Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp
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Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp is a Michigan nonprofit organization located in the Manistee National Forest that provides summer fine arts camp and international exchange programs in music, art, dance, and drama. The Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp was founded as a non-profit organization in 1966 by the Stansell family, who remain the multi-generational proprietors of the institution.Journal of the Senate of the State of Michigan, 1991 p.1414, Senate Resolution 253 of 1990 The camp is located on approximately 1200 acres in the
Manistee National Forest The Manistee National Forest is a national forest located in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. It has a total area of . It was established in 1938, and combined with the Huron National Forest in 1945 for administrative purposes, creating the Huro ...
in Michigan. It can host 4500 Internationalidssmf Association for Jazz Education, Jazz Education Journal, 2001, NPN 5th through 12th grade students across several 12-day sessions each summer. It operates FM radio stationsBidgoli, Hossein, The Internet Encyclopedia, Volume 2, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken NJ, 2004, P.677 locally and in
Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 200,117 in 2024, Grand Rapids is the List of municipalities ...
that are
National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
affiliates. For Central campers, several options for fine arts are offered, including theater, band, choir, art, dance, and many others. Campers may also choose from many options for minors, such as conducting or team sports. In addition to the Central camp, there is the more relaxed Bernstein camp for younger students in grades 5th through 8th. Bernstein campers may choose between orchestra and band for their concentration. Blue Lake also offers adult camp programs. Like the youth programs, adult campers take part in daily instruction on their instrument as well as ensemble rehearsals. Access to the camp's recreational, elective instructional, and regular concert programs is available to all ages as well. Adult musicians may either stay on Blue Lake property in campers or tents in the Niblock campground, or find accommodation at local hotels.


International exchange

Blue Lake hosts international exchange students in the arts as well as organizing several ensembles of American students to travel to Europe and perform each year. These ensembles include, but are not limited to,
concert band A concert band, also called a wind band, wind ensemble, wind symphony, wind orchestra, symphonic band, the symphonic winds, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of members of the woodwind instrument, woodwind, brass ...
,
jazz band A jazz band (jazz ensemble or jazz combo) is a musical ensemble that plays jazz music. Jazz bands vary in the quantity of its members and the style of jazz that they play but it is common to find a jazz band made up of a rhythm section and a ho ...
,
orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...
, and
choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...
. These exchanges serve to expose students to other cultures and have been cited as “outstanding representatives of the United States”. The camp has also initiated such experiments in multi-cultural cooperation as the ''Blue Lake in Bavaria''
concert band A concert band, also called a wind band, wind ensemble, wind symphony, wind orchestra, symphonic band, the symphonic winds, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of members of the woodwind instrument, woodwind, brass ...
which was formed out of a mixture of American and European junior and senior high school students to rehearse and perform together over the course of a month.


Leonard Falcone

Prior to the founding of Blue Lake,
Leonard Falcone Leonard Vincent Falcone (Fal-CONE-ee) (5 April 1899 – May 2, 1985) was an Italian-American musician, Musical conductor, conductor, Music arranger, arranger, lecturer, and educator. He was well known as a virtuoso on the Baritone Horn, baritone h ...
,
baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...
virtuoso and Director of Bands at
Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...
, had conducted many ''Youth Music at Michigan State'' summer camps in conjunction with, and support of, the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association. At the urging of Fritz Stansell, Falcone shifted his focus to aiding the program at Blue Lake and became a regular staff member/artist in residence.Stansell, Fritz, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, the Early Years, RDR Books, Muskegon, MI, 2007, p. 211 Falcone would be joined later by other notables of the music education and concert band world, such as composers
John Barnes Chance John Barnes Chance (November 20, 1932 – August 16, 1972) was an American composer. Chance studied composition with Clifton Williams at the University of Texas, Austin, and is best known for his concert band works, which include '' Variatio ...
and
Václav Nelhýbel Václav Nelhýbel (September 24, 1919 – March 22, 1996) was a Czech-American composer, mainly of works for student performers. Life and career Nelhýbel was born the youngest of five children in , Ostrava, Czechoslovakia. He received h ...
. Following Falcone's death in 1985, Blue Lake became home to the new
Leonard Falcone International Tuba and Euphonium Festival {{Short description, Annual event The Leonard Falcone International Euphonium and Tuba Festival ("Falcone Festival" or simply "Falcone" for short) is an amateur tuba and euphonium festival and competition, held annually the second week in August at ...
and competition created by his students in his memory and held at Blue Lake every year. This has become a significant annual event in the international
tuba The tuba (; ) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in th ...
and
euphonium The euphonium ( ; ; ) is a tenor- and baritone-voiced valved brass instrument. The euphonium is a member of the large family of valved bugles, along with the tuba and flugelhorn, characterised by a wide conical bore. Most instruments have thr ...
community and is the leading American venue for these instruments.Wikipedia page and associated sources,
Leonard Falcone International Tuba and Euphonium Festival {{Short description, Annual event The Leonard Falcone International Euphonium and Tuba Festival ("Falcone Festival" or simply "Falcone" for short) is an amateur tuba and euphonium festival and competition, held annually the second week in August at ...


See also

Leonard Falcone International Tuba and Euphonium Festival {{Short description, Annual event The Leonard Falcone International Euphonium and Tuba Festival ("Falcone Festival" or simply "Falcone" for short) is an amateur tuba and euphonium festival and competition, held annually the second week in August at ...
Solid Brass: The Leonard Falcone Story by Rita Griffin Comstock


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp Summer schools Summer camps in Michigan Art schools in Michigan Music education organizations Education in Muskegon County, Michigan Buildings and structures in Muskegon County, Michigan 1966 establishments in Michigan Music festivals established in 1966