EGG HARBOR, WI – Birch Creek puts a whole new twist to the meaning of summer music academy, with their elite lineup of faculty members from across the country working with students in a century-old barn turned concert hall. On July 16th, students and faculty from Nevada to New York, Canada, and ten other states will make their way to Door County to educate and perform at Birch Creek Music Performance Center’s jazz program.
With its 2:1 student to faculty ratio, which is unheard of in the music academy industry, students focus on instrumental technique, improvisation, and music theory in various seminar and workshop settings. The Birch Creek faculty represent some of the most prestigious music institutions in the country; Berklee College of Music, Eastman School of Music, North Texas State, Lawrence Conservatory of Music, University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, and Northwestern University, and tout performance credentials with the Count Basie Orchestra, Duke Ellington Orchestra, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Frank Sinatra Jr., Jerry Lewis, Dizzy Gillespie, and the big bands of the Dorsey Brothers. Jazz I student and local pianist, Jonathan Bass speaks of the faculty; “One of the things they try to do here is make you, as a student, experience the life of a professional musician”.
Birch Creek’s jazz program offers students a unique learning experience at levels of jazz performance not found in most other jazz programs in America. Giving students an effective combination of experiences helps them master the fundamentals of jazz while establishing professional attitudes needed for a career in music. In addition to performing on the Birch Creek stage at night, students are selected from within the jazz program to form an advanced student combo. The Ambassadors, the jazz session’s outreach arm, perform throughout the small, quaint villages that make Door County so attractive to tourists, and are featured at numerous Birch Creek concerts.
Students and faculty will perform 13 more concerts at Birch Creek this summer, including, “The Joy of Swing,” “Ellington, Basie, & Miller,” “The Great American Big Band,” and more. In addition to these nightly concerts, the student jazz bands will hold free outreach concerts at the Sister Bay Pavilion on July 26 and August 9, from 3-5 pm.
Birch Creek Music Performance Center in Egg Harbor, WI, is a residential summer music academy for advanced young musicians. With a performance emphasis, students are taught by nationally known performers and educators during the day, and perform alongside them in concerts at night. Four sessions focus on Percussion & Steel Band, Symphony, and Big Band Jazz. 2017 concert and session dates are posted at www.birchcreek.org/tickets. For a full schedule, visit www.birchcreek.org.