glassharmonica

Has anyone heard of or been to the Castleton Festival?

http://www.castletonfestival.org/ima...cement2011.pdf

rlmcmillan

Has any one attended or heard much about the Atlantic Music Festival Atlantic Music Festival 2011 - Home | Atlantic Music Festival 2011 held at Colby College? It's among the music festivals DS is considering for the summer. He's also applied to Brevard. AMF was recommended to him by his composition instructor at NEC. I was suprised to see that it wasn't among the festivals listed here.

SpiritManager

My son's composition professor, George Tsontakis is at the Atlantic Music Festival, as is David Ludwig from Curtis with whom my son worked last summer. Both are terrific composition professors and lots and lots of fun, too. My son considered going there this summer, but didn't want to go anywhere for so long. It sounds like a great festival and I'm sure your son would enjoy it.

rlmcmillan

Thanks, SpiritManager!

spacesnlines

Has anyone heard of Imani Chamber Music Festival?

JTsings

Another great summer festival for singers that I don't see listed here is Music Theater Bavaria, in Germany. Primarily for college students, but they also accept applications from rising college freshmen. They have an opera studio and a musical theater studio - my S really loved it, for both the training and the cultural experience.
Music Theater Bavaria - Summer Musical Theater Training Program

Jeep326

Cosmos, THANK YOU!!!!!

team_mom

I am looking for a festival that an already formed string quartet could attend and hone their skills. Although young (middle school aged kids), they are all serious musicians and the ensemble is professionally coached one evening a week. After working on developing repertoire for almost a year, they have finally started performing to overwhelming response.

So now we are looking for summer programs they can apply/audition to as a group. They have all attended summer music festivals as individuals in orchestra and chamber programs, but none that would encourage a group to apply.

Does anyone know of a music festival with an intensive program which works with an existing quartet?

twodown

glassharmonica

Castleton produces some wonderful productions. THe CATS program gives the mostly college age and older students opera chorus experience, with some small role opportunities, under the direction of Lorin Maazel. There are concerts and other performances, as well, for which they sometimes travel to other locations. The students have language diction classes, master classes, and voice lessons. The program is fast paced - the setting is rural - very rural! Beautiful farmland about an hour-and-a-half outside of DC. Great opportunity.

binx

Hi Team_mom! I have two possibilities.

My D went to Britt Festival in Oregon a few years ago - a two-week string quartet academy (although she was placed in a quintet). At least one of the groups there was a pre-formed group, and I remember that the application allowed for that. String Quartet Academy | Britt Festivals The website gives the starting age as 16-ish, though. I looked at the website a bit, and see that the teachers are different from when D went there, so I don't know anything about them. As I recall, the camp director was a bit disorganized, but D really enjoyed her experience.

She really liked the string quartet that worked with them, so I looked them up - the Arianna String Quartet. It looks like they work now at a different chamber music program - Madeline Island Music Camp | Intensive Training and Performance Programs for Serious Musicians on Beautiful Madeline Island in Minnesota. This one is for ages 14-24.

stradmom

team-mom: Soundfest, Castleman's Quartet Program, and the David Einfeldt Chamber Music Seminar all come to mind. Soundfest has several levels of student, so a middle school group would have peers, and the Einfeldt program tends to attract young high schoolers who play at a fairly high level.

A great quartet is a wonderful thing for young musicians, in our experience! Hope they can stay together for several years.

team_mom

thanks Binx!

Oregon is a bit far and the pre-formed ensemble program at Madeline Island is for ages 18 and older. It looks like a great program and a beautiful place though. Wish it was a better fit for Q48.

The ensemble was invited to be part of a masterclass with the Shanghai Quartet at MSU later this month. I will ask them what they suggest, but then it's getting sort of late for applications.

So far, all the programs I've seen are for individuals (starting at ages 14-16) or for pre-formed groups of young professionals. I wonder if there's a gap in there? Wanna start a summer camp for ensembles-13 and over so Q48 can go?

team_mom

Stradmom;

I've called Hartt - they sound "intrigued" but I'm not sure if that would work. Castleman overlaps with the early June Bar Mitzvah of one of the kids.

But Soundfest actually has a group application form: yea! This may be it! Has anyone worked with the Colorado Quartet?

SpiritManager

The Colorado Quartet used to be in residence at Bard. And Stradmom's daughter is studying with their violist.

stradmom

D2 studies with the violist, Marka, and has found her very supportive and nurturing, and she found the other quartet members very friendly. She also attended Soundfest a couple of years ago in the college division and worked part time as a counselor/coach for the younger groups. It's a small, positive festival. My understanding is that it has moved to the UConn campus this year, so none of the information I have about housing or meals would be relevant, but the Uconn campus is nice and has some good performance spaces, and there's a walkable little bit of town with ice cream shops, Starbucks etc. for free afternoons. At Cape Cod, the students shared (supervised for the little ones) rental housing around town - don't know if they would do that or just take a block of dorm rooms.

D2 actually just walked into the house, so I asked for her opinion. She felt that it was a great community and very positive atmosphere. There were various levels of proficiency among the participants, but it was noncompetitive, and there were certainly some excellent players there (including some of the younger ones when we attended a concert). She wasn't clear about preformed quartets but said she definitely recommended it.