Church Music "camps" for teenagers
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,499
    I'm looking for ideas into music camps for my daughters. They are both interested in church music, singing, playing piano/organ as well as strings.

    Has anyone heard of such a thing for youth?
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,916
    Institute of Christ the King runs something of this sort out of Kentucky if memory serves.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • Canadash,

    I had to do a double take before I understood what you meant. "ideas into music camps" sounds suspiciously like "spears into pruning hooks".

    Stimson is right that the Institute does run a music camp.
  • GambaGamba
    Posts: 539
    Does it have to be exclusively RC? If not, I can recommend several.
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,499
    CGZ: Please excuse my bad English!

    Gamba: Sure! Why not!

    Oh, and I found this... https://www.catholicyouthchoir.org/national-catholic-young-organists-camp/
  • GambaGamba
    Posts: 539
    Accidental post
  • GambaGamba
    Posts: 539
    Let’s see. Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest (just outside Chicago) runs a yearly Bach Cantata Camp for high school singers and strings. Weeklong, learn one cantata and enough other polyphony/psalms/hymns to do a vespers with cantata at the end. The orchestra and solo arias are filled out by pros from the Chicago area, giving a great chance to work with pros who also deeply appreciate church music. Housing on the campus of Concordia Universitt Chicago, next door to the church. Not seeing this year’s program on the website yet but you could email and ask. http://graceriverforest.org/bach-cantata-vespers/current-season/cantatas/

    Credo Music https://www.credomusic.org/ runs several summer programs, by audition, for various instruments. They are run by an evangelical professor at Oberlin, but the camps are geared toward helping Christians to learn to be very good at what they do in order to praise God, not towards proselytizing. Faculty are outstanding and again some pros are brought in as soloists or to cover harpsichord or other unusual instruments not generally taught in high school.

    The American Guild of Organists has for years run Pipe Organ Encounters, for students who are pianists interested in the organ, or organists not yet in college. Beginner and advanced programs are offered. These impacted me considerably in high school, and really help students to understand the way to go from enjoying organ music at church to becoming serious church musicians capable of holding a full-time position.
    https://www.agohq.org/education/poe/

    And the summer choral programs at Westminster Choir College are still the gold standard for high school vocalists. Tuition is a bit higher (2-week program), but 100% worth it for anyone who wants to know just how good choirs can and should sound. https://www.rider.edu/academics/colleges-schools/westminster-college-of-the-arts/westminster-continuing-education/summer-camps

    I have participated in or worked for all of these and can recommend them wholeheartedly. The skills taught may not be exclusively used on, but are completely applicable to, the Catholic repertory, but high schoolers will not find better instruction anywhere else in the country.
  • Three of my children have attended the choir camp at Mount St. Joseph in Kentucky offered by Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest over the past six years. It is outstanding. It's usually the first week of August.
    http://www.institute-christ-king.org/news/398/92/Songs-and-Stories-from-Choir-Camp-2017/
    Thanked by 1canadash