Espressivo Piano Camp 2022

Summer Day Camps are a major feature of summer for lots of children, and I am especially proud of our local Espressivo Piano Camp and what we are able to offer piano students for that first week of June each year. In this blog post, I wanted to share some highlights from this year's camp!

One of my favorite sessions at piano camp for encouraging student curiosity and broadening musical experience and understanding, is our guest teacher session that happens in the middle of our week. This year we had pianist and organist Steve Gustafson come and give us an introduction to the organ. We learned a bit of the instrument's long history, and how it dates way back to before the Roman Era, and students got to pass around a few of the different types of pipes as we listened to the sounds they make and learned about the different stops and manuals on the organ. 

Students even got the chance to volunteer to play the organ! Here are a couple Dawn's Piano students who gave it a try: 

Our regular camp sessions are Music History, Composing & Improvisation, Theory & Games, and Performance. These next couple shots are of students getting hands on with their music in the Theory & Games class. 

In the Performance class, students learn about stage presence and how to be confident performers, they also get further help on improving their recital pieces to achieve more dynamic and expressive music. All their preparation in that class culminates with our camp recital on Friday, which family & friends are invited to attend! 

The Music History class explores everything from early instrumentation, to classical composers, to active listening exercises, and creating musically inspired art and presentations. The advanced students get to display their presentations at the reception that follows the camp recital. 

In the Composing & Improvisation session students work on making original music - everything from small compositions, to improvising music to illustrate a favorite animal or the day's weather - we work on making music to express ourselves. Here are some moments from this year's classes. 

One of our other special events during the week is a teacher recital given for the students with the goal being to expose them to new piano repertoire. We select music at the various levels of students attending camp, and as they watch the concert they can make notes about which pieces they might like to learn. 

Here's our group of campers and teachers taken after our Friday recital. We had a really great group of students who were eager and excited about their music and engaging in the different activities while making friends with other local kids who have similar musical pursuits. Piano lessons and home practice can often be a pretty solitary activity, and the opportunity to dig into some quality learning opportunities while having fun and even being allowed to get a little loud or silly is a really valuable way to enhance a student's musical study and reinforce the idea that music is fun. 

And it wouldn't be piano camp without rhythm cups. You can enjoy this video of all of our campers doing a bang-up job this year!

And that's the round-up from our 2022 camp! You can always follow along for future updates, including when it's time to sign up for camp again, on the Espressivo Piano Camp Facebook Page!