activity. The student needs to be self-motivated, disciplined, and focused -- if not, a music camp is probably a better idea. There are some fine ones, that are fun and instill a love of music and play great music. (Greenwood is one example.)</p>
<p>My son started going to summer music camps at age 14. There was never much additional supervision for the younger kids, and he spent a lot of time with 18 year olds, jamming the night away (even though parents were told there was a curfew). He loved it; I would have liked them to tell him to go to bed.</p>
<p>He went to another program last summer which was HIGHLY supervised, but that felt too restrictive. It was in the city though, so I did understand the restrictions, but it wasn't as much fun for the older kids (only high school kids, and many of them were rising seniors).</p>
<p>Sometimes these camps are a bit of a stretch for the young students, and a bit too restrictive for the older ones...this seems to be common when the range of ages is wide (like 12-18).</p>
<p>I remember a summer when my second son was considering a program at Harvard and they had a little statement in their literature saying something like: we believe in the self-responsibility of students this age so we don't enforce a curfew. This kind of scared me at the time, but now, a few years later and wiser, I think it's really fine.</p>
<p>Thank you for your responses. I'm sure my s will have a great summer.</p>
<p>How flexible or rigid is Tanglewood?</p>
<p>Borntoplay, you did not mention how old your S is. I can share an experience my D had last summer (age 15) at a music camp which served the high school to college/grad school age range, who are housed separately. One night at midnight there was a raucus outside as the paramedics and police arrived, taking away an underage young female who had alcohol poisoning and her 21 year old friend who supplied her. (Somewhat hilariously he gave chase into the woods unsuccessfully trying to evade the authorities). This freaked my D who has been pretty sheltered all her life. She thought the whole place was going to start running amok any moment. There is a zero-tolerance policy at this camp, which everyone signs upon registration, so both students were immediately expelled. The administration held a camp meeting the next day and this reassured my D a lot that things were well in hand. I would still send my D back to this camp but if you have a young student who will be “mixing” with older ones, I would suggest having a talk in advance about what they might see/how you don’t condone it/some people will unfortunately make bad decisions/etc. and of course you should feel free to speak with the administration before-hand about how they handle these unavoidable situations.</p>
<p>Tanglewood (BUTI) is a mixture - there’s a room check curfew at night but students may go unescorted into town when they have free time. They’re pretty strict about serious safety issues but flexible about other stuff. D found she could easily live with the restrictions last summer.</p>
<p>A favorite story of my son’s at a camp for high school/college string players: curfew was generally enforced, especially if there was a complaint about noise. One night a group of kids were sight reading Haydn quartets in my son’s room and the hour was late. Came the tap at the door and the counselor stuck in his head reprovingly. “You’re supposed to be asleep…what are you doing?” “Sight reading Haydn.” “Really? Cool! Can I join you? Just let me go get my violin…”</p>
<p>Re Tanglewood, I agree with stradmom’s description. DS was able to go into town and get a bagel or go to the library, and so had quite a bit of flexibility, but he did meet his obligations. There were dorm checks and occasional issues re problems that disrupted the dorm and sleeping schedules, but I don’t thing that is anything unreasonable. My sense was that DS had considerable flexibility on campus and regarding going off campus.</p>
<p>Meadowmount has/had the most draconian rules for under 18 imaginable…shudder. Over 18, and rules are almost nonexistent. Legendary tales in the string world about having survived Meadowmount…badge of honor.</p>
<p>I think one of the current CC posters is attending Meadowmount this summer. Don’t want you to worry!! Lorelei doesn’t exaggerate, but, despite strict rules, there are many kids who return year after year. I’ve known cellists, violinists and violists who have attended MM for 3-5+ years! The instruction is terrific and intensity can’t be beat! </p>
<p>Kids are housed by age, under 18’s are definitely separate from over - and if the kid turns 18 during the summer, they get to relocate to the over 18 area! For under 18, the practice hours are monitored - and sound is expected! But, I’ve never heard of a counselor being really obnoxious about this! Under 18s also can’t leave their room (private rooms for sleep double as practice rooms) during the required practice hours without special permission. Chamber rehearsals, lessons and studio classes are generally scheduled during times other than those designated as practice hours. There are also enforced evening curfew hours, but being in the middle of the woods, there wouldn’t be a strong incentive to leave the dorm anyway!</p>
<p>Many of the Meadowmount alums end up meeting at conservatory auditions and at other summer festivals in later years. For a really dedicated, serious music student, a summer at MM can be worth the imposed restrictions!</p>
<p>My kids are pretty straight arrows, and when they were younger, not only didn’t mind the restrictions but found comfort in them. It takes away a lot of personal angst about having to “just say no” when there are actually rules in place that are enforced.</p>