Festival hosts summer youth music camp

By DAVID GUNTER

Feature correspondent

SANDPOINT — With an all-star roster of instructors to pull from and the perfect opportunity to spread that wealth around, local musician and violin teacher Beth Weber has brought her vision of creating an affordable summer youth music camp to life.

Working in partnership with the Festival at Sandpoint, the camp will take place from July 9-12, with a full schedule that includes master classes, sectional rehearsals and afternoon workshops in a variety of musical genres and disciplines.

“We have a treasure load of master musicians in this community,” Weber said. “I just thought it would be cool to get them working together.”

Set for students ages 8-18, the camp is virtually free, asking nothing but a $25 registration fee to participate. That’s one heck of a deal for four days of instruction, concerts and affiliated events.

“We don’t want money to keep anyone away from the idea of becoming a musician,” said Dyno Wahl, executive director for the Festival at Sandpoint.

The number of camp participants will be limited to 200, and, at this writing, about 50 students already have enrolled through word of mouth alone. Each student is asked to submit a video audition as part of the application process. According to Weber, those auditions have included brand-new players toughing out a simple tune from the first page of an instructional primer, right up to more advanced young musicians showing their stuff on considerably more difficult compositions.

The camp is arranged to accommodate both levels of players, utilizing a format that provides as much exposure as possible to the young musicians.

“The idea is that everyone will play in the big orchestra,” said Weber. “After that, everyone participates in choir.”

The singing aspect of the music camp is important, she added, since that skill augments musicianship in general and many young people involved in school bands don’t have the option to take choir classes due to scheduling constraints.

Following the morning of orchestra and choir, the campers will either break off into sectional rehearsals led by master musicians, or choose to take part in one of several afternoon workshops running the gamut from fiddle, ukulele, guitar and bucket beat percussion groups for beginners, to advanced string, woodwind and jazz ensembles for more experienced players.

The camp will be directed by Dr. Jason Moody — first violinist for the Spokane Symphony Orchestra and a product himself of the Sandpoint music scene.

“Jason won the Festival at Sandpoint scholarship in 1998, while he was still in high school here, and he’s been on the Festival stage numerous times since then,” Wahl said. “So it was wonderful that Beth got him to come back to lead this camp.”

Another notable Sandpoint musician taking a prominent role in the camp is Leon Atkinson, who will offer higher-level classical guitar instruction.

“Leon is going to do an advanced classical guitar ensemble and master classes,” said Weber.

A pair of opening and closing concerts will bookend the camp, with an all-faculty performance on Mon., July 9, and a student concert scheduled for Thurs., July 12, both happening on the Panida Theater stage. In between those performances will be a Wednesday evening Contra Dance called by Emily Faulkner, with music provided by Weber, camp instructors and local musicians.

That this camp is so affordable — the Festival is picking up the $175 tuition fee for each camper — is a testament to the organization’s educational outreach programs and the will of its patrons, according to Wahl.

“This is a natural tie-in to our educational mission,” she said. “And it’s exactly the kind of thing many of our supporters — both individuals and foundations — want to see us do.

“It’s also important because of the exposure and inspiration it provides,” she continued. “Not only to inspire people young people to be a musician, but to enjoy music. As far as enriching lives, that’s huge.”

Both Weber and Wahl expect the camp to fill up quickly, based on early response, and campers will likely represent a large chunk of the area surrounding Sandpoint.

“We’re throwing our net out to the entire region,” said the Festival executive director. “We’ve put the word out as far north as Canada, west to Ritzville, Wash., east into Montana and south to the Moscow, Lewiston, Pullman area.”

Although the summer music camp is still more than four months away, planning started last fall as Weber pulled together the instructors and the Festival team handled other logistics, including a web presence, fliers and publicity. The end result, Weber noted, is very much like her original concept for the camp.

“It’s very close,” she said. “I just went for my best dream of what this could look like and now it’s all materializing.”

And if it seems to be coming together on the early side, consider that the camp was 25 percent full before the first press release or poster went out.

“We already have a lot of people signed up, which is a product of planning ahead,” said Wahl.

On that same note, conversations already are taking place about making the summer music camp an ongoing event.

“We’re calling it the ‘first annual’ for that very reason,” Weber said.

For registration information, a full list of instructors and a camp class schedule, visit online at festivalatsandpoint.com/summer-youth-music-camp or call 208-265-4554.