I had the distinct pleasure of attending 2 classical guitar "summer camps" this year , and while they are still fresh in my mind (just finished the Peabody Summer Guitar Intensive yesterday) here's my take on them. But before I get into the specifics, a short digression on having a hobby in a niche field such as classical guitar. After all, it's not, say, baseball or bluegrass, where you only need turn the corner to find people who are similarly fascinated. Access to teachers, orchestras, playing partners and opportunities to socialize with other guitarists are limited, particularly if you don't live in a major metropolitan area with a music school. On the flip side, as an adult amateur enthusiast, in what other field would you have the opportunity to be taught by truly world class artists??
So to the summer camps - the first was the classical guitar corner (CGC) camp in Massachusetts run by Simon Powis, and the second was the Peabody summer guitar intensive (PBI) run by Zane Forshee.
Both had the core activity of small ensembles and a larger orchestra of all participants. You work on the pieces all week and give a performance on the last day. Wow! I'm used to working on the music for weeks/months so this was quite a challenge, but somehow it works. The teachers/conductors are truly miracle workers!
The Music
In CGC we got the music on the first day. Each ensemble had its own music geared to skill level - and obviously easy enough that you could get it to a performance standard in less than a week. Because this camp is anchored by an online site where guitarists post videos of their playing, the organizers were able to assess fairly well where most people would be comfortable. The camp is open to all, and for non-subscribers, self-reporting about repertoire presumably guides the decisions. However, because we didn't get the music until the first day, it was pretty seamless to switch groups if you found the music too challenging ( or wanted more of a challenge). The aim being to get involved and have a good time! On the whole this works quite well, although I will say that it's not a perfect system: in my group we struggled to get the repertoire down in the time available and ended up dropping one piece. However despite some pretty rocky rehearsals, it all came together on the final day!
In PBI, the adults were all in the same ensemble group ... parts and music were sent out the previous week so we had the chance to familiarize ourselves with it beforehand. Many of the participants in this camp were students of the teaching faculty so it was pretty obvious what we were capable of - otherwise I guess it was self reporting. In practice the ensemble pieces was well chosen to be easily doable in the time available. One notable feature of this camp - there was a lot of friendly support from conservatory students and teachers, who sat in and backed up us up where necessary (and believe me, it was necessary for the large orchestra piece, which was Ben Verdery's "Ellis Island" taught and conducted by none other than Ben Verdery himself).
The participants
CGC is big - in its second year there were 50 adult guitarists from all over the world and 6 teachers (Simon Powis, Dave Belcher, Fred Hand, Janet and Raffaele Agostino and Ben Verdery). Many of the students have "met" and interacted extensively online (or in last year's camp), so it was like a reunion when we all came together in person. In fact this was one of the key features of this camp - the friendly camaraderie and chance to get to know people from so many different backgrounds and parts of the world who are truly enthusiastic about learning guitar... The social aspect was enhanced because everyone was living and eating together on site at the beautiful Endicott college in Beverley MA (though the dorm beds were definitely not for the faint of heart).
PBI in its first year was small - 11 guitarists and 5 teachers (Zane Forshee, Julian Gray, Ben Verdery, Zoe Johnston Stewart and James Keretses) plus a bunch of conservatory students who sat in, playing beautifully of course, and helped us out when we got stuck. Participants were all local, and split between the junior (8-15) and adult groups in 2 separate programs. All of us in the adult group knew each other from the local guitar orchestra. I have to say that it was an extraordinarily friendly and supportive atmosphere and just great to meet and get to know the faculty and some of the conservatory students.
The Schedule
CGC was hectic. We were on the go from first thing in the morning to last thing at night. The daily schedule included fairly intense small ensemble rehearsals, large orchestra rehearsals, 2 half-hour lesson/masterclasses (during the course of the week), a lecture/presentation and a concert. Faculty gave concerts on 3 nights, students had an open mic on one night (very popular!) and the final ensemble/orchestra performances on the last night. The camp participants and significant others made up the audience for the faculty concerts, and the student concert (though attended primarily by faculty) was streamed live on the CGC facebook page. Space in between was filled by eating (cafeteria food was excellent and varied), socializing, practicing for the various performances and masterclasses and watching others who were doing masterclasses. Although I thought twice about performing in the lessons, in the end I was glad I did... getting feedback from teachers who have different training and perspective was thought provoking. Together with the new friends made, it was one of the main things I took away from this camp.
The PBI schedule was in some ways the same (ensemble and orchestra rehearsals) and in some ways different. PBI was much more instruction-based - the day started with an hour and a half on technique (with guitar of course), followed by another hour and a half of masterclass-cum-enrichment session. These morning sessions were where the camp really stood out - the adult classes were conducted by 3 outstanding, gifted and entertaining teachers (Zane Forshee and Julian Gray from the Peabody Conservatory and Ben Verdery from Yale). I learned such a lot this week that I will be processing it for a while - how to practice, warm up exercises, how to learn a piece, how to memorize, what to think about when performing to defeat stage fright... how to shape your nails, (and get a manicure in process :))... the list goes on. Also being coached by Julian Gray for the ensemble was a huge learning experience - he threw in so much additional information in the course of practicing the pieces (exactly how many ways are there to indicated "go slower" anyway???) Obviously I didn't get to sit in on the junior group, but they had a pretty exciting schedule in addition to their ensemble practice - activities included performing in the Penn train station (garnering $45 for the snack fund!) and a session in the Peabody recording studio. Oh to be a kid again...! As in CGC there were 3 outstanding faculty performances in the evening plus the student performance night, where everyone performed admirably, with a special mention for the kids! There was an outside audience for the faculty concerts in the gorgeous Griswold Hall of the conservatory, and friends and family for the student concert in the more casual Byrd Hall.
The location
CGC was at the beautiful Endicott college in Beverley MA. All participants and teachers lived in the dorm rooms, which were nice by dorm room standards (we had private baths) but not exactly palatial. I managed to take too few warm clothes (again- it's colder than you would think in June!) and spent several nights sleeping in pretty much ALL my clothes until it warmed up later in the week. My down sweater is going with me next year. The food was great, the surroundings were calming and the arrangements ran like clockwork. Because we were all on site and there was alcohol (!) the evening socials in the dorm rec room were well attended...:)
PBI was in the Peabody conservatory in Mount Vernon downtown Baltimore. Key features were - learning not to get lost in the maze of buildings (!) and meeting up in the same homeroom with the same people for all activities. We ate in the onsite cafeteria, where the food was not bad - the staff were helpful (they twice cooked me special meals without gluten) and most days we got to eat outside in the plaza. If we had had more time for lunch, it would have been nice to explore the local restaurants though. We were all commuting, so not the same opportunities for socializing outside lunch, but personally I needed the downtime to recover for the next day!
The cost, the takeaway.
The costs for CGC were relatively high - in addition to tuition you had to factor in the costs of travel and paying for accommodation and food. However getting away for a week made it more like a vacation, and by the standards of a truly excellent vacation it was well worth it. Major takeaways for me - I got new things to think about from the lessons, I conquered my fear in several "performance" opportunities, and I got an "aha" moment from Simon Powis' lecture on harmonic analysis. Most importantly I feel like I made new friends and had a complete break from the usual routine. I'll be back next year!
PBI tuition tuition costs were very reasonable, and apart from parking (under the building) and buying lunch, that was it. Major takeaways were - wow - I learned so much it's hard to summarize, but perhaps the things that stand out (apart from Julian Gray's amazingly erudite teaching style and Ben Verdery's stories) were the fabulous teaching, the performance opportunities, the ability to get to know the faculty and fellow students in a small group setting, and the many many things I learned. I can't wait for next year!
