This summer I had the amazing opportunity to go to the Music Academy Summer Camp at Pensacola Christian College in (you guessed it) Pensacola, Florida. I had seen a brochure for it earlier in the year, but gave up on the idea because of the cost of the camp and of transportation. God, however, saw fit to show me a miracle!!! He opened up so many doors in so many amazing ways I don't think I quite realize yet all that He worked out in order for me to go.
The camp was July 9-21. I had never gone to any kind of academic camp before, or been gone for 2 weeks, OR flown, so I crossed a bunch of things off my "someday I would like to..." list !! :)
We had to hit the ground running once we got to the camp, the first day was the longest day of my life, with one surprise after another. If I had been given the chance I might have gone home right then, but I'm glad I didn't, I learned so much over the course of those 2 weeks.
They gave a schedule for everyday and pretty much every hour listed. There were personal lessons, group rehearsals, practice times, hymn-playing class, meals, church services twice a day, more practice, theory class, and much, much more! The first few days were hard, trying to find everything (its a bigger campus then I thought) and trying to get to know people. I also found out that everyone that went to the camp for piano would be in a choir for the concert at the end of the two weeks. I was very disappointed that we wouldn't be playing, but once I thought about it, it would have taken along time for 60 pianists to play in one concert; plus, being in the choir was a lot of fun!!
(My camera was messed up, so the dates on the pic's are wrong)
This was the girls dorm, Bradley Tower, where we stayed.
And here are a few other pics of the campus.
The Clock Tower - this is what you looked for when you were new and didn't know where to go!
The Visual and Performing Arts Building, or the VPA as everyone called it.
This is where we spent the majority of our time. Inside this building was the practice rooms, the group rehearsal rooms, our class rooms, the Recital Hall, and the general hangout place in between everything.
The stage in the Recital Hall.
Aren't the wall decorations gorgeous? And look at that piano!
I have never and probably never will again, play on so many gorgeous pianos in my entire life.
When you look at the picture above, it looks like there's only one piano, but there are actually 2 identical pianos right beside each other. This is so people can do duets without having to play the same piano, which several people did.
Katelyn (the girl I went with) at her recital.
During the second week of camp there was 1, sometimes 2 recitals every day, and each recital had about 12-14 people each. It was alot of fun!!
One of the 2 hallways of practice rooms in the VPA building.
This is what it looks like inside the practice rooms. Each room is almost completely sound proof and contains one piano and one music stand.
This is the room where we had choir practice, the whole back wall is mirrors.
In the front of the room is a music stand, a black board, and a grand piano.
The Dale Horton Auditorium is where the chapel services were held, as well as the Honors Recital.
The Crowne Centre, otherwise known as the Campus Church.
It's a beautiful building inside and out. We, the Music Academy Choir as they called us, had the privilege to sing for one of the services while we were there,
and other than one girl losing her shoe on the way up, it went very well!
(by the way, it wasn't me who lost the shoe!!!)
The platform in the Crowne Centre.
We sang on the steps right there.
These are some of the people I got to know while I was there.
This is another Katelyn during her rectial.
It may be kinda confusing (don't worry it was for us too) but here were 5 Kaitlyns (3 different spellings) just in the Music Camp. And we all played piano, so we were all in choir. Mr. Owens, our choir director thought that was pretty funny!
Me, Colleen, and Katelyn.
Colleen was our roommate. She was a lifesaver!!! We were totally lost on our first day, not knowing what to do or where to go, but this was her 4th and final year at music camp, so she knew exactly where to go!
Katelyn, Ashley, and I after the Concert.
Ashley is an amazing violist and a great new friend!!
Ashley and I going ice skating one night at the Sports Center. I love ice skating!
Katelyn, Alex, and I.
Alex wasn't in the music camp. The first week she was in the History/Political Science camp, and the second week she was in the drama camp. She was hilarious to talk to, and did great in the drama!
Me, Fayth, and Katelyn.
Fayth was our roommate the first day, but since she played violin and everyone else in the room played the piano, they decided to move her to a room with more string players.
Alex, Fayth, Katelyn and I went bowling one night at the sports center and decided to get a pic just for fun.
Mary, Kaitlyn, and me (Kaitlyn)
They're sisters who both play piano so they were both in choir as well. They're great musicians and singers.
Brittany and I. We stood beside each other in choir and became good friends.
Suzanne was one of my counselors. She plays piano and trumpet. Here she is accompanying one of the campers during their recital.
Me and Ms. Ewert, my "short term" piano instructor. She was an amazing teacher!!
Ms. Cindy Graby is the director of the Music department at PCC.
She was also our hymn-playing teacher.
In the front row is Mr. and Mrs. Barbosa.
They came from Brazil to conduct the orchestra for the music camp.
In the second row is Mrs. Jaffe, Mrs. Barbosa's mother and wife of the late Dr. Jaffe, the founder of the Music camp, also from Brazil: and Mrs. Canada (pronounced Can-odd-a). She and her husband are both music instructors at PCC, and she was the piano accompanist for our Music Academy Choir.
I think one of the biggest surprises for me with this whole thing was that Mom got to come with Katelyn's parents at the end of the camp for the Gala Concert. We were both so excited to see someone from home after so long, but it also reminded us that camp was over; that was very sad for me.
Mom and I after the concert.
This is all we got to see of the ocean.
We both wanted to go see it before we left, but there wasn't enough time.
Oh well, maybe another time.
Me and Katelyn in the airport on the way home.
"The Complete History of Western Music"
