<p>Bowdoin is really good (many students there are older). Not sure if Atlantic takes high schoolers but that is a really good composition program. We love Walden School in Dublin NH which is 6 weeks. Yellow Barn was the top choice for my daughter several years ago: she got in but was unable to go due to a health issue. The director was very nice to her, called and asked her to apply again. We were impressed in a way that went beyond music.</p>
<p>I love your last post :)</p>
<p>Thank you, Compmom. I now recognize Yellow Barn. A few months back two of the judges in a piano performance encouraged my son to apply there. While the distance still bothers me (he is a single child who has never stayed away from home so I want him close by) it is surely something special. Dublin is closer to home and even closer than Tanglewood! Thank you and SpiritManager for being so kind to share your experiences. </p>
<p>@AndreiTarkovsky - Your son has many years ahead when he can attend festivals. It’s not urgent that he do so next summer, if you feel he’s still a bit young for them. Composers attend festivals into their late twenties as students or fellowship participants, and then later as the composers in residence! So many opportunities ahead. He can always stay home in the summer working with his teacher and just compose. Maybe get some friends together to play music - his own and other new music. Composers need lots of down time to dream and explore - it needn’t be at a structured program.</p>
<p>SpiritManager, I agree completely. The only reason I am trying to find soemthing for him in summer is because he has no friends who are interested in composition or even classical music. In fact the downside of going to a private school is that he has no close friends nearby for summer at all. Being a single child he gets very lonely and bored even though usually he is very self-sufficient and doesn’t need too many people around him. Still 3 months is a LONG time so I am trying to find him something to do so that he is not stuck home alone all day. But I still don’t want him too far away from home! :-)</p>
<p>Yellow Barn is in Putney, as you no doubt know, which isn’t too too far, but I understand that an hour or two can be a long way when kids have not been away from home as yet.</p>
<p>My daughter had also not been away from home before attending Walden. There were kids as young as 12 and as old as 19, as I remember. Walden is 6 weeks, and has a daily curriculum of classes, including anything from electroacoustic composition to a class on a particular composer to 21st century notation. They teach theory and aural skills and have a unique method using hand gestures. There are individual composition lessons. World class musicians and a composer in residence enhance the teaching. Everyone sings in the chorus which has a final concert at the end. </p>
<p>There are opportunities to play other student’s works but the focus is on coming up with a 10-15 minute piece that results from 6 weeks of work. At the end of the program there is a three day “composers’ festival” where each of the 50 students has his or her work played by the excellent musicians who have been coming there for years, and the recordings are high quality. </p>
<p>Another really conscious emphasis at Walden is community. The entire community of students and staff hike mountains on Saturdays, they go swimming in Dublin Lake, there is a “Christmas in July” celebration, and every night the entire program, faculty, staff, students and visitors, gather in a large room to sing “Good night music.” It is truly magical.</p>
<p>Walden wins ASCAP awards for Adventurous Programming, and won in 2014 again. It is place that is serious about music but also very nurturing and caring (if a student is working too hard, they are encouraged to rest or recreate). It is a great place to experience being away from home for the first time because of the emphasis on support but also a great place to go to progress in composition and music in general.</p>
<p>You won’t meet nicer people anywhere and Seth Brenzel, the Director, sets that tone. My kid has type 1 diabetes and I was nervous every day taking her to school, during her childhood. Leaving her at Walden was the first time I ever drove away and felt safe and comfortable.</p>
<p>The social environment was wonderful. And being surrounded by other teens who got up early to compose. I got a call one weekend with my daughter saying “I am not such an odd duck afterall!”</p>
<p>Yes I am a booster. I would be equally enthusiastic about Yellow Barn, which has a different structure and is shorter 
I personally think it is great to spend more than a week or two at a program when young, so that you can work with teachers and integrate what you are learning in classes into a relatively mature work. But writing at home and bringing a piece to a program can work too.</p>
My son went to BUTI for composition when he was in high school, and it was terrific (except for the food). He went to Brevard during college, but there were a couple of high school composers there. That was a very good program as well.
Just read that the Composer in Residence this summer at Walden is Martin Bresnick who is the chair of Yale School of Music’s Composition department and the ensemble in residence is Wet Ink. Seems like a phenomenal combo for a young composer. http://waldenschool.org/