ESME String Camp 2022

Attention all string and piano students!

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We’re excited to announce the return of the ESME String Camp this summer of 2022, scheduled June 27th through July 2nd and held at the Aquinas College Art and Music Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan!  Registration is open! Limited spots available!

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The ESME String Camp offers accessible and interactive programs designed by a diverse, world class faculty which includes musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and special guest faculty from the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Grand Rapids Ballet.  Students will participate in private lessons, chamber music and orchestra coachings, masterclasses and concerts.  Our programs include interactive workshops and classes on ensemble playing, composition, rhythmic interplay, interactive improvisation, music entrepreneurship, introductions to video editing software, recording and sound engineering, body awareness, taking auditions, applying for colleges, warm-up exercises derived from classical and contemporary ballet for freeing muscle tension, improving physical endurance, posture, bodyweight distribution, exploring the interconnectivity of expression between music and dance and more!

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What is the ESME String Camp, who are the faculty and who is the ESME String Camp for?

The ESME String Camp is an exciting summer intensive chamber music program designed for any age and grade level.  We accept violin, viola, cello, double bass and piano students.   Students of other instruments are also accepted on a limited basis.  Individual students will be arranged into chamber groups, classes and workshops that are based on their *level and work with ESME on both traditional classical and ESME pop chamber arrangements. Students can also sign up together as a pre-formed chamber group.

* The 2022 ESME String Camp program is divided into two groups: ESME Concert Program (ECP) and the ESME Philharmonia Program (EPP).  Scroll down below to view requirements for each program group.

 Camp Programs 

Morning Warmups

Warm-up sessions begin each morning with interactive playing, listening, improv, vocal and physical warm-up exercises.

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Interactive Workshops

Various workshops are led each day by faculty members with topics that include

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• Composition: The Basics of Composing Using Notation Software -  Learning how to use MuseScore (a free downloadable program) to create simple scores, and study the building blocks of writing classical music: Melody, Rhythm, Harmony and Bass.  Students will create short compositions and share them with the group at the end of the multi-day workshop.  Click here to see an example of a student's composition from the 2020 camp.
• How to “Sing” as a String Player

1.  The interaction between the left hand and the right hand: How to use vibrato and bow speed to your expressive advantage

2.  Intensity and long-phrase: How to feel the underlying harmony when playing a melody

3.  How to play with direction and knowing when to let go

4.  Building your voice: What do "color,” "texture,” and "weight" really mean when we play music?

• Improvisation Interactive Workshop 1

1.  An interactive workshop teaching basic techniques for improvisation.

2.  Learning harmonization, embellishment, overcoming stage fright or zoning out

3.  Developing a variation from start to finish.

• Improvisation Interactive Workshop 2

1.  Exploring the vocal foundations and phonetics of articulation, rhythm and phrasing and applying them to improvisation.

2.  Using fundamental tools of rhythm and tone study to create catalysts for improvisation.

3.  Interactive improvisation exercises using tuning drones, scales and appoggiaturas: basking in harmonies and relishing interval relationships.

• “Got Rhythm?”

1.  Rhythmic Interplay: Interactive rhythmic exercises that explore the interplay between big beats, subdivision, syncopation, ties, dance rhythm, and rubato.

2.  How to successfully navigate rhythms during ties and syncopations. Learn the secrets of playing off the beat, coming off a tie, timing of turns and grace-notes.

3.  “Groove: The Prodigal Son”- How we leave and return to the beat in order to create groove.

• “Body Awareness”

1. Exploring our physical approach to the instrument as an extension of the self.

2. Centering the mechanics of playing and examining string temperament.

3. Warm-ups derived from classical and contemporary ballet for freeing muscle tension, improving physical endurance, posture and bodyweight distribution.

• Ensemble Playing: An Interactive Exploration

1.  Accompanying in Chamber Music : The relationship between melody and motor rhythm, solo and accompaniment.  Creating direction in long notes; leading while keeping freedom.

2.  Understanding Rubato : What does “rubato” mean and how to use it correctly.  How to both lead and follow while playing rubato.

3.  “Importance of the Long Phrase in Ensemble Playing”: How the long phrase affects treatment of rubato, tempo, musical intensity and organic cohesion within an ensemble.

• Recording, mixing and editing virtual performances :

1.  An Introduction to Sound Engineering -  Learning how to use Audacity (a free downloadable program) to create sound recordings, edit them to be high quality, add effects and other edits, and produce a finalized MP3 or WAV file.

2.  Learning basic acoustics and the definition of digital sound.

• Introduction to Video Editing: The Basics of Working with Video Editing Software

1.  Starting with raw video footage and creating a complete product.

2.  Aligning and editing audio

3.  Adding transitions and effects

4.  Learning formatting and terminology.

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Special Classes

• Music Entrepeneurship and Career and College Preparedness.  Lead by Joseph Conyers, Associate principal bassist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, faculty teacher at the Juilliard School and creator of the nationally renowned youth training organization Project 440.  Topics include college and career preparedness, music entrepreneurship and tips on how to take auditions.  This class teaches young musicians how to manage their future in today's increasingly shifting professional landscape.
• Ballet and Holistic Musicianship   Lead by Sarah Marley, dancer and choreographer of the Grand Rapids Ballet.  Sarah will perform live dance for the students and teach a special class that introduces ballet techniques for freeing muscle tension for musicians, improving physical endurance, posture, core strength and bodyweight distribution.  Students will also participate in interactive music and dance exercises designed and choreographed by Sarah from classical and contemporary dance that explore the interconnectivity of expression between dance and music-making and it's relation to phrasing, groove, musical shape, weight and direction.

 Meet the Artistic Faculty 

Jeremy Crosmer completed multiple graduate degrees from the University of Michigan in cello, composition and theory pedagogy, and received his D.M.A. in 2012 at age 24.  He has served as Assistant Principal Cellist in the Grand Rapids Symphony, and is currently a member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.  Jeremy has written arrangements for the GRS Music for Health Initiative, which pairs symphonic musicians with music therapists to bring classical music to hospitals, as well as full orchestral compositions programmed for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's 2019-2020 classical concert season.  Jeremy has toured London with the Grand Valley State University Chamber Orchestra and performed as soloist with the GRS.  While still in school, Jeremy was awarded the prestigious Theodore Presser Graduate Music Award to publish, record and perform his Crosmer-Popper duets.  Jeremy has taught music theory, pre-calculus and cello at universities across Michigan.

Mike Chen has been a violist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra since 2018.  He was a member of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra from 2012 to 2018 and a member of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra from 2003 to 2012.  He received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Northwestern University and has studied violin with Blair Milton and viola with Li-kuo Chang, Michael Strauss, Peter Slowik, Keith Conant and Baird Dodge.  He has performed with the Detroit Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and Chicago Symphony.  He received a Master’s degree in Conducting at Northwestern University in 1999, and studied conducting with Victor Yampolsky, Mariusz Smolij, Gilbert Varga, David Zinman, and Murry Sidlin.  Mike was a conducting fellow at the American Academy of Conducting in Aspen, Colorado and has served as Assistant Conductor of the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra and guest conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony Side-by-Side Orchestra.

A native New Yorker, violinist Gene Hahn made his debut at Carnegie Hall as a guest soloist at age 13.  He continued to perform regularly at Carnegie with the New York Youth Symphony.  He has appeared as soloist with the Mannes College of Music Orchestra and was a winner of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Young Musicians' Competition.  Gene studied chamber music at the Manhattan School of Music with The American String Quartet and orchestral performance with members of The Philadelphia Orchestra and The New York Philharmonic.  He participated in the Musicorda and Quartet Program chamber festivals, toured with The Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and upon moving to Michigan joined the Grand Rapids Symphony.  He also performs with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and as associate concertmaster of The West Michigan Symphony and is the founding member of ESME.

Noted for her "sensitive and imaginative" (New York Concert Review) playing, Korean-born pianist Sookkyung Cho has appeared at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Chicago Cultural Center, Sarasota Opera House, Montreal Conservatory, Chateau de Fontainebleau in France, and Zhejiang University in China, and was recently heard on Chicago's WFMT.  A founding member of the New York-based Almava trio, she has been featured at Yellow Barn, Norfolk and Sarasota music festivals, and was a Performing Associate at the Bowdoin International Music Festival.  She earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Juilliard, where she was honored with the prestigious John Erskine Graduation Prize, a Master of Music degree from Peabody, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Juilliard.  She served on the piano and chamber music faculty at New England Conservatory Preparatory in Boston as well as the music theory faculty at the Peabody Institute of the John Hopkins University and serves as Assistant Professor of Piano at GVSU.

 Special Guest Faculty 

Joseph Conyers serves as acting associate principal bass of the Philadelphia Orchestra and served previously with the Atlanta Symphony.  He has performed as soloist with the Alabama and Richmond Symphonies.  Mr. Conyers is an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, has collaborated with such artists as James Ehnes, Daniel Hope, and members of the Emerson String Quartet and studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Harold Robinson, principal bass of The Philadelphia Orchestra, and double bass soloist Edgar Meyer.  He won second prize at the Sphinx Competition in Detroit and is a Sphinx Organization Medal of Excellence recipient as well as the recipient of the C. Hartman Kuhn award, the highest honor bestowed on a musician of The Philadelphia Orchestra and selected by its music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin.  In 2019, he was named one of Musical America’s 30 Professionals of the Year: Innovators, Independent Thinkers, and Entrepreneurs and has been named one of “30 Leaders 30 and Under” by Ebony magazine.  He has taught at the Philadelphia International Music Festival and the National Repertory Orchestra and has given master classes and lectures at the Colburn School, the Curtis Institute of Music, New England Conservatory, Yale University, Ohio State University, and the Peabody Conservatory.  Mr. Conyers is the founder of Project 440, a non-profit training organization that uses music as a tool to engage, educate, and inspire young musicians, providing them with care and life skills to become tomorrow’s civic-minded, entrepreneurial leaders.  Partners have included Carnegie Hall, the New York State Summer School of the Arts, and the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia.  In 2015 Mr. Conyers was appointed music director of Philadelphia’s famed All City Orchestra, an ensemble showcasing the top orchestral talent of students in the School District of Philadelphia.

Grand Rapids Ballet dancer Sarah Marley was born on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, training in the Cecchetti Method with Sonja Dickerson-Faust and Heidi Wright.  She continued her training under the direction of Peter Stark with the Orlando Ballet School and was accepted into the trainee program at age fourteen, performing in the corps de ballet alongside the professionals.  Ms. Marley was invited by the legendary Fernando Bujones to join the company in 2004 and danced with the company for the next six seasons.  That same year she became part of the Orlando Ballet School faculty, teaching various levels and adult ballet classes regularly.  Ms. Marley has also danced with the San Diego Ballet, Company C Contemporary Ballet, the San Diego Opera, Chicago Repertory Ballet, and Smuin Ballet.  Through the course of her career, Ms. Marley has performed soloist and principal roles in classical and contemporary works by Marius Petipa, George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, Michael Smuin, Maurice Causey, Helen Pickett, Bruce Marks, Amy Seiwert, Patrick Corbin, Kenneth von Heidecke, and Garrett Ammon among others.

ECP and EPP Program Requirements

ESME Concert Program:

·  Suzuki Book 4 equivalent or higher

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ESME Philharmonia Program:

·  Must be able to read sheet music

·  Suzuki Book 1 (Late) equivalent or higher

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Some applicants may be asked to provide a recording of their playing along with their application or schedule a free orientation lesson over Zoom with ESME prior to the camp.

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What is the Daily Schedule?

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​The ESME String Camp runs June 27-July 2nd, 2022 with a general daily schedule from 9:30am to 5:00pm.  The final day of camp will end slightly earlier.  All camp sessions will take place at the Aquinas College Art and Music Center, 1700 Fulton St. E. Grand Rapids, MI 49506.  Information collected during the registration process will be used to help accommodate any special schedule adjustment needs for students with conflicting schedules.

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ESME String Camp Daily Schedule

·  *9:30am - 10am - warm-up - interactive playing, listening, vocal and physical warm-up exercises

·  10:00am - 11:00am - Interactive Workshop (Philharmonia Group)

·  11:00am - 12:00pm - Interactive Workshop (Concert Group)

·  12:00pm - 1:00pm - Lunch break

·  1:00pm - 3:00 pm Private lessons and chamber group coachings.

·  3:00pm - 4:00pm - Special Class

·  4:00pm - 5:00pm - Orchestra Rehearsal

*The 30 minute morning warm-up is offered based on student's availability and their attendance are not strictly required for enrollment.

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During the 12:00pm lunch hour students can choose to have lunch served in the campus cafeteria or eat outside of the music building.  Any empty time slots in between lessons, workshops and classes will be designated as practice sessions.

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A final culmination concert will take place on the afternoon of the last day of camp (July 2nd) that includes all student chamber groups, orchestras and faculty performances.

Chamber Music Coachings and Private Lessons

​Each student receives private lessons and/or chamber music coachings from the ESME string faculty.

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Masterclasses and Faculty Performances

Special masterclasses and live performances by faculty artists will be given throughout the camp.​

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ESME Chamber Arrangements

​ESME chamber pop arrangements provide a unique and exciting context drawing from a wide eclectic range of styles for students at any level to form connections between fundamentals of music making and string playing while presenting a “modern day Sukuzi” approach utilizing modern musical exposure towards classical training.

Application Process, Tuition Costs and Discounts 

​​Registration fee for the ESME String Camp is $450.  

Register online or send a pdf application along with a check in the amount of $450 made payable to "Project ESME" by to:

P.O. Box 154, Comstock Park MI 49321

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Installment payment plan options are also available.  Contact us at esmelivemusic@gmail.com to request more information.​

Refer-A-Friend Discount Program

​The ESME String Camp now offers a discount off your tuition every time a friend you refer to the camp signs up!  Here's how it works:

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Step 1.  Invite your fellow string and piano student friend(s) to enroll in the camp.

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Step 2.  Make sure they list your name next to the "Refer-A-Friend" section on the application form.

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Step 3.  Both you and your friend will receive $50.00 discounts off of your tuition fees (in the form of a reimbursement after application/tuition is received). You also receive an additional $50 for every additional student you bring to the camp so invite as many friends as you want!