Four St. Charles East musicians attend prestigious summer music academy
This summer, four talented, young musicians from St. Charles East High School spent two weeks in Door County, Wisconsin, studying at Birch Creek Music Performance Center.
Tommy Edgar, piano; Chloe Fanning, alto sax; Benjamin Hommowun, trumpet; and Benjamin Stolze, alto sax, were among 50 other musicians from around the country attending the Jazz II Session at Birch Creek.
This prestigious academy's mission is to provide intensive, performance-based instruction to promising young musicians by immersing them in a professional, mentoring environment.
Birch Creek celebrates its 44th concert season in 2019 and continues to support a student-to-faculty ratio of approximately 2:1. This provides students with an abundance of personal attention from their faculty mentors, who represent top music educators and performers from around the country. Students are given the opportunity to hone their technical skills and learn firsthand all the aspects of life as a professional musician.
During their two-week residency this summer in the Jazz II Session, Edgar, Fanning, Hommowun and Stolze performed 10 concerts alongside their peers in front of paying concertgoers.
Jeff Campbell is the program director of the Jazz I & II programs. Campbell is professor and chairman of jazz studies and contemporary media at the Eastman School of Music. As a jazz bassist, he has performed with Marian McPartland, Gene Bertonchini, Rich Perry, Trio East, Harold Jones, the Eastman Jazz Quartet featuring Harold Danko, and has appeared on McPartland's Piano Jazz program on National Public Radio.
Campbell is a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra bass section, and has numerous CDs to his credit. 2019 marks Campbell's 31st year at Birch Creek and his 23rd as the Jazz Program director.
Birch Creek Music Performance Center in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin, 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.
The 2019 concert and session dates are posted at www.birchcreek.org/ticket.