To give you an idea of what Interlochen is like, my last year as a stage mgr there, John Sampen and Don Sinta were both on faculty as well as Matt Levy (Prism Quartet) , and Steve Wilkerson (jazz columnist for Saxophone Journal). Among the notable campers that year were Otis Murphy (prof. of saxophone/ Indiana Univ.) and Tim McCallister (Prism Quartet/ Crane School of Music). Pretty good line up of players I'd say.

saxmaniac - I've never played under Don Flickenger, however I've heard good things about him. He's more into the Adult Programs now. I was in the other three concert bands. I play tenor, and older, better players got the parts in the Symphony band. This year, I'm hoping to make it though. Now, they have 2 hour and a half rehearsals, a forty minute sectional, and every other day there's a tech class that's really awesome. You can also play an hour a day in a jazz ensemble elective thing. It's pretty cool. I've heard from others who attended blue lake in the 80's and they say it felt like 8 hours too. The concert band program has very few classes compared to the other majors because of its size. The jazz program there plays a lot more than the concert program. "I still have my shirt and pin!" That's funny. Somehow the badge becomes a big part of the Blue Lake experience, and a lot of traditions and memories are made on it. "Ever see the movie American Pie II? It's kind of like that. Only less exciting, of course! " American Pie was actually based on Blue Lake. That kindof stuff doesn't really happen there, but the creator's friends went there and brought home stories about their experience. It's pretty structured there, but there's always some way to get around the rules. -tenor562

I wish I had done the Jazz elective, looking back on it. Took me 20 more years to finally try it out. You want to see some real band geeks? Check this out... www.nocb.org/photos.html I'm the "Outlaw" in the yellow shirt. About half the band captured in these pictures...