Summer Camp

Summer Camp

Highland Orchestras are proud to offer summer camps for students of all ages during the summer months. Each camp targets specific student needs (beginning, intermediate, and advanced) and helps students “quick start” on their instrument or stay playing throughout the summer months.

Beginning Strings Summer Camp

This camp is for students with no previous playing experience. Please visit the Beginning Strings page for more details.

Intermediate Camp Resources 2021

Advanced Camp Resources 2021

Other Summer Camp Opportunities

• Jacobs Academy – Summer Music Clinic
  • https://blogs.iu.edu/jsomsmc/
  • Location: Bloomington, IN
    • Looking for an immersive musical experience? At the IU Summer Music Clinic, students currently in grades 8-12 will learn, rehearse, and perform a full ensemble program with top-notch conductors. In addition to full orchestra, concert bands, and (auditioned) jazz bands, students have sectionals, a master class with Jacobs School of Music faculty, and a daily chamber ensemble or elective class such as conducting, composition, jazz improvisation, music theory, or leadership.
    • By living on campus and rehearsing in the Jacobs School of Music, students will sample college life, get to know other musicians, and perform Saturday’s Finale Concert in the Musical Arts Center – open to all.
    • Instruments accepted: violin, viola, cello, double bass, flute, oboe, bassoon, clarinet, bass clarinet; alto, tenor, and baritone sax; horn, trumpet, trombone, euphonium, tuba, percussion.
• Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp
  • https://bluelake.org/
  • Location: Twin Lakes, MI
    • Founded in 1966, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp is a summer school of the arts located on a 1,600 acre campus in Michigan’s Manistee National Forest, offering fine arts education for all ages. Each summer, the principal camp program serves thousands of elementary, junior high, and high school students with diverse programs in music, art, dance, and drama while offering hundreds of performances during its Summer Arts Festival. Blue Lake also operates a widely acclaimed International Exchange Program and Public Radio, providing cultural enrichment to students, listeners, and concert-goers around the world.
    • Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp strives to maintain an atmosphere where students who want to learn may do so in an environment which encourages creativity and recognizes the importance of the individual. Students are accepted at whatever their proficiency level may be and are encouraged to grow. Faculty and staff strive to motivate campers and share with them the joy of achievement in the fine arts. Enthusiasm is contagious at Blue Lake as campers discover, learn, experience, and succeed.
    • Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp draws its inspiration from the Arens Art Colony that was located in Door County, Wisconsin, and founded in 1922 by Ludolph Arens. Arens, who served as a piano professor at the Lawrence Conservatory and conductor of the Green Bay Symphony, was the grandfather of Blue Lake’s founder and president emeritus, Fritz Stansell. The Arens Art Colony may have been the first summer camp in America dedicated to the idea that an arts school in a secluded, natural setting can shelter gifted young people from the influences of the outside world and allow them to study with concentrated effort.
    • The spirit of the Arens Art Colony continues to flourish at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. The fundamental mission to motivate students to pursue their art with new enthusiasm continues to drive those who have worked to make Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp what it is today.
• Interlochen Summer Arts Camp
  • https://www.interlochen.org/summer-arts-camp
  • Location: Interlochen, MI
    • Follow in the footsteps of some of the most successful musicians around the world. Play, practice, and perform with talented peers and professionals in the picturesque woods of northern Michigan.
    • Here, instruments, musical styles, and artists come to speak the shared language of music. Whether you’re bringing enduring pieces of music to life or writing your own, you’ll have the space and support you need to excel. 
• French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts
  • https://frenchwoods.com/
  • Location: Hancock, NY
    • The French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts Summer Camp Music program is one of the finest non-competitive, comprehensive summer camp music programs in the United States. Students are given instruction on all levels and perform in ensembles based on their age/ability and schedule. Working conductors and musicians are at the heart of the professional faculty for the Summer Music Camp at French Woods. The counselor staff consists of music students and young music professionals. Both group and individual private lessons are available from the staff for all orchestral instruments (Bassoon, Bass, Cello, Clarinet, Flute, French Horn, Keyboard, Oboe, Percussion, Sax, Trombone, Trumpet, Tuba Viola, Violin, etc.), piano, drums, voice and guitar.
    • French Woods staff members and professional musicians play side by side with their students. This support enables the French Woods’ classical symphony to perform a concert within two weeks from the start of camp. Other youth orchestras normally take months to be ready to perform. There are also unique opportunities to work with the Theater Camp as a member of pit orchestras for Broadway productions.
    • Besides our youth symphony, we have concert band, a jazz program, and a great rock and roll camp. The rock program has five rehearsal studios and a 36 track professional recording studio. Instead of just doing covers of other groups the bands at French Woods are encouraged to write their own songs and lyrics. Most rock campers leave with a professional level CD of their work for the summer.
    • The summer isn’t just about music. The campers have plenty of time each day to try the other activities at the camp like water sports, skateboarding, horseback riding and the theater camp.