I had three amazing summers while a student. The first, was an eight-week Harp Seminar at Tanglewood with Lucile Lawrence, which literally changed my life. The second was a six-week orchestra program at Chautauqua Institution, with Beth Schwartz Robinson teaching, and the third was ten weeks in Maine studying with Alice Chalifoux, though it was interrupted by three weeks performing The Fantasticks at the Lakewood Theater.
It took that long to learn repertoire with master teachers. I learned Scintillation with Miss Chalifoux, among other pieces. She coached me in every inch of the piece. With Miss Lawrence, I remember studying (“Flight”), (“Mirage”), the Faure Impromptu, the Pescetti Sonata, Symphonie Fantastique, and probably some more. When we weren’t practicing, we attended rehearsals of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, or vocal master classes with Phyllis Curtin, chamber music programs, rehearsals of the Fellowship Orchestra, and concerts every night. I remember in the middle of the summer, Dewey Owens’s biography of Carlos Salzedo arriving in the bookstore. And Don Henry driving up to bring us all even more music to study! Grace Wong played for us Maqamat and the First Sonata by Ami Maayani! To spend eight weeks in a world of classical music, where nothing else mattered except the mosquitoes, was sheer heaven.
Now, I wonder, where can a student go to find that kind of immersion in music? How many programs are there that are six or eight weeks long? So many seem to be even less than three weeks. And even at that, the cost is high.
Obviously, perhaps, there is still a six-week program at Tanglewood, Aspen has a program, and Interlochen, though I don’t know their lengths. I would love it if we could compile a list based on the length of the program.
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