<p>I went to Kinhaven many, many years ago. It is very beautiful and I had two really fun summers there. They also have a junior camp (I think in August) which is probably very good, but I don't know how young they start.</p>
<p>thanks everyone for all the great suggestions!!!</p>
<p>Blue Lake, Greenwood, and PCP are all for older kids... not much older, but S2 is not there yet. S1 attended Kinhaven several years ago, so we do know how wonderful Vermont is in the summer, and I hadn't realized they had a younger group as well. That's a great suggestion, we'll call the Bridlacks.</p>
<p>S2 has attended one week long day-camp festivals for several years already and wants to move on. There are some great one-week Suzuki camps, but an adult must attend everything with your child. Since he's not really a Suzuki trained cellist, is used to playing orchestral music on his own, and he wants to attend for a longer period, I don't think those type of camps will work for him.</p>
<p>Thanks to the suggestion, I emailed contacted Strings International Summer Music Camp. Has anyone attended here? They have no info about the facilities on their web site. S2 and Dad are planning to be in Philly this weekend to attend S1's concerts there and to see the Philadelphia Orchestra, so hopefully, they can tour the facilities. Very timely suggestion.</p>
<p>Again, thank you all!</p>
<p>My daughter attended Strings International when she was 16 and liked it a lot. It is held on the absolutely beautiful campus of Bryn Mawr College. You would probably get a better idea of what the campus is like from the college web site than from the few pictures that are up on the string camp site. The faculty was excellent and they seemed to have enough college-age counselors to keep an eye on the younger campers.</p>
<p>Note that the kids are grouped more by ability than by age for many of the musical activities. If your child is advanced for their age, they will not be stuck plodding with a bunch of beginners. They are grouped by age for most non-musical activities, including meals and housing.</p>
<p>Another suggestion for summer jazz - Birch Creek in Door County, Wisconsin has 2 - 2 week jazz programs. One runs the last two weeks in July and the other the first 2 weeks in August.</p>
<p>Eastman summer program info? My son is interested in their jazz program, if anyone has experience with it?</p>
<p>Anyone know about when Aspen notifies people of their decision?</p>
<p>I think Aspen notifies folks sometime in March...I think.</p>
<p>OK, I'm getting really confused about the summer jazz camp scene. Son is interested in a program for high-level musicians (Eastman?) but isn't necessarily interested in going to Eastman as a college choice. What matters between junior and senior year: the experience of living in a conservatory-like curriculum to see if that TRULY is where he wants to be, or the specific opportunity for being seen by teachers who might be making a decision about him? I could really use some advice, thanks!</p>
<p>This is a tough question, and has a couple of answers.</p>
<p>The common caveats place teacher selection as being among the top, if not the first criteria in choosing a private teacher for undergrad, but if you/he don't already that a performance based conservatory level curriculum is for him it might make sense to sort that out first.</p>
<p>Has your son had a few high level summer programs before where he could guage his level of play against a broader base of peers, and if so, does he tend to feel he has skill sets that place him in the top, middle or lower portion of any particular group?</p>
<p>If he has already done a high level or three summer experience drawing applicants across a national/international base and is competitive, he already has an inkling of the conservatory level/immersion type of experience and his relative position in a peer group, plus exposure to a few teaching styles.</p>
<p>If he has had no such experience, I'd opt for the summer program(s) at a level where he can reasonably assume he'll be admitted and/or faculty he'd potentially like to study with. This will give him an opportunity for audition prep, an audition, and meeting instructors who will give him an idea of the different teaching styles, personalities and "sounds" he admires.</p>
<p>If he already has an idea on instructors who he thinks he'd like to study with on a collegiate level, my advice would to be seek out competitive summer opportunities that feature that faculty.</p>
<p>In an ideal world, finances and everything considered, it might be wise to investigate a couple of shorter programs (rather than a single longer program) with varying dates so he could get a broader sampling across a wider base of both peers and faculty.</p>
<p>Lastly, have you asked his private instructor for their recommendations? This is often the best source of info, but will vary widely upon the knowledge base/experience of the teacher.</p>
<p>It's kind of a chicken/egg argument and the suggestions are my opinion. I trust others will post as well, and provide additional insight. In our own experience, son had the high level experiences early, and we already new his mindset, and focused on selecting teachers.</p>
<p>My S has not been able to be seen by a lot of the professors he is interested in studying with. In the few cases where he has, it has put him at much greater ease in the auditions and seems to pique the particular interest of the teachers. I think the more contact with them ahead of time the better. If we had it to do again, we'd have been more aggressive about this. My 2 cents.</p>
<p>Violadad, thanks for the insights--our biggest problem is that we're west coast based and he's interested in east coast schools, so we don't really have a perspective on the other side of the country. His teacher, who went to Berklee, says "he can compete" and, other than that, we're left a little hanging. He has done a jazz camp for several years here, but hasn't really had a conservatory-like curriculum. We will definitely have a better idea of schools he's interested in after Spring Break, but I don't want to miss the camp deadlines in the process. And then, what camp? argh. To put it in my boys' terms, I am "such a NOOB!!!"</p>
<p>And thanks, Stringfollies. I hope we're able to see some Dept. people during Spring Break in March.</p>
<p>SJTH, my son is classical, not jazz so other than programs/festivals others here have mentioned, I'm not at all familiar with relative strength and weaknesses. Perhaps other have more suggestions.</p>
<p>Singers who are residents of New York might want to consider the New York State Summer School of the Arts, Choral Studies division. Held on the campus of SUNY Fredonia, but staffed by "outsiders". My daughter went last summer and loved it, I felt the performances were great and the kids all felt the artistic staff was wonderful. Since there is state funding involved, the price is a bargain too- $1500 for 4 weeks. Very full days and a number of field trips to Chautauqua (they also performed a concert there) and Art Park, as well as at least one "fun" one to Niagara Falls. There are regional auditions through out the state, many of the dates have already gone by, but last year they did listen to CD auditions after the fact-don't know if the same is true this year. NYSSSA also has programs for jazz studies, orchestra, theater, dance, ballet and a couple different art ones.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/nysssa/%5B/url%5D">http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/nysssa/</a></p>
<p>For the orchestra program, I think NYSSSA only listens to CDs if they feel that there are additional spots available after evaluating all the live auditions. I've heard that the programs are excellent though, especially considering the price.</p>
<p>I think Purchase has summer jazz programs. Their faculty is outstanding.</p>
<p>And UMass Amherst has one that seems good, also with good teachers</p>
<p>So I heard back from my first program - It's a no from National Repertory Orchestra. I didn't think I'd get in because my audition wasn't very good. </p>
<p>I'm relatively pleased with my CDs for my other programs, but the others I tried out for are equally as competitive, and I'm really concerned now that I'm not going to get anything. Perhaps I should go ahead and sign up for summer term at school and just get started on classes for next year?</p>
<p>This are the other programs I tried out for:
-Tanglewood Music Center
-Aspen (instrumental program, not fellowship)
-Music Academy of the West
-Pacific Music Festival
-Schleswig Holstein
-Zermatt Academy
-Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival
-National Symphony/Kennedy Center Summer Orchestra Institute
-Britten Pears Orchestra</p>
<p>Some of the others should be coming in soon. How long can you delay before you have to make the decision about summer classes?</p>
<p>Most of these places don't reply till sometime in March. It's too early to commit to other plans. But it's not too early to be thinking of them.</p>
<p>Yeah, so I didn't get into Schleswig either. Perhaps I aimed a bit too high this year... I don't know how competitive that NSO program is or Zermatt because it's brand new. </p>
<p>It's a bit depressing, but I'm still hoping for Aspen and perhaps Zermatt. The thing about Aspen that gets to me is that I know a lot of kids who get in there who aren't really good but study with one of the teachers during the year. It's maddening because I know I'm better than they are but I still might not get in! This happened last year. </p>
<p>Well, I have a big audition tomorrow and I'm not going to let any of this bother me lest I mess that up.</p>