With no Ivan, the bet is piano camp is going to rock
I didn't have a lot of camp experience as a kid, but I remember going to a basketball camp when I was 10 or 11 and vowing never to return after meeting our camp coach, whom we quickly nicknamed “Ivan the Terrible.”
The guy was in love with running. I swear I learned 100 times more about conditioning that week than I did basketball.
The good news for those who are attending Waldorf College's 2008 Summer Piano Camp is that Ivan isn't on the camp staff.
“There's no five-mile run in the morning,” said Kristin Jonina Taylor, the Waldorf piano professor who is the director of the camp that begins its five-day run on Saturday.
Still, I was intrigued by the idea that there is such a thing as a piano camp, and I had to ask: So what do you do?
Duh, the obvious answer is you play the piano.
For five days?
“Oh, we do a lot of fun things,” Taylor said. “I know for people who don't play, maybe it would seem like a so-called ‘boring' camp, but in all seriousness, it's a chance for kids to really get some intensive work in during the summer.”
The camp costs $275 ($225 for those who don't stay on campus), and in addition to private and group piano lessons, other topics include an organ and harpsichord demonstrations, computer instruction, sight-reading and ensemble playing. The camp is limited to 20 students, and campers who stay on campus don't have to rough it. For example, they'll stay in air-conditioned rooms. They'll have a free night at the Forest City Family YMCA. They'll have a movie night. They'll play games.
In other words, they'll have fun. Taylor swears they will.
“We really do have a good time,” she said. “I think sometimes people see the words ‘piano camp' and think how can that be fun? But for the kids we have who come to camp, the piano is just as important to them as basketball or some other sport is to other kids.”
It's not a one-person camp staff, either. Taylor will be joined by Diane Stadtlander, a Waldorf adjunct piano professor, and Maira Balacon, an assistant professor of piano at Mount Union College in Ohio. And for campers interested in private, group organ and harpsichord lessons, Waldorf's Nancy Farndale and former Waldorf music professor Tim Schmidt will be on hand.
“We think one of the real nice things about our camp is that students will get a lot of time with instructors,” Taylor said. “We have a great staff and they're almost as excited as the kids when camp comes around.”
The timing of the camp is important, too.
“There are some piano instructors who take the summer off,” she said, “and it's like anything you do, if you don't do it for three months, you're going to lose a little of that edge. Think of how some kids come back to school in the fall. If they haven't picked up a book since that last day of school, you have to do some review before you can start up again. It's the same thing with an instrument.”
And although it's doubtful we'll see campers out for an early-morning or late-evening run, they're not totally off the hook.
“We definitely do stretches and the like,” Taylor said before adding with a smile, “but I promise no five-mile runs.”
And trust me, I've looked at the camp brochure. Ivan isn't on the staff so campers, believe me, you're going to have a heck of a lot better time than I did so many years ago at that basketball camp along the shores of Green Lake.
For more information on the 2008 Waldorf College Summer Piano Camp, which is open to students in grades 5-12, contact Kristin Jonina Taylor at 585-8180 or by email at taylork@waldorf.edu.
Bob Fenske is the editor of the Forest City Summit. He can be reached by phone at 585-2112 or by e-mail at editor@forestcitysummit.com.
Story created Jun 24, 2008 - 12:52:13 CDT.
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