Adults relive the musical camaraderie of their youth at band camps reprised for grown-ups
Some adults are turning to music camps as an antidote to a world of increased isolation as they decide on their summer plans
CONCORD, N.H. -- As a high school student in the 1970s, Lori Guess looked forward to packing up her oboe for a summer music camp in Sidney, Maine. The lakeside location and loon calls appealed to her, and it was a chance to connect with kindred spirits.
Decades later, she’s still going to camp there. A separate band program was created for adults in 2013, where she felt encouraged to take up another instrument: trumpet.
“I was thrilled because I love this place,” said Guess, 71, of Baltimore, a retired lawyer for the U.S. Department of Defense who plans to return to the New England Adult Music Camp in August. “It is serene, beautiful, a perfect setting. And it’s not all that different from what it was 50-some years ago.”
Whether they are looking to make friends, improve their skills or just take some time out for themselves after sending their own kids to camp and college, adults can find a variety of summer music programs across the United States, ranging from electronic, folk, rock 'n' roll and jazz to chamber and opera.
For many campers, it offers a way to relive the nostalgic musical experiences of their youth and make new social connections.
“Emotionally, making music is good for the soul,” said Carole Lieberman, a California-based forensic psychiatrist who has played multiple instruments herself. “It makes you feel creative, allows you to provide the music you like for yourself and can boost your spirits."
“Cognitively, research demonstrates that learning to play a musical instrument and playing it helps your brain make better neurological connections,” she added. “It can help to ward off dementia.”
For Guess, playing music is about being “in that zone” with other musicians.
“When you’re playing music together, you rise above all the pettiness of life,” she said. “And it’s just the most spiritual thing I can think of.”
The camps cover a range of playing abilities. Some listings specifying beginner, intermediate and advanced levels can be found in camp guides put out by organizations such Musical America Worldwide and The Instrumentalist.
The Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan, where Guess attended band camp in middle school, branched out to offer a variety of summer musical programs for adults, including a weeklong Symphonic Band Camp for experienced players in August.
In Walla Walla, Washington, the Midsummer Musical Retreat has grown to include multiple performance groups, large and small, for varying levels since it began in 1983.
Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, hosts the Band Camp for Adult Musicians, where players at an intermediate level and beyond are coached by retired military members and college professors.
The camp's founder was inspired by his kids' experience at band camp, director Leigh Hurtz said.
Now in its 37th season, many players are retired and have attended the camp together for years. Some have come with their children and grandchildren.
“They were lawyers or doctors, or working full-time, mothers,” Hurtz said. “There are also people who sold their tuba for a couch in college so they could have a couch, and 20 years later, it’s like, ‘I need a tuba again!’”
In addition to putting on concerts, the camps have their own traditions. At the one in Pennsylvania, everyone gets together on the first night for a family dinner. Walla Walla has a camper-created sketch comedy night. New England has campfire gatherings and a lobster dinner. Campers often have access to other activities such as kayaking, yoga or cocktail hours, or in open-mics solo or with a small ensemble of fellow campers.
Camps also can offer special sessions covering certain genres or instruments such as jazz, drum circles, klezmer, German band and ukulele, and host talks about topics like performance anxiety and music theory.
Linda Haller, 70, of Laconia, New Hampshire, had retired as an obstetrician-gynecologist a few years ago when she learned about a community band for adults promoting “music for life” nearby. She felt motivated to try the clarinet again after last playing it in high school. So she joined.
“It hasn’t all come back, but I’m getting to the point where I think I’m playing almost as good as I did back then,” she said. Haller, who also plays piano, said the rhythms and counting came right back to her.
She attended the camp in Sidney, Maine, for two years, where she progressed from a beginner’s band to intermediate. She said she enjoyed the camaraderie.
“Returning to an instrument learned in childhood is powerful because it combines memory, discipline and renewed growth,” said Jonathan Alpert, a psychotherapist based in New York.
“It strengthens attention, fine motor coordination, and memory pathways while reducing stress and improving mood,” Alpert said. “But equally important is the emotional experience of reengaging with something that once required patience and repetition.”
The community band Haller plays with is affiliated with the New Horizons International Music Association, a nonprofit that provides entry points for adults to create music, including those who have no musical experience. The organization counts over 200 bands, orchestras and choruses worldwide for 10,000 adult musicians since 1991.
Its philosophy, also adopted by other programs for adult musicians, is "Your best is good enough.”
New Horizons also sponsors its own camps, including an “American Music Abroad” trip to the Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary in June, and one near Cincinnati, Ohio, in July.
The programs are popular, said Russ Grazier of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who has taught at New Horizons camps and is the artistic director of the New England Adult Music Camp.
He notes that the ensemble participation rate for adults over age 60 has doubled from about 150 to 300 people at a local music and arts center he leads. He said he thinks the social connection is key.
“And that's something missing from a lot of people's lives these days," Grazier said. "So any time we have an opportunity to have a space outside of the home where we're connecting with new people and sharing a common interest, it has remarkable benefits for our health and our aging.”
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