Year 2 Day 210 Interlochen Center For The Arts

Interlochen, the little community where our state park is located, is world famous for its arts education institution. When we were kids growing up in Michigan, we had friends who were such good young musicians, that they were accepted to come up to Interlochen and attend its summer music camp. Originally known as the National High School Orchestra Camp, it expanded into other arts such as dance, plays and vocals in the 1960s. It now offers a year-round educational program for the arts including studies of music, theatre, visual arts, film, creative writing and dance. It is located right across the road from our state park and is sited on a thin strand of land that separates Duck and Green Lakes, from which it derives its name.

One of the benefits of camping here is that we are able to attend the concerts and plays that the institute puts on. This is exactly what we did today. This afternoon we attended a concert by the Interlochen Philharmonic Symphony. Neither of us had ever been on campus before and when we arrived, we discovered how beautiful it was nestled amongst tall pine trees and running along the shoreline of Green Lake. Since it is now a year-round educational institute, it has a number of dorms, class rooms, and support buildings including a large library, open air amphitheater, concert hall and theater.

We enjoyed a program of three pieces: Overture to La gazza ladra by Rossini, Andante e rondo ongarese Op. 35 by Von Weber and Symphonic Dances from West Side Story by Bernstein. All three pieces were very enjoyable but we were blown away by a seventeen-year-old soloist from Venezuela, playing bassoon, the featured instrument in Andante e rondo ongarese.