What participants have said
After going to my second camp last year, I decided to make it a regular
yearly thing! The camp gives you some great and challenging music to
play, and when you aren't sure how something goes, the tutors from
around the NZ's top orchestras can help you out! The camp organizes
everything to ensure you get enough practice time, enough to eat, and
even fits in spare time to relax or explore Oamaru! There are even
times for you to organize other chamber groups if you feel like you
want some more music! I really enjoyed meeting other musicians from
around the country who share the same passion for music as me.
Everybody is always keen to meet you or help you and its really easy to
fit in. There's a fun concert to top off the camp, and other fun
activities organized by those who attend, but you'll have to come next
year to find out what they are...
Merlin, Flute, 16, Dunedin 2012
It was my first time going to the camp this year so I was a bit nervous
about the difficulty of the pieces and wondering how nice everyone
would be, but once I got to camp all my worries disappeared! The tutors
were very nice and extremely helpful and it was very enjoyable staying
in the dormitories with other girls my age. Everyone wanted you to
enjoy the experience and this had the good effect of removing any of
the pressure I may have felt! There were lots of fun activities such as
the Quiz Night and the Fun Concert which made the camp very enjoyable!
Even though at the beginning of the week I could barely play the
pieces, by the end of the week I had improved massively and was capable
of playing all of them! I would certainly recommend this camp as it was
very enjoyable and allowed me to improve my playing a lot.
Ella, Flute, 15, Dunedin 2012
Who organises the camp and how it all began
In early 1996, Al was visiting Paul in Dunedin and suddenly said, "We
ought to set up a music camp like in the old days. I've already talked
to Don Maurice about it and he thought it was a good idea and would be
prepared to conduct".
What he was talking about was the Otago University Extension
Department Summer Music Courses run by Don McKenzie, Pat Cressey and
Ian Menzies at Otekaike, and sometimes Waimate, during the 70's and
early 80's. The two had attended several of these, had a really
good time and had learned rather a lot about playing their instruments.
Conductors at the time included Jack Spiers and Peter Zwartz and tutors
were the likes of Syd Mann, Ron Woodcock, Glynn Adams, Wally Hamer,
Luigi Ferletti and Jack Lauderdale. Al thought that it was time that
something like that happened again in a family oriented kind of way
(what with all of us now being married and having children).
Anyway, Paul was naturally horrified and had all kinds of objections
(like where, when, who and especially how?) but as the conversation
progressed, and the beer was drunk, it started sounding vaguely
possible. This was because Al had a secret weapon called Jenn. Jenn not
only played the 'cello but also knew how to organise a whole bunch of
people, how to set up menus, buy the food, do rosters for duties and
prepare budgets and keep piles of paper in orderly stacks! Hooray for
the Girl Guides. Also, Al and Jenn had helped with the Suzuki camps
held at Waitaki Boys High School and knew the facilities and who to
talk to there.
So... we booked the school for a vacant week in January, contacted
potential tutors and got them on their marks, prepared a bunch of
brochures, wrote press releases, put up posters, applied for grants,
got the local Community Arts Council on board, did a lot of word of
mouth and by golly people actually enrolled and sent money! It was
quite amazing to stand in front of what looked like (and eventually
sounded like) an orchestra at the very first rehearsal in 1997. We
only lost a bit of money on the first one and everyone had had such a
good time and swore they would return that we did it again, and again
and after that we really didn't have any choice because we started
getting calls in June asking for dates and what we going to play this
year, etc, etc.
As time has gone on we've got better at extracting money from sponsors
and settled into a nice routine to get everything done. The idea has
always been that it should be fun and that all participants should get
the most out of it without being freaked out at any stage. Our tutors
have pretty much always understood that and happily joined in with the
easy going style. Al, Jenn and Paul are, believe it or not, stupid
enough to do it just because we like it and we get to have a good time
too!
These days...
Al plays
violin and viola and
seems to specialise in learning new instruments - such as trombone,
french horn, saxophone....
.
Jenn continues
her crucial behind the scenes role in organising the
camp and looking after everyone.
Paul Claman
is an itinerant teacher in Dunedin of most brass instruments
. He
recently married
Kris who
plays
violin and saxophone.
