Just because school is out, doesn’t mean music students are letting dust collect on their instruments. For 20 years, a camp in Cleveland Heights has offered a week of intensive music education in a fun and inclusive environment.
On a weekday morning in June, students showed off the special hats they brought to wear for “crazy hat day” as they unpacked their instruments and tuned up for rehearsal at Reaching Heights Summer Music Camp. About 90 middle schoolers in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights district enrolled for this summer’s session.
“People are playing everything. We have violins. We have violas,” said Tamar Gray, the camp’s co-founder and principal. “We have cellos, double basses, trumpets, trombones, euphoniums and the percussionists who play everything across the back. And this year, we even have a harp player.”
Gray founded the camp along with other members of Reaching Heights, a nonprofit community organization that supports public school education with everything from tutoring to scholarships to learning opportunities for students, especially in music and the arts.
“I believe because the community does value the arts,” Gray said, “it sends a statement to the school system: It's something you have to keep.”
After morning rehearsal, students move to different sessions throughout the day focused on fundamentals like musical notation, chord building, rhythm and melody. Students then split into chamber groups, electives like jazz and choir, and later attend masterclasses for their specific instrument.
The week ends with a concert where the instructors and mentors join students on stage to perform for families and the community.
Along with musical knowledge and a sense of accomplishment, campers also walk away with important life skills and a feeling of belonging.
A need in the community
Around the time of the camp’s founding in 2005, the school district was becoming more diverse – both racially and economically – and kids had very different opportunities when it came to learning music, said Susie Kaeser, the camp’s director and co-founder.
“The best way to make sure everybody could jump forward as musicians would be to provide them an intensive music program that would make up for the fact that not everybody has music lessons,” Kaeser said. “It gives them the foundation, the confidence and the belief in what they are capable of doing.”
She said financial support from the community helps pay for the cost of running the camp, so it doesn’t have to depend on every person paying full tuition to participate.
“That's been a really important part of making sure that the arts are available to everybody, not just in name only,” she said.
And camp isn’t just about reading music and learning the difference between adagio and allegro.
“This is about life skills. It's about collaboration. It's getting along with people. It's doing your part,” Kaeser said. “Then we get all these kids to commit to staying in music because they had such a good time.”
Everyone belongs
It’s not just the students having a good time – the adults also look forward to camp every year. Instructors are teachers in the district along with local professional musicians. Many high school and college students who previously attended camp return as mentors.
El Wynne is now one of those mentors. Wynne didn’t have access to private lessons as a kid and if it wasn’t for the camp, they probably wouldn’t have gone into music. Growing up with a speech impediment wasn’t easy either, but Wynne said the inclusive environment of camp helped.
Wynne was a camper from fourth to eighth grade, then immediately came back as a high school mentor and later, a college staff member. Now Wynne is a full-time member of the leadership committee.
Growing up, Wynne was told that playing an instrument wasn’t a real job, but seeing the educators and professional musicians at camp taught them otherwise.
“Music changed my life in such a radical way, and I wanted to do that for someone else who needed it,” Wynne said.
Fostering a creative and accepting environment for campers, mentors and staff is a guiding principle for Reaching Heights.
“We meet them where they are and we take them higher,” Wynne said.
