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Just visited one of my students at a summer piano camp. It was like a week of concentrated masterclasses for her, and I'm absolutely delighted with the polish the team accomplished.

My questions to teachers are:

- Do you encourage your students to attend summer music camps?

- Do you prepare repertoire with the camp in mind?

- Do you find the camps beneficial or do you feel threatened by having your students exposed to other teachers?

Feel free to add to my list if you like. Thanks.

I was not aware of such camps. So one more request: If you are familiar with such camps, can you name them here?

I am interested in responses to this thread as well. My kids play violin as well as piano and we attended our first Suzuki Summer Institute this summer. It was an incredible experience that left me wishing that there was something similar for piano. The kids are traditionally trained on piano, but I plan to talk to the people that run the institute we attended to see if it would be possible for them to attend the piano institute next summer.

I went into the Institute wondering how on earth the kids (ages 13, 11 and 9) would handle 5 days of violin from 9-5, not including time to practice afterwards. Not only did they handle it, but they loved it, wanted to practice and were asking to come back next year. The parent talks were extremely helpful and gave me lots of ideas on how to help the kids. Using the practice chart suggestions, we just completed our most successful week of piano practice EVER!

A complete listing of summer music camps would be much to long for this forum. American Piano Teacher (MTNA) and Keyboard Companion both publish lists in late winter. You might try each magazine's website and see if back issues are available.

These listings are by state, including provinces of Canada and a number of European listings. California has quite a few, but often parents like to send their students out of state for learning from a specific teacher/faculty/venue.

Interlochen is one good example:

Summer Programs at Interlochen

This one comes to mind because the music club I belong to offers a full scholarship to Interlochen as one of the prizes in our annual competition/audition.

My kids went to institute this year. We've done a local Suzuki piano institute, American Suzuki Institute, and Colorado Suzuki Institute over the last 5 years. Which institute did you attend? We were at American Suzuki Institute 1st week.

My oldest kid would do fine at a regular piano camp though and had considered sending him to one. My violin playing kid REALLY wanted to go to institute though - it is SO fun and they get a ton out of it.

If you google your closest metro area with piano summer camp (and the like), you're bound to find something. I found several within an hour of us that looked very high quality - some were day camps, some were sleep away. Many using college level teachers and on a college campus.

What makes me laugh is when we get back how our teachers grill us for information. My son has now changed how his teacher is going to teach fingering in O Polichinelo (Villa-Lobos). Our teachers aren't threatened at all and love when we go.

Hi John,

In the past, I have sent many of my advanced students to festivals. The younger ones I sent to ISOMATA. The older ones, when I could, I sent to Aspen, Music Academy of the West, and SongFest if the art song interested them, as well as the Taubman Institute.

Yes, I usually try to help them prepare material for their stay there, especially any chamber music or lieder. If they're going to play in a solo masterclass, they already had the material prepared so it wasn't necessarily prepared specifically for that.

Festivals are a great way to expand a student's musical experience. If they are looking to go to college soon, it's a perfect, no-strings way to work with teachers they might want to study under and see if it's a good fit. And one of my very advanced students met her fiancee there!

No strings?

Weird pianos …

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

The MTNA directory is very good and (I think) shows up in the March/April edition every year. One has to be a member to receive the magazine, so be sure and ask your teacher about it (assuming they're a member.)

Also, many colleges and universities offer summer camps as a means of recruiting students. Working with faculty at these camps can be a great experience for those thinking about majoring in music.

I spent two rich summers at Interlochen long ago when I was in high school. For some reason I avoided piano lessons there - probably I didn't want to embark on a new short-term relationship with a stranger, when I had such a good piano teacher back home - and instead took many stimulating music courses (theory, music history, piano ensembles, jazz improv, etc) that might not have been available to me otherwise.

I made some fine friends, sang in the chorus for Beethoven's 9th and Dvorak's Stabat Mater, did some piano accompanying, and was exposed to a great deal of classical music.

But in my memory, the quasi-military, quasi-religious flavor of the place looms large. Interlochen was also huge, with a couple thousand young participants. Most summer music camps are tiny by comparison, and perhaps less saddled with regulations and aura.

Hi, John,

Did you happen to go to the Icicle Creek Young Pianist Festival?

I remember last year you had a student who went who seemed to enjoy it a lot.

Oksana Ezhokina - Artistic Director for not only the Young Pianist Festival, is also responsible for the highly regarded Piano Festival in January which brings pre-professional pianist from around the world for intense coaching and the International Chamber Music Festival for pre-professional
instrumentalists studying the chamber music repertoire.

At each of these "camps" the students not only receive coaching and masterclasses but also public performance opportunities that are free to the public. The students are all fabulous. The masterclass opportunities for the pre-professional "camps" are also free to the public. Since I am local, I try to attend them all, if I can.

Since I am an adult amateur pianist, I attend the Adult Piano Retreats at Icicle Creek which are based on the same model as the above "camps" EXCEPT that the masterclasses and piano "recital" (not mandatory) is only for the participants only and not open to the public. However, the faculty does have a public performance.

For parents looking for a camp for their children for piano
who live in Washington state, have a look into what the Young Pianist Festival offers. Icicle Creek Center for the Arts is located in Leavenworth, WA.

For parents of college students/conservatory students in piano or who study chamber music, have them look into the Chamber Music Festival.

For adult amateurs, if you are looking for a camp closer than the east coast, Icicle now has 2 sessions - June and October.

Sorry for the promotion of Icicle, but they do tend to fly under the radar even though the quality of their programs are excellent.

If anyone wants more detailed info, you PM me.

A R

John,

Have you ever seen an ad in these publications from Icicle Creek? I've talked to the marketing staff with the names of the publications you mentioned above but haven't had access to any of the publications to know if they ever placed an advertisement or listing.

A R

I can attest that Icicle is one of the small camps - limited to about 12 - 13 students (both the Piano Festival and Chamber Music Institute and Festival, and even the Adult Piano Retreat). It is a relaxed atmosphere but the students do receive high quality coaching. The interpersonal relationship between students and faculty is really warm and friendly. The masterclasses that I have attended DO NOT trash or get nasty with the students. They do address areas needed for improvement in very precise ways but never ever demeaning to the student.

I always get a lot out of watching and hearing what is said/played watching the faculty coach the student.

A R

Thanks for your response. It's only in its 3rd year, so I believe Oksana, I should probably say Dr./Ms. Ezhokina (don't know which she prefers) is still fine tuning the structure. Word of mouth is doing well, but another Olympia teacher & I plan to promote it heavily within our rather large chapter. I may send a note to a colleague in Phoenix, which also has a very large and active chapter, about the camp. This summer, the camp had students from Montana, Idaho, Oregon and of course, Washington.

The faculty, Oksana Ezhokina, Jody Graves and Kim Russ are both top notch pianists and great teachers. A wonderful combination for students. And to be honest with you, my wife & I fell in love with the area. It would be great to spend summers there.

Isomata is now called Idyllwild Arts Academy. In addition to their excellent summer programs they offer a boarding arts high school program providing intensive arts instruction and college preparatory academics.

(tiny brag: My daughter went there and is now in med. school)

As someone who, in her youth, went to these camps, I have found them very beneficial. I mostly prepared pieces I had already had a good feel for (like recital pieces I had played the month previous). It was also good for me because it helped me choose a music college I would later attend.

I always encourage my students to participate in these, and some did this past summer.

Bump! Now that students are returning, or will be returning next week, I'd appreciate additional feedback on summer camps, if any of your students happened to attend. Here are my original questions:

- Do you encourage your students to attend summer music camps?

- Do you prepare repertoire with the camp in mind?

- Do you find the camps beneficial or do you feel threatened by having your students exposed to other teachers?

Feel free to add to my list if you like. Thanks.

Hi Mal,

Yes, I know, but I called it ISOMATA when I was a kid, and I still think of it that way. Fond memories that die hard...

Yep, me too.