Interlochen
This post is nearly 10 months in the making. I’ve put drafted several revisions, in several different CMS’s. But I’ve finally gotten around to putting it together.
Band geek, that’s what I was/am. From the first time I started playing drums for an audience I knew that would be my passion. For me it was more about “knowing” music and being with musicians than my personal proficiency. I was fully capable of performing at the level I needed to and was able to be quite successful in high school as an individual and as member of drumlines, jazz bands, etc. My motivation and desire to be known as a musician surpassed my actual desire to practice and hone my craft, which was fine with me. It wasn’t my nature to be pompous or oversell my talents, so I didn’t feel as if I was being fake, I just preferred the company of musicians and talking shop more than actually getting in the practice room. All of this leads me to my decision to, in the spring of 1995, commit to spending my senior summer in the middle f the Michigan woods.
Interlochen Arts Camp was established in the 1920’s and has been recognized as one of the most elite summer music programs in world. Alumni are well known (Norah Jones - attended in ‘95 as well) and return often to perform at the small enclave outside Traverse City, Michigan. I was fortunate enough to afford that single summer and tried to make the most of my experience. While I was there I had the opportunity to meet some great professionals, perform some wonderful music and meet a lot of kids that were very different from my friends in Iowa. In the end it was a very long summer. Intense homesickness, stifling heat and rabid “small fish/big pond” syndrome made for a difficult three months. I do look back fondly on my time and remember the people I spent time with, and hope to return someday and see how the campus has grown and how I have grown up.
There’s a lot more to the story (corduroy pants & sweaters in July, Van Cliburn bodyguards, etc.) but I’ll save stuff for another post.
“This one time, at band camp…”
I would have died if no one had pulled that one out. So timely too, seriously, spot on. :)
[...] enough, drum corps, in the tech circles I’m a part of. I never marched, I opted to attend Interlochen rather than march my senior year of high school. However, I have friends who marched Colts, Scouts, [...]