Tagged: musicians

Detroit Symphony Orchestra musicians will share their expertise with metro Detroit teenagers at a new summer music camp.

The six-day camp is part of the DSO's new Avanti Summer MusicFest, and is open to musicians ages 14 - 18.

Shelley Heron is an oboist with the orchestra, and she’ll be one of the instructors. Heron has taught at similar camps in Canada for decades. She says "the biggest thrill is hearing them the first day and wondering, oh my gosh how are we ever going to get these kids to produce a concert at the end of the week? And then a little miracle happens."

In addition to master classes and workshops, the campers will perform side by side with DSO musicians on stage at Orchestra Hall.

There are no auditions for the camp; the first 140 students to apply will be accepted.  It costs $300 to attend the camp, but Heron says "we have raised financial aid funds in order to help those students who otherwise wouldn’t be able to participate in an activity like this." Financial aid is available on a first come, first serve basis.

Today's Artpod features a live, in studio performance!

Michigan musicians Seth Bernard & May Erlewine dropped by Michigan Radio to talk about their new album inspired by their journey across Ethiopia.

The Interlochen Center for the Arts is creating a program that will teach young musicians the "discipline of popular music songwriting."

Interlochen has traditionally been a mecca for classical music, but in recent years the institution (which hosts both a summer camp and a year-long school) has embraced more contemporary art forms.

For example, students can major in "motion picture arts" and study the latest filmmaking techniques.

Interlochen has just posted a job opening for a lead instructor for its new singer/songwriter program.

From Interlochen's website:

This program will lead students to creative approaches to popular musical composition by developing skills in melody, harmony, arranging, and lyric writing, while seeking to nurture a distinct individual writing and performance style.

The northern Michigan institution has taught many young musicians who've gone on to become successful singer/songwriters, including

• Norah Jones,
• Rufus Wainwright,
• Sufjan Stevens,
• and, most famously, Jewel Kilcher.

ArtPrize 2011 begins Wednesday afternoon in Grand Rapids. Sound and performing arts will play a bigger role in this year’s contest. Music, ballet, and other performances are, after all, art. But there haven’t been a lot of entries in the past.

The winner of the art competition gets $250,000 in prize money. Organizers claim it’s the world’s largest art prize.

This is the third annual ArtPrize. The third time I’ve seen giant sculptures, breath-taking murals, funny and eye-opening drawings take over a three-mile zone in downtown.

This year there are more than 120 entries in the sound and performance categories. That’s still less than ten-percent of the more than 1,500 total entries.

A program based out of Flint teaches kids the fundamentals of songwriting and music production. But the songs kids write are not your typical bubble-gum pop. The program is a professional music studio that travels to schools and community centers in Flint, Grand Rapids, and Kalamazoo. It's called Studio on the Go.

Kids use computers and keyboards to make music and beats and then they write lyrics about their lives, and finally record the songs. Kids are given a topic to write about, like "education," “making it” and "family." The idea is to steer away from stuff kids hear on the radio and to instead write their own songs. The content must be positive and no swearing is allowed.