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Breaking Barriers at Fiddle Camp By DAVID WALLACE
Ten years ago, at a state park near Nashville, violinist and composer Mark O'Connor realized a dream. Despite warnings that he was attempting the impossible, he initiated an annual, weeklong strings conference where students of all ages and skill levels could study an extraordinary range of violin traditions with the greatest exponents of each. Unlike music festivals that concentrate only on one or two genres, Mark's camp would come to embrace classical, bluegrass, Celtic, Latin, Appalachian, jazz and swing, Texas style, rock, Mexican, Canadian and Cape Breton, traditional Chinese erhu, and more. Demand for his Fiddle Camp has risen to the point that, three years ago, he added an additional strings conference in San Diego and he is presently considering plans to launch a third conference in New York City.
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| The jam sessions at Mark O’Connor’s strings conference give students and faculty a chance to practice their improvisational skills. (Photo courtesy of Wallace Cunningham) |
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The inspiration for O'Connor's strings conferences stems from a chronic problem he encountered when working with musicians of diverse genres. "Earlier in my career," he says, "the thing that frustrated me most was that it seemed very difficult to find players from one style who liked—or even appreciated—any other style. In one sense, the concept of my camp and conferences is to introduce people to great musicians and traditions, and to create an environment where everyone falls in love with all of these styles at the same time."To introduce campers to the strikingly different styles and generate enthusiasm and respect for each of them, Mark devised the unique strategy he calls "the Fiddlers' Shuffle." After joining one of 10 groups classified according to age and ability, students spend the first two days of camp attending one-hour sessions led by each of the many instructors. For the rest of the week, students are free to select disciplines for further study. Instructors, whose load is then reduced to one two-hour session per day, can attend workshops led by the other faculty members.Every night, campers enjoy concerts featuring faculty performing their respective repertoire. Following the concerts, which can last up to three hours, students and faculty join in jam sessions and play until the early hours of the morning.Often fusing multiple styles, the O'Connor conference jam sessions have greatly influenced a number of professional performers and ensembles, including the Grammy-winning contemporary bluegrass band Nickel Creek. Natalie Haas, a third-year cello student at Juillliard, actually credits teenage jam-session experiences with motivating her musical career: "When I discovered late-night jam sessions, a whole new world opened up to me, and I was hooked … The cello was no longer just a hobby; it finally occurred to me that I could play music as my life's pursuit."In recent years, Juilliard faculty, students, and alumni have become a growing part of the O'Connor conferences' faculty. Although some like Haas, Carol Cook (M.M. '01, viola), and this writer grew up equally fluent in classical and fiddling styles, many of the classical instructors initially echo the surprise Dean Stephen Clapp felt when invited: "This is a fiddle camp … I don't know any fiddle tunes. What do they want with a classical instructor?!"But classical teachers soon realize that O'Connor's conferences are more than fiddlers' conventions; they are places where classical musicians like Arnold Steinhardt and Cho-Liang Lin can share masterworks with eager and receptive audiences. They are places where string players of all disciplines look to classical teachers for musical and technical assistance. As Dean Clapp notes, "The most advanced groups were also teachers, so their questions were both for themselves and their students."
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| Erhu player George Gao demonstrates his instrument while James Abrams, a young camper, looks on. (Photo courtesy of Elsa Holzen) |
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The conferences also provide a place where classical musicians, who now comprise 35 percent of the student body, can explore other styles and learn how to improvise. According to Mark, "A lot of classical players come with the misconception that if they could just 'be more free and let go,' they'd be able to improvise. After a few sessions with our instructors, they quickly learn that improvisation is a serious discipline involving rules, structure, and intense, creative concentration. Improvising isn't zoning out; it's composing on your feet."Teaching at the conference demands an unusual degree of creativity because students have diverse backgrounds, and not everyone reads music equally well. Nevertheless, at every class, all of the students have their instruments out and expect to participate. The traditional master-class format of an expert helping one student while a passive audience watches must be abandoned for a more interactive approach. Even when one student is being helped, the entire class gets to try out the teacher's suggestions.This open, inclusive approach to teaching naturally affects students' relationships to one another. As seasoned faculty member Joanna Maurer (B.M. '97, M.M. '99, violin) observes, "'Practicing' has an entirely different connotation at Fiddle Camp… the violin is fun—no part about it is thought of as work. There are no long hours holed up in a tiny room with a metronome and a clock, hoping no one eavesdrops. There are no secrets, nothing to hide. You become so motivated you can't help but find a good tree to sit under to share what you've learned with others."
Returning classical instructor Catherine Cho (violin faculty, B.M. '92, M.M. '94) agrees: "It is rare to come upon a place like the strings conference, where there exists no competition between students, a complete openness to learning between players of all styles of music, and a warm, spiritual understanding between each person involved. It shows that, under the right circumstances, music has no boundaries."Dean Clapp adds: "I was happy to be a part of it."For information on the 2004 Mark O'Connor Fiddle Camp and Strings Conference, visit www.markoconnor.com. Violist David Wallace, a member of the graduate studies faculty, received a D.M.A. from Juilliard in 1999.
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