<p>Hey, everyone. I'm currently a freshman music ed major. I've been looking for summer camp jobs for 2014 and I've realized my ideas are pretty limited. Does anyone have any advice on camp positions (preferably paid) that come up for the summer. I plan on applying to PAI in Pennsylvania (went last year and it was fantastic) and the Interlocken Summer Music Camp. Also, does anybody have any advice for actually getting these jobs? How competitive are these positions typically? How can I put myself ahead of the crowd? Thanks, everybody!</p>
<p>I don’t know how competitive it is. Probably depends on how serious a music camp is. My son’s friend got a counselor position at a camp/school last summer but the camp/school is not specifically a music camp. The advantage of that job was that once they realized my son’s friend was quite talented and capable they put him into a lot of positions that are normally reserved for older staff-such as working on the camp musical. My own son was an RA at Litchfield (which means he got room, board, ensembles to play in but no salary). To get a salary he would have to be a junior faculty there and those are hard positions to get.</p>
<p>One camp you might want to try is Camp Encore Coda in Sweden Maine. It is a small family run music camp.</p>
<p>My kids went to Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, also in MI (a few hours from Interlochen). I believe they hire quite a few counselors into paid positions and prefer them to have a fine arts background. A lot of the responsibilities are typical camp counselor things, but there are musical opportunities as well. I know that my kids’ counselors sometimes played with the camp faculty orchestra, etc. Their website should have moe info.</p>
<p>You could look into the NY Summer Music Festival in Oneanta.
[NYSMF</a> ? Summer Music Camp for Outstanding Young Musicians](<a href=“http://nysmf.org/]NYSMF”>http://nysmf.org/)</p>
<p>When I worked at Interlochen in the 80’s, I was one of many college students working there in paid positions for the summer. Jobs ranged from counselors to cafeteria to onsite hotel staff (I worked at the registration desk, but I was a hospitality major, not a music major), to stage crew. The pay wasn’t great, but the experience was awesome. I met lifelong friends who are now good contacts for my musician son, I was able to take lessons from faculty, and everyone attended a ton of performances.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the ideas. This gives me a few more ideas that I could look into. I live relatively close to Oneonta so that might be a good option.</p>