Juilliard Summer Music
The Juilliard School is one of the most prestigious performing arts conservatories in the world. In July, high school students come to their Lincoln Center campus in New York City to learn from staff, alumni, and guest teachers. This year, these students included Elan Dorman Mackenzie, a Berkeley High School senior. “There aren’t a lot of (summer) programs at universities that have all the faculty there … especially at a school like Juilliard where the teachers are very hard to get a hold of, it’s a very good opportunity,” Dorman Mackenzie said.
The orchestra could rehearse for up to six hours a day. Aside from that, students had music theory lessons, sectionals, masterclasses, and studio classes. Dorman Mackenzie also had the opportunity to meet many notable people including Jonathon Heyward, the music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Stephanie Childress, the principal guest conductor for the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. Students leave with an overall impression of what it would be like to actually attend the famous conservatory.
48 Hills Camp
Run by award-winning director of “The Last Black Man” in San Francisco, Joe Talbot, the 48 Hills Film Camp brings together more than one hundred young filmmakers to create one film. The structure of the camp mimics that of an actual Hollywood production timeline. The writing camps are at the beginning, acting and directing in the middle, and editing and more at the end.
“There aren’t that many chances for young people to really see what it would actually be like to work in film, and this is a pretty real simulation of what it’s like to be on a set,” said BHS junior Nico Lee, who attended the art department and writing department this summer.
This year, the camp took place in an empty San Francisco warehouse, where the students erected a world of their own design — in this case, an offbeat gold rush style town featuring a clown’s house, a diner, and a mechanic’s shop. Dozens of industry professionals came in to work with the campers, including Adam Savage from “Mythbusters,” “Anora” cinematographer Drew Daniels, “Bottoms” actress Havana Rose Liu, and many more. “There was just so much filmmaking knowledge in that room. You could just like learn so much from people that really do it, and that was pretty awesome,” Lee said.
California State Summer School for the Arts
The California State Summer School for the Arts (CSSSA) was created in the 1980s, when California legislators became concerned about losing one of their most important sources of tax revenues: arts and entertainment. The aim of CSSSA’s first class in 1987 was to foster a creative youth in California and sustain its vibrant arts scene.
Because CSSSA is state-subsidized, scholarships are readily available to students. In fact, one student from each department has the opportunity to be awarded a $40,000 dollar scholarship. Seren Meketa, a BHS senior, attended the camp’s Architecture & Environmental Design department in its first-ever session. “I’ve always been interested in sort of spatial things and design, and architecture’s kind of like a natural part of that,” Meketa said.
CSSSA does not only deal in architecture, however. The camp has eight fields of study: animation, architecture, dance, film, music, theater, visual art, and writing. Its alumni include singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers and “High School Musical” star Zac Efron.
At the end of the program, Meketa was awarded the Golden Compass Award for best architecture project in the department by their classmates. “I’m not super into traditional classroom stuff … but at CSSSA, I felt like it was my people. People loved architecture so much, and I was really able to shine, and I like that people were able to see that in me,” they said.
Goh Ballet July International Summer Intensive
When she was placed in the top level of the Goh Ballet July International Summer Intensive, BHS senior Maddy Owens was nervous. The Goh Ballet Academy offers world-class dance instruction to its pupils year-round. Owens found herself surrounded by 18-year-olds who had boarded at the Academy and were on the brink of professional careers in dance. “It was really cool to dance with people that were better than me and have to work hard and improve,” Owens said.
The intensive takes place in Vancouver, and has two sessions. The first focuses on technique for performance and competition, while the second revolves around creativity and interpretation. Owens participated in the second session, where she was able to meet the Goh Ballet’s Director, Chan Hon Goh, who was the principal dancer for the National Ballet of Canada for over 20 years. She also got the opportunity to study under a founding member of the National Ballet Company of Portugal, José Luis Vieira.
The intensive was international, and Owens’ peers hailed not only from Vancouver, but from Mexico and Japan. Dancing for hours every day, the group of students quickly grew tight-knit. “We learned a lot really fast and we definitely built a community,” Owens said.
Paris College of Art
Unlike many others, the Paris College of Art summer programs do not require any sort of application. Students must be at least 16 years old to enroll in one of their many sessions, whose topics range from Street Photography and Fashion Week to Graphics in Riso Printing to Interior Design Through the Senses.
This summer, BHS senior Anika Brenner attended the program for their Introduction to Screenwriting course. She earned college credit and stayed in the college’s apartments, with her own room only a 30 minute train ride away from the campus. Her class was intimate, with only six students and one professor. The teacher would meet with students one-on-one to discuss their work, a kind of instruction that is not easily available in a traditional high school setup. Brenner was able to workshop her own twelve-page script over the two-week session, meeting with the class not only at the PCA campus but also in locations around Paris.
Brenner, who feels the college’s summer programs are under-recognized, is eager to get the word out about the Parisian opportunity. “When you’re looking at summer programs, (consider) the fact that an international course somewhere in another country might actually end up being more affordable than a lot of the programs in the U.S.,” Brenner said.