Yes ladies and gentlemen, musicians, campers, and even banjo players, it is that time of year where we start thinking about things like the 2015 Father’s Day Festival and our most excellent music camp. To tease you a bit for 2015 here’s our summary of the 2014 music camp. Peter and Janet are in the process of hiring the faculty for 2015 and we promise to keep you updated as soon as we know who will be coming.
The 2014 camp was the second year of the California Bluegrass Association Summer Music Camp being run by the new directors, Janet Peterson and Peter Langston. Apparently the success of last year was not a fluke in that 2014 was similarly successful. As always, the 2014 roster of instructors was of extremely high quality, and consisted of both perennial teachers and long-time favorites such as John Reischman, Bill Evans, Molly and Jack Tuttle, Kathy Kallick, and Keith Little, and newer favorites such as Blaine Sprouse, Pat Cloud, Chris Henry, Greg Booth, and Sharon Gilchrist. All the instructors received glowing praise! Some of these favs will hopefully return for 2015….it just wouldn’t be the same without them!Every year we help out some of our students and in 2014 nine full or partial scholarships were given out to students who would not have been able to attend otherwise. The CBA has a strong mandate for education as part of our mission to promote bluegrass, old time music and gospel and this is just one way we get to help.
Overall, we are keeping the number of camp attendees at just over 200, 225 to be precise. This seems to be just about the right size to accommodate most everyone who wants to attend, yet keep the camp small enough to promote a friendly relaxed atmosphere. Of the 225 attendees, 197 participated in the morning intensive classes and we were able to keep the average class size at about 9 campers/class. We must be doing something right because the most common score given in evaluations that Peter and Janet solicit from faculty, staff, and students is a 10 of 10 rating……kind of hard to beat. But in spite of such a positive response, we can promise you that next year there are plans afoot to improve on what we believe is already a most excellent camp…..more on that in future columns, as well what you really want to know, who will be teaching.
So start the countdown, mark your calendars, set your alarms because registration for the 2015 CBA Music Camp will open on February 7. More information is available at the music camp website http://cbamusiccamp.com. And we would like to remind you that you can give CBA Music Camp as a gift for Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Graduation, Birthdays Valentine’s Day, and even April Fool’s Day. Check it out at our web site.
We’d like to leave you with a sampling of quotes from the evaluation for the 2014 music camp. Keep the batteries fresh in your tuners, keep your strings clean and polished, and keep your picks close at hand because we’re agonna be kicking up some sand come June 14.
“I had a great time at camp–thank you! Great people, great food, great music. I always meet new friends-that’s the best part.”
“Thank you Peter and Janet! You guys are amazing and did a wonderful job putting on the camp. I would love to be a part of any camps you guys are involved with.”
“OUTSTANDING food. The camp facilities were good, despite the heat.”
“Janet was great – as usual!”
“Camp exceeded my expectations; glad I didn’t wait any longer to try it. ”
“Thank you Peter and Janet. I think you have transitioned the camp in an excellent manner. I am glad I HIGHLY recommended you.”
“Excellent instructors!! Food was terrific, thanks for vegetarian option”
“It was good to have you, Peter, in a couple of jams. Both of you, Peter and Janet, are a positive addition to the music camp. You are truly listening and providing more and more each year. For us senior adults it’s a miraculous thing to be able to fit in as campers. It’s simply amazing!”
“Thank you for a great camp. I have been to the Kaufman Kamp one time and it was fun but the camps are so different. Your camp was much more engaging, better food and tranquilo. Hope you don’t get too much bigger as the size really pulled for getting to know folks and not feel intimidated. All of the instructors, not just dobro, seemed very accessible and willing to interact. Looking forward to next year. Hope to recruit a local friend to also attend. I know this is counter to keeping it size manageable but folks here [Colorado] need to know about the CBA music camp.”
