By CARL E. FEATHER - cfeather@starbeacon.com
Star Beacon
HARPERSFIELD —
When Valerie and Matt Nousak’s 14-year-old daughter, Samantha, told them she wanted to apply for a Summer Arts session at Interlochen Center for the Arts, Valerie turned to a friend for guidance.
The friend, a retired violinist with the Cleveland Orchestra, succinctly answered Valerie’s question “Is it worth pursuing?”
“Absolutely,” said the friend, who suggested Samantha try to get into the Interlochen, Mich., non-profit school.
Every year, Interlochen’s Summer Arts Camp draws 2,500 students ages 8 and higher. Areas of study are creative writing, dance, motion picture arts, music, theatre, visual arts and college-preparatory academics. Students must audition for a spot.
For Samantha, the audition required a recording session with a pianist. She had to play two Vivaldi concerti.
Samantha was accepted to the prestigious Intermediate Music Program for students in grades six through nine. She spent three weeks at the Michigan school, June 26 to July 17, immersed in learning about her instruments of choice, the flute and piccolo.
In the process, Valerie got to know the previously unknown Interlochen very well. She made four trips to the school, a four-hour drive north of Detroit, to hear each one of the 90-minute concerts presented by the Intermediate Orchestra in which Samantha played.
“I went to them all and they were wonderful,” Valerie says.
Samantha started playing the flute while in fourth grade, but only after a short stint on the clarinet.
“I wasn’t good at the clarinet. I was horrible at it,” she admits.
Samantha immediately took the flute, however.
“I just always liked the flute. I liked the way it sounded, and I never wanted to play a big instrument,” she says.
Valerie says her elementary school band teachers quickly recognized that Samantha had talent that needed individual instruction to foster.
“You can’t get that kind of individual attention in (public) school. It was clear she was good at it and enjoyed it,” Valerie says.
Samantha started taking private lessons at the Ashtabula Arts Center, where Nan Adams Case has been her instructor for several years.
Case suggested Samantha consider applying to Interlochen after Jefferson resident Bruce Loomis offered to pay a significant portion of the tuition for an Arts Center student. Samantha did the research and decided to apply.
“It looked like we would be getting quality education I could learn from,” she said. “The last camp I went to, I didn’t learn anything.”
Loomis provided a significant portion of the tuition; Samantha and her family came up with the balance.
The world-famous Interlochen attracts students from around the world to Michigan. Samantha, one of 17 flutists in the group, made friends with girls from Singapore, Japan and Brazil.
The schedule at Interlochen included several rehearsals daily, plus classes in performance skills and electives. Samantha’s electives were sculpture and outdoor recreation.
She said the program was “challenging enough” but not overwhelming. She soaked up the instruction and, in a nutshell, learned “to be more musical” in her performances.
“I learned a lot more about my instruments and other people’s ideas about what to do and play. I got a lot better technically and musically,” she says.
Back home, Samantha has been immersed in Geneva high marching band rehearsals and soccer. She is a straight-A student and her mother says Samantha stays very busy. Her practice time on the flute is driven by necessity, results and pleasure.
“We’ve never had to tell her to practice,” Valerie says. “It’s always been self-driven for pleasure.”
Samantha is already thinking about returning to Interlochen next year and participating in the next level of performance and learning. The financial challenge is daunting — $4,000 for three weeks, $8,000 for six weeks, expenses that must be balanced with saving for college.
Her long-term goal is to become a professional musician, a goal that was solidified by her three weeks at Interlochen. According to the school, 10 percent of the personnel in the nation’s major orchestras are Interlochen alumni.
“I think I’d like to play in an orchestra like the Cleveland Orchestra, not necessarily that one, but one like it,” she says.
