The Summit School's Trad Camp Weekend 2021
Trad Camp is a music immersion program for kids aged 8-16 in which young musicians have the opportunity to learn about traditional music and grow their skills as artists. In years past, Trad Camp has been hosted as a weeklong program by Young Tradition Vermont, an organization committed to ensuring opportunities for young people to learn about traditional music and dance. However, given the challenges prompted by COVID-19 of organizing an event, this year, Trad Camp is being hosted as a weekend event by The Summit School of Traditional Music and Culture, an organization whose mission is to “promote traditional music and culture through affordable concert, workshop and dance programs.” According to one of the lead organizers of the 2021 camp, Tracy Loysen, hosting Trad Camp as a weekend program is a way for the Summit School to “ease back” into hosting events, while still providing opportunities for young musicians in the area. The weekend runs from July 30th to August 1st, with activities and classes planned from 5:30 – 8:00 PM Friday, and 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM on Saturday and Sunday at the Orchard Valley Waldorf School campus in East Montpelier, VT.
Despite the changes in the length of the program, Tracy said that the weekend Trad Camp is “a similar format as the weeklong camp,” with classes being offered for fiddle, mandolin, guitar, dance, ensemble, singing, and ukulele. Trad Camp is an important way of “getting kids to have the experience of playing with each other,” stated Tracy, and based on the camp schedule, there are many opportunities that stress collective learning, such as jams, singing, and ensemble work.
Similarly to past programs, this year’s Trad Camp offers students the opportunity to work closely with some wonderfully talented, Vermont-based musicians and artists. Joanne Garton, Andy Greene, Jordan Mensah, Pete Sutherland, Beth Telford, and Katie Trautz will be helping instruct courses this year at Trad Camp. Whereas some instructors, such as Pete, have taught at Trad Camp in years past, other folks, such as Andy, will be new to the camp.
Apart from the duration of the camp, an important difference in this year’s programming as compared to years past is that there are new options for parents and caregivers to join kids for classes and activities. Some events, such as the family picnic and concert on the first evening of the camp, were added “to make the event family-friendly,” said Tracy. She noted that there is also “an option for any interested parents to join in on Saturday and Sunday classes with their kids.” As of now, there are about four or five parents out of the initial pool of registrants that will be joining in at these events.
To learn more information about this year’s Trad Camp Weekend, or to register for the event, you can check out the Summit School of Traditional Music and Culture’s website!
Text by Massimo Sassi. Thumbnail photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash.