Let’s rock this camp
Unique one-week Island Rock Camp at Holland College
Young musicians in P.E.I. looking for a unique summer camp experience are in luck.
Holland College School of Performing Arts (SoPA) is partnering with roots-rocker Andrew Waite, of the band Andrew Waite and The Firm, to present three one-week Island Rock Camps on the college’s Prince of Wales Campus this summer.
Waite said participants will be given the opportunity to perform with others.
“One of the things that can be missing in formal music education is the social aspect that comes from playing music with others. Arranging, jamming, learning by ear, writing and creating are all aspects of music that sometimes slip away in the current public system,” Waite said.
Island Rock Camps are taught by Waite and the Firm band members, his wife Nikki, George Maros, Evan McCosham and Bruce Rooney. McCosham and Rooney are both graduates of SoPA’s music performance program.
The camps place students in small ensembles, where they work with a leader musician, choose and arrange material together and present their work at the end of the week in a concert. All three of the Charlottetown rock camps will take place in SoPA’s music performance buildings on the Prince of Wales Campus.
Andrew Waite and The Firm recently toured Island schools as part of the P.E.I. Jazz and Blues Festival’s educational outreach program, and had the opportunity to talk to many students about the upcoming camps.
In addition to the camps running in Charlottetown, there will be camps in Summerside and Montague, and a Perth-Andover Camp in New Brunswick in partnership with Larlee Creek Hullabaloo Festival.
The Holland College School of Performing Arts is a partnership with Confederation Centre of the Arts. For more information about the program, visit hollandcollege.com/sopa, email info@hollandcollege.com, or call 1-800-446-5265. For more information about the camps, to register online, or to download a registration form, visit islandrockcamps.com.
The cost of the camps is $300 per week.