Tales from Summer Music Camp

by Stacy Taylor

I began palying the violin at the end of second grade. In fact, I actually began in a summer music program. So it was only natural that as time went by, my parents sent me off to music camp -- the artistic equivalent of basketball or soccer camp. The early ones were sponsored by the local university's music department.

Later I went to the University of Kansas for the Midwestern Music Camp. We struggled into a college dorm lugging our instruments and enough clean laundry to last us through a week's worth of rehearsals, concerts, and every catastrophe known to mankind. At the end of the week, we emerged with friendships that would last a lifetime, and the knowledge that we'd played some REALLY COOL MUSIC!!!! Part of what kept us coming back each summer was the friendly competition. The less obvious but much stronger reason was that these camps brought in hundreds of students - when that many people get together, the musical possibilities are endless!

Music camp in high school was much more serious business. There are several summer-long programs around the country - usually eight weeks. My last summer in high school I went to the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina. At that point, I was armed with many more hours of practice, serious goals, and laundry soap.

The programs at these summer-long camps are intensive. Brevard hosts three bands, four orchestras (one of which is a sightreading orchestra), a piano workshop, a conducting program, and a full-blown opera workshop. Each group puts in one concert a week, so the end result is that concerts are held every night, and attendance is mandatory.

A typical day would begin with Reveille at 6 a.m. Theory classes would be held after breakfast, followed by a couple of hours of personal practice and the first orchestra rehearsal of the day. After lunch there would be another rehearsal. At that point, most of the afternoon was free time until supper and the evening's concert. My favorite memories from this summer were those from the RTP (Repertory Training Program) orchestra. The conductor of the RTP would pull out two major works at each rehearsal and we'd sightread them from top to bottom -- the day that I remember most was the one that we read a Wagner overture before the break and Mahler's First Symphony after it! By the end of the summer, we'd read a rather sizable chunk of the standard repertory!

So, when a few years ago I decided to become a conductor, it was off to camp again! This summer has marked my fourth year wandering off to the Czech Republic to participate in a three-week program geared specifically to conducting. Here, the work is a bit different. You come to the workshop having already learned six works, including two concerti, two overtures, a suite, and a symphony, and you spend your time conducting the orchestra while the teachers (and in some cases the orchestra members) critique you. At the end of the day, you crawl back to your room and study scores until you fall asleep! This type of workshop is precisely the same as the others I've mentioned above -- your time is spent practicing, learning how to be the best you can be with your instrument (in this case, the baton), and supporting learning from your fellow musicians.

As you study this year, consider going to music camp this next summer. Music students all over the world, from children to adults, rely on this as a fundamental part of their musical growth. On one hand there is the excitement of getting to play music that you usually don't have the opportunity to play. On the other hand, YOU WILL WORK, AND WORK HARD -- music camp is competitive and one of the world's most wonderful feelings is the day-to-day growth in your skills that you can see as a result. So get out there and practice... and I'll see you at camp!

In addition to teaching violin with Music Arts, Stacy Taylor is conductor of the Oak Ridge Community Orchestra, meeting weekly to rehearse and perform a broad range of music literature. She is also a member of the Knoxville Symphony, and has received separate Master's degrees in conducting and in physics.