That Time I Went To Orchestra Camp...

Source: (Flickr)

    As many as you know by now I'm a DJ, producer, and I sing. What some of you may not know is that I have a classical music background. I've been playing viola since I was 10 and have played throughout college. I unfortunately lost interest in college, but I do still love to play/make music with the viola. Throughout my high school and college years I had the opportunity to attend some festivals, also known as Orchestra Camps. My favorite camp that I attended was Brevard Music Center. Brevard Music Center was in Brevard, NC (doi!) in the mountains.

    It was beautiful I won't lie. There was a lake overlooking where we would have rehearsals, the sun was shining most of the time (it did oddly rain everyday at the same time for like a week or two), and the dorms were cabins so it had that “real summer camp feel”. In our cabins there were about 4 big rooms and two bunk beds in each. WE had maybe 4-5 showers in there which were cleaned by everyone in the cabin. These were surprisingly clean despite us all being guys. A typical day at this camp was about 3 hour rehearsals, and maybe 2 hour practice sessions (well that's what I did, anymore seemed like a waste of time). Practice rooms were like these small trailers off this trail that were individual. It was actually pretty great for practicing, 

Source: (Flickr)

        But enough of all that. I'm sure you all want to hear all the "band campy" things that happened at this camp. There weren't many weird things that happened to me, but the camp was riddled with these stories. The camp was filled with teens with raging hormones so you know it was about to go down. The practice rooms were prime spots for folks to hookup. They weren't really monitored so it was pretty much anything goes. I once walked in on some of my fellow campers hooking up around 9am-ish.

        I was pretty straight laced when I attended, but I did like pulling my own pranks on people. One day some kids wanted to test the waters with a laxative tea called “Smooth Move”. They made a couple cups and started taking them shot for shot. Later that night, while they were crapping their brains out I dumped water over the stalls and drenched them. Another prank that I kept going for most of the summer was teaching this one girl curse words in Swahili. I don't know Swahili. I made up some words and told her. She would often use them and give me a look. One day we pushed our counselors out of our cabin, locked it, and proceeded to squirt them with water guns. They started it though.

Source: (Pexels)

        I was pretty cool with my cabin mates (turns out my cabin was one that was known to house the “troublemakers”. We were the oldest kids in the YA division). One I will always remember (but not his name unfortunately). He was a trombone player that LOVED to play loud. Like excessively loud. I was towards the back of the viola section so I sat pretty much right in front of the brass section during orchestra rehearsals. 

        One symphony we played by this composer Dvorak was very brass heavy. This excited my cabin mate immensely. He even ordered a new mouthpiece just for this piece. During rehearsals he would BLAST his trombone. He loved it. One rehearsal the conductor said, “Brass good! Give me more!”. The horror on my face, and the joy in his was night and day. He pretty much blew his lips out for that performance.

        We had a “camp dance” once for the young adult division. This was kind of funny. All kids were forced to go to this thing. Remember these are all orchestra kids so.. yeah... think about that. There was either a lot of awkward standing, or FIERCE grinding action. I think this was the first time I saw a “grind line” which is actually what it sounds like. The counselors did what they could to break them up, but there was no stopping the grinding.

Source: (Wenger Corporation)

        Probably the most interesting stories I heard were WELL KNOWN classical musicians coming to Brevard to perform and then partying their asses off. I always thought classical musicians were so refined/proper, but they LOVED to party like it was 1999. The college/adult division was known for their big parties. One famous violinist was known to do this frequently. Apparently he'd always  hook up with some of the women in the college/adult division all the time. One girl in my division claimed to have hooked up with him (turns out she was lying).

        Orchestra camp wasn't too strange. There were some characters like the guy that would practice martial arts on a rock near the lake or the socially awkward guys that would try to hit on the women there & fail miserably. Overall, I had a blast. I learned a lot and it humbled me. I was playing and practicing with players from all over the world. I was able to see performances EVERY week I was there (was about 2 months), my favorite classical musicians perform, and received private instruction from some of the best players in the world. If you have a kid, or are a practicing classical musician you should attend an “orchestra camp”. It will change your life!