The Triada Music Festival

Summer camp is a great opportunity for music students to strengthen skills and make new friends. Many offer scholarships.

Last summer, the girls of SugarStrings attended the Triada Music Festival (http://www.triadamusicfestival.org/) in Ludlow, Vermont, for a month of rigorous instruction, practice, performance (solo and chamber), master classes, and making new friends. Thanks to the rigor of the curriculum and the amazing instructors and performers, the girls made great strides in their skills and performance.

Cellist Mara McClain, one of the founders of Triada, offers the following thoughts about the Triada experience. Think about it as you're deciding on the right camp for your student. (Application deadline: April 1, 2007)
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Triada Music Festival was founded in 2006 by Marko Dreher, Avi Friedlander, and myself. As young musicians starting out in our professional lives we desperately wanted to be able to spread our energy, enthusiasm and love of playing to young students. We wanted to create a supportive and educational environment for our own students and invite others to join us. With the help of our guest faculty and artists, our hope is to motivate them to succeed to even higher levels than they have already achieved. More importantly, we encourage them to not lose sight of the joy that comes from collaborating with their peers in chamber groups as well as the hard work they do in their own personal practice.

The importance and benefit of participating in a summer music festival is immeasurable. It is very difficult to recreate the intensity of study and focus a festival can inspire. The school year is filled with homework, after school activities and many other distractions. In the beautiful setting of Okemo Mountain, Vermont, we invite our 30 students, of all ages, to be inspired by their surroundings, their peers and their teachers.

Along with our resident faculty, the following world class guest faculty and guest perfomers will join us throughout the summer to provide chamber and solo recitals, master classes, chamber coachings, and private lessons. These guest teachers, orchestral musicians and chamber musicians are from some of the finest conservatories, universities, and symphonies in the world:
~Roland and Almita Vamos, violin professors, Northwestern University
~Hans Jensen, cello professor, Northwestern University
~Kenneth Olsen, assistant principal cellist, Chicago Symphony
~Deb Fayroin, former cellist, Detroit Symphony
~Benjamin Peled, violinist, Royal Concerctgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam
~David Bowlin, violin teaching assistant to Ronald Copes of the Juliard School
~Duo Diorama -- pianist Winston Choi, acting professor, Oberlin Conservatory, and violinist Minghuan Xu
~Dr. Laura Talbot, violin professor, Oklahoma State University
~Dr. Nick Curry, cello professor, University of South Dakota
~Dovid Friedlander, associate concertmaster, North Carolina Symphony
~Dmitry Kustonovich, violist, Fort Worth Symphony

Faculty and guests are integrated into the daily lives of the students both musically and socially. The interaction between the students and teachers during lessons and master classes as well as at meal times and during school outings is highly effective in creating the tight knit, supportive family atmosphere we strive to create.

To apply, students must submit an application by April 1, 2007. Scholarship assistance is available, but is limited. Go to http://www.triadamusicfestival.org/ for details.