Three years ago, Interlochen completed Stage I of what it calls “Vision 2028,” so named for the year this boarding school/camp/presenter/and general beehive (there are four beehives on campus) of creativity will enter its second century. Part of a 30-year master plan, Stage I has seen the completion of a building and renovation spree that included no fewer than 17 facilities or upgrades, which comprise a 62,000-square-foot music center with two large orchestra rehearsal halls, two recording studios, and some 40 separate rehearsal/teaching spaces; a 25,000-square-foot dance center; complete overhauls of two of its three main performance spaces (Corson Auditorium and the Interlochen Bowl, 1,000 seats each); new student, guest, and artist housing; a 23,000-square-foot-health center; a couple of green houses, chicken coups, and more.
Situated on 1,200 wooded acres surrounding two picturesque lakes in Northwest Michigan, the Interlochen Center for the Arts has not so much evolved from its 1928 launch as the 115-student National High School Orchestra Camp as it has exploded. Today, it is without question the top boarding school for the arts in the U.S. (568 students from 45 states/territories, 28 countries); a summer camp for grades three to 12 (3,340 students, 54 states, 44 countries); a certified adult continuing-education institute with an elaborate online presence; one of the biggest arts presenters in the region; overseer of two public radio stations; and grower of over 1,000 pounds of produce a year, half of which ends up in the cafeteria, the other half in a local soup kitchen.
And to continue the statistics, the accolades are endless: 51 presidential scholars, the most of any secondary school in the country, four Pulitzer Prizes, 14 MacArthur Fellows, multiple awards named Grammy, Tony, Emmy, and Academy. Small wonder it is the only high school ever to win the National Medal of Arts, in 2006.
The Music Center on the Interlochen campus contains two rehearsal halls, two recording studios, 11 ensemble rooms, 10 practice rooms, and 26 private-lesson teaching studios.
Not Your Grandmother’s Music Camp
Even though it’s a safe bet that many generations working in the music business today are alumni of Interlochen, in one or another of its manifestations, chances are that few would recognize the 2024 incarnation. By the time the Academy launched, in 1962, the disciplines of theater, visual arts, and dance had been added to the camp curriculum; creative writing arrived in 1976, filmmaking in 2005, and interdisciplinary arts in 2009.
Given its history—with names from Van Cliburn to the Kronos Quartet to the entire Philadelphia Orchestra dotting its timeline of visitors—and its side-by-side on- and off-campus concerts with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, to name a few major ensembles, it’s no surprise that music majors comprise about half of the Academy’s 575-member student body. Indeed, Interlochen states that 13 percent of musicians in major U.S. orchestras are alumni. But today’s music majors are not all instrumentalists: they may be songwriters, jazz artists, singers (pop and classical), or recording engineers.
“I don’t see our main goal as filling orchestras with top-flight talent,” says Trey Devey, president since 2017, when he was recruited from the administrative helm of the Cincinnati Symphony. “I have no concerns about that—amazing students will continue to emerge.”
Amazing students like violist Kim Kashkashian, Anthony McGill, and a host of other principals in the MET and Philadelphia orchestras, among major ensembles.
“But beyond the historically cited benefits of music education,” continues Devey, “like teamwork, discipline, personal expression, the cultural awareness that comes from practicing and performing music—I see our role as providing the elements that will help young people prepare for a life in music or any number of professional domains.”
“Here, a young musician can collaborate with a theater major, or perform a score written by a student to accompany a film created by a student,” says Interlochen President Trey Devey. “I emphasize this because I see the future of orchestras as much less siloed.”
He goes on to cite “The Interlochen 5” as the Center’s guiding principles:
- Mindfulness, Wellness and Resilience
- Creative Capacity
- Interdisciplinary Perspective and Collaboration
- Global and Cultural Perspective
- Community and Citizen Artistry
Devey can wax eloquently about each of these areas and how they are practiced, or taught, including weekly student-faculty meetings on one or the other of them, often facilitated by a visiting specialist (he cites Lisa Damour, author of The Emotional Lives of Teenagers) and followed by small-group breakout sessions. But the main thrust seems to be about making students aware—of themselves, each other, their art, their broader environment.
This may be one of the major differences between studying music at a conservatory and studying music at Interlochen, even though the facilities and the competence level of the latter (experienced first-hand in May at the annual end-of-the-year, all-discipline festival of performances) might argue otherwise.
“Our goals reach beyond how musicians are trained, especially in conservatories,” explains Devey. “Here, a young musician can collaborate with a theater major, or perform a score written by a student to accompany a film created by a student. I emphasize this because I see the future of orchestras as much less siloed. There is going to be a broader, richer palate for orchestral musicians to work with, and gaining that collaborative experience can only help.”
Student Perspectives
That said, in conversations with a new oboe graduate headed to Juilliard and a rising senior violist with plans to apply for no fewer than 12 schools of music (Cleveland Institute of Music is her first choice), each sees playing in an orchestra as their optimal future job. “Interlochen totally prepared me for college auditions,” says oboe major William Simpfendorfer, who spent just one year at the school. (One of Devey’s goals is to have more students entering in the earlier grades.) It helped, Simpfendorfer says, that the academic load was relatively light. “Seniors take one or two academic classes and the rest is theory, chamber music, orchestra, private lessons, reed making….” If students have gotten all their academic courses completed, they can focus almost exclusively on music in their senior year. In any case, Interlochen is a fully accredited high school where students receive diplomas on graduation—and even getting admitted is highly competitive.
“Interlochen totally prepared me for college auditions,” says William Simpfendorfer, a recent Interlochen oboe major who is headed to Juilliard and sees playing in an orchestra as an optimal future job.
Like Simpfendorfer, viola major Lily Wodzisz had been studying privately at a high school with a relatively rich arts program before heading to Northwest Michigan as a junior. “But Interlochen is so different,” she says. “At my old school I was taking seven academic classes a day and then I’d get home to a load of homework, and I’d still have to practice. But at Interlochen they build that into your schedule, along with orchestra and chamber music, which I’d never studied before.” Like Simpfendorfer, Wodzisz points to Interlochen’s supportive environment—another advantage of a boarding school, where teachers are on staff and, for the most part, live on campus.
“The teachers are readily available,” she continues “I can just walk into the cafeteria and see my teacher and ask for advice or let him know I’m struggling with an assignment. At home I never saw my teacher, except during lessons.” Wodzisz had never lived away from home before; she figures she’ll be one step ahead of the pack by the time she reaches conservatory. “We also get so many performance opportunities that by the time we start auditioning we’re used to playing in front of an audience. It makes the transition painless.”
“Interlochen is so different,” viola major Lily Wodzisz says. “The teachers are readily available. I can just walk into the cafeteria and see my teacher and ask for advice.”
Simpfendorfer and Wodzisz are among the 50 percent of students who major in music; only 25 percent of that number actually go on to conservatory, factors that go back to Devey’s broader goals. “We are a multidisciplinary community that leverages all the different strengths of different artforms to inform our work,” Devey says.
Multidisciplinary Approaches
Devey offers as an example the school’s premiere last spring of the Edmonia, Boston-based composer and guitarist William Banfield’s opera about the 19th-century Black and Ojibwe sculptor Edmonia Lewis. In 2000, the late Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison commissioned the work of Banfield, who had been artist-in-residence at Interlochen as part of the school’s three-year interdisciplinary exploration of the African diaspora. Banfield, founding director of Africana Studies at Berklee College of Music, described the work as “neither musical theater nor jazz,” although informed by both. “You can sing the songs, but it isn’t ‘sing-songy music.’ ” Lewis was a pioneer of her time, challenging barriers to both racial and gender equality in the late 1880s. The two lead roles were sung by soprano Amber Cierra Merritt and Broadway actor Sydney James Harcourt, but some 25 percent of the student population was involved in mounting the production.
Sabina Camblor and Imani Makasa in Interlochen’s Spring 2024 production of Edmonia, composer William Banfield’s opera about the 19th-century Black and Ojibwe sculptor Edmonia Lewis. Interlochen students comprised the chorus in the foreground.
Edmonia also serves as an ideal representative of Phase II of “Vision 2028.” If Part I and its eye-popping construction initiative was about “place,” explains Devey, Part II is about “people and programs.”
To the rhetorical question, “How do we get better?,” he talks about new faculty and a continuing slate of visiting artists—like Banfield or Chicago Symphony Orchestra oboist Lora Schaefer, jazz vocalist Quiana Lynell, Emmy-Award winning art director and puppeteer Wayne White—along with special projects such as Edmonia and side-by-side concerts such as a 2026 tour with two major orchestras. In March of 2006 Interlochen will partner with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra to create an “Interlochen Scholars” program with each ensemble. The project is part of a multi-pronged celebration of the American semiquincentennial that also sees Yo-Yo Ma on the Interlochen campus performing a new concerto by Wynton Marsalis.
Composer William Banfield hosts a masterclass for Interlochen Arts Academy students. Interlochen produced Edmonia, Banfield’s opera about the 19th-century Black and Ojibwe sculptor Edmonia Lewis, in 2024. Banfield has served as artist-in-residence at Interlochen as part of the school’s three-year interdisciplinary exploration of the African diaspora.
Devey also cites “expanding our diversity, equity, and inclusion to become an ever more welcoming community. On the other side of ‘getting better’ is access. How do we make sure that every family can give their child, once they earn admittance to Interlochen, the opportunity to attend? If a student doesn’t have the means, we want to meet them where they are.”
Over the last decade, Academy enrollment has grown by about 100 (the ratio of girls to boys remains constant at 3:2) and the number of full or partial scholarship recipients to 81 percent for a total of about $17 million. With the likes of actor Josh Groban and singer Norah Jones among its alumni, fund-raising prospects are plentiful. Monies also come from ticket sales to summertime pop music concerts in the indoor/outdoor Kresge Arena, which can host audiences of up to 4,000 from the area—Traverse City is part of Michigan’s so-called “Lake Country,” a major summer vacation destination. The Center’s endowment is $175 million; its annual budget is $55 million.
Dr. Leslie B. Dunner leads the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra in a recent concert at Corson Auditorium.
A first-time visitor to Interlochen, blown away by the students’ performance level and the state-of-the-art facilities that reside among the 400 buildings (including camp and practice cabins), can’t help but wonder if its music grads become so spoiled that they might be disappointed once they reach conservatory. “Not too worried about that,” quips Simpfendorfer, “although I have to admit Interlochen’s pretty awesome.”
