Overture Magazine - 2015-2016 Season May-June 2016 | Page 12

Summer
The BSO’s summer
camp keeps young
musicians in fine tune.
By Christianna McCausland
Photography by Mary Gardella

I

t’s late July and in a classroom at Lockerman-Bundy
elementary school, 6-year-old Deon Carter is working his
way through “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on his trumpet along
with about 10 other aspiring brass players. He’s midway
through a day that began at his home in West Baltimore
where he got up, brushed his teeth and walked to school with
three other relatives enrolled in OrchKids. The BSO’s music
education program serves 1,000 students in six schools in
east and west Baltimore during the school year, but this is
summertime and when other kids are goofing off, Deon
is exploring the world of music.

Mairin Srygley, OrchKids site manager,
with Justice Gaines, a first-grader who
studies violin.

10

Upon arrival he heads to the cafeteria for
breakfast then to choir before his trumpet
class. After a nap and some lunch, he goes
to “Creative Enrichment” to check up on
his pea plants—he and his classmates have
been growing vegetables from seed. Most
afternoons he plays outside and also receives
academic tutoring.
“I [learned] the trumpet and violin and
the recorder,” he says of his time at OrchKids summer camp. He’s also working
on piano.
Deon is one of 180 children enrolled in
the Orchkids summer program. During the
regular school year, students participate in
programming in the afternoon at each of
the participating schools. Five years ago the

summer program began to bring together
students from all the schools at one location,
Lockerman-Bundy, for an experience that is
both fun and enriching.
“We think consistency is crucial,” says
Nicholas Cohen, formerly OrchKids general manager. “We don’t want a huge gap
in the summer when we don’t see the kids.”
In the school year the children, especially
little ones like Deon, can be tired by the end
of the day. According to Cohen, the beauty
of the summer program is that they have
the children for entire days and they can do
fun outings, like taking the kids to the local pool. One of Deon’s favorite experiences
from summer camp was a field trip to the
USS Constellation where the tour guide
played sea shanties for the students..
“In the summer, there’s such a large
chunk of time and they’re completely engaged,” says Cohen. “We make it rigorous,
but it should be fun as well.”
All children have access to breakfast followed by group lessons for the older students
and instrument exploration for the small
children (the program accepts students from
pre-kindergarten to 10th grade). When kids
like Deon take a nap, the big kids practice.
After lunch, older children do ensemble
work, participating in orchestra or jazz band