Student musicians, ensembles launch a nascent, yet busy summer on campus

Music-making at SUNY Fredonia didn’t cease after Commencement, not with American Music Abroad and the university’s Summer Music Festival picking up the baton and bringing over 200 students and faculty to campus.

Adding a third group, the Castleman Quartet Program, into the mix led to a crowd in early July that, despite its size, was easily accommodated at SUNY Fredonia, thanks to the team efforts of several campus departments and their staffs.

While the School of Music’s “homegrown” Summer Music Festival – geared to middle and high school students – is in its fourth decade, this was the first time American Music Abroad (AMA) brought tour groups – comprised of high school- and college-aged musicians – to SUNY Fredonia to prepare for performance tours in Europe.

We were pleased to host these enthusiastic music students and their music teachers, giving them an opportunity to experience our exceptional facilities and engage with our staff.” – Dean David Stringham

Following a pre-tour orientation and 11 rehearsal sessions packed into three days, the American Music Abroad’s Liberty Tour embarked on its European tour that featured six concerts in five countries – Austria, Italy, Germany, Croatia and Switzerland. Culminating the campus stay by the 92 high school students and 13 staff was a two-hour Saturday evening concert in Harry A. King Concert Hall that brought the parents of students to the campus.

The respective staffs of Mason Hall and the Michael C. Rockefeller Arts Center skillfully arranged rehearsal space assignments in both buildings to accommodate the numerous ensembles within each program. Attendees were housed in residence halls and had their meals at the Cranston Marché dining hall.

“American Music Abroad has a 44-year rich history of taking the finest young musicians to travel to Europe,” said Marni Conte, co-director of the AMA’s Liberty Tour. “We have students and staff from all over New York, Ohio and Massachusetts,” added Ms. Conte, wind symphony director at Williamsville (NY) South High School.

American Music Abroad musicians are selected based on recommendations from their high school music directors and/or musical achievement demonstrated on audition recordings.

The AMA’s Empire Tour, consisting of 114 students and support staff, checked into the campus the following week and adhered to the same schedule before departing on its overseas tour.

“We were pleased to host these enthusiastic music students and their music teachers, giving them an opportunity to experience our exceptional facilities and engage with our staff,” said School of Music Dean David Stringham.

The School of Music’s own Summer Music Festival band camps included middle school and high school levels, plus a smaller piano camp, totaling nearly 90 students. They all convened simultaneously during that same week. For different master classes, students were arranged into multiple subgroups, such as middle school low brass, band, stage band and woodwinds/percussion choir. Students from all groups also sang in a camp-wide chorus.

Students took daily technique classes and master classes, as well as special workshops such as jazz, fiddling and African drumming.

The string camp, held in the third week of July, welcomed 35 students from across New York state and a student from Maryland. Five Fredonia faculty members, assisted by one recent master’s degree graduate, worked with the campers. Four current music majors were counselors.

During each camp, students learned from School of Music faculty and guest artists, performed in small- and large-group ensembles, attended classes and faculty recitals and enjoyed fun activities, said Festival Director Tiffany Nicely.

All camps culminated in public performances given for parents. 

The string camp offered two performances: a chamber music concert featuring each student playing in a trio, quartet or quintet in the Juliet J. Rosch Recital Hall, and a large ensemble concert featuring three orchestral groupings – two were made up of subsets of the larger group, then the whole group played together, in King.

Band camp also presented a performance by small ensembles in Rosch and a concert featuring all musicians in King.

Both residential and commuter options were available, though most students resided on campus, giving them a flavor of what it’s like to be a university student.

Several families have enrolled their children in the festival over its 30-plus years, and oftentimes there are many families with more than one child enrolled in the same year. “This year, we not only have two sets of two siblings, we also have two sets of three siblings,” Dr. Nicely noted.

“It’s a homegrown program – I attended a choral program when I was in middle school,” said Kathryn Thies, special programs manager for the Faculty Student Association’s (FSA) Conference and Special Events Department. “It’s always been a strong program.”

The festival provides a unique opportunity for middle and high school students to receive a college experience with professors, live in a residence hall, take their meals in a dining hall and meet new friends, Ms. Thies added.

“They can live like a music major for a week,” remarked Nicely, adjunct lecturer in the School of Music.

While nearly half of the students are typically from Chautauqua or Erie (NY) counties, the festival also draws well from outside of the area. This year drew 20 students from Hudson Valley and Syracuse/Albany/Rochester areas, seven from Long Island, NY, and one each from Maryland and West Virginia. Many attendees ultimately enroll at SUNY Fredonia.

Artistic/music directors included Director of Bands and Professor of Music Performance Paula Holcomb (ensembles), Director of Choral Activities and Associate Professor of Choral Music Education Vernon Huff (chorus), Professor and Coordinator Piano Area Fr. Sean Duggan (piano) and Associate Professor of Music Education Richard Webb (strings). Two SUNY Fredonia alumni – Jacqueline Ellmauer (’15 Mus.B.; ’19, M.M.) and Daniel Ornowski (’11, Mus.B.) assisted Dr. Holcomb as co-heads of camp life. Both are public school teachers.

“They bring an amazing amount of experience to the festival,” Nicely said of her co-directors. “They really allow us to fine-tune every day, [planning] what we should be doing, based on how it’s going and on feedback.”

Clearly a team effort, the festival draws on talent of more than 20 School of Music faculty and 15 counselors who are mostly current students enrolled in Music Education or other music degree programs.

“They’re applying what they learn as music education students. They’re musical mentors, because they play in the band and sing in the ensembles right next to the campers, as well as leading sectionals, but they are also emotional mentors, take care of them 24/7,” Nicely said.

“The School of Music was honored to welcome more than 120 middle- and high-school students to the campus to learn with and from dedicated faculty, our camp counselors, and in-service music teachers who join our School of Music community each summer,” Dr. Stringham said. “Our team is already hard at work developing several new summer camp opportunities for 2025 – we couldn't be more excited to introduce even more students to possibilities that await them at Fredonia!”

The unique Castleman Quartet Program is an intensive workshop in solo and chamber performance for advanced young string players. Master classes and recitals are generally given in Rosch Recital Hall throughout the program’s seven weeks on campus.

“Charles Castleman is one of America's preeminent violinists and pedagogues, and for the 17th year, we were honored to host his Castleman Quartet Program at SUNY Fredonia,” Stringham said. “Our campus and community benefited from their campers' and staff members' energetic presence and stellar performances in our halls throughout their residency.”

SUNY Fredonia’s support staffs – Residence Life, Custodial Services and FSA – worked together successfully to simultaneously accommodate the three music groups.

“Everybody saw this as an opportunity to have more students experience the facilities in Mason Hall and King Concert Hall, and to also experience SUNY Fredonia,” said Marc Levy, operations manager at Mason Hall, where the School of Music is based. “Everybody worked together to make this happen; it worked out quite well.”

Expectations that the AMA groups brought to campus were met, and perhaps then some, according to comments school staff received.

“They loved the facilities, they loved working with everyone here at the School of Music,” Mr. Levy noted. Rehearsals went without any glitches, he said, and positive reviews were also received by Custodial Services, FSA and Residence Life staffs.

Several directors of the AMA tours are either music teachers in Western New York, have been to the campus before or are alumni, Levy noted. Also, assembling the two tours on campus led to relatively short trips to Toronto, where the groups boarded their international flights.

The team concept was repeated in Custodial Services, which prepares numerous buildings for use by outside groups and organizations, according to Co-director of Facilities Services Mark Delcamp. “Basically, what we do is prioritize the buildings that are going to be used,” he explained, evaluating specific needs of each group and facilities they will occupy and scheduling custodial staff to prepare the buildings. It’s the same kind of thorough preparation that’s done before the start of every academic year.

“It’s really been a busier summer than usual,” Mr. Delcamp added. “We’ve probably had the largest number of summer programs that we’ve had in the 18-plus years which I’ve been here. We appreciate the groups [being] here on campus and the opportunity to serve them.”