By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
The annual High Plains Music Camp will begin at 9 a.m. Sunday, with high school musicians, clinicians and performers setting up shop at Fort Hays State University for the week, offering musical training and fellowship for the participants — and an array of concerts for the public.
“Since its founding in 1947 by the late Harold G. Palmer, thousands of students have attended High Plains Music Camp,” according to the camp’s website. “Sixty-eight years later, the camp continues to offer students the opportunity to study with outstanding musicians from across the country. Campers experience a week of stimulating, concentrated study with nationally recognized musicians, teachers, and conductors. Performances, concerts, as well as recreational and social camp life make the week an event worth repeating year after year.”
“It has just ballooned and thrived to the point the we have approximately 300 campers who come each year, mostly from Kansas, but we have then from Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, and the same with our clinicians,” said Ivalah Allen, director of the camp. Allen has directed the HPBC for four years.
The large amount of students coming in for the camp means a lot of instructors to train those students, and the camp does not fail to deliver.
“We have around 80-85 clinicians that comprise band instructors, strings and orchestra as well as vocal instructors,” Allen said.
The camp will bring in students and trainers from all musical disciplines including jazz, orchestra and choral. The campers will be comprised of students from graduates from sixth to twelfth grades for instrumental work and ninth to twelfth in vocal and with the wide age group and levels of musical training the camp works to provide something for everyone with personal instruction and large ensemble work.
“Our general approach to this is we want the kids to get intense musical instruction, but yet put it in a manner that is approachable for the students regardless of their level,” Allen said.
While music is the focus of the camp there will be fun activities planed as well, and the camp works to help students develop more than just their musical abilities.
“It goes beyond the musical instruction here, it’s a growing development for thees students, and they learn about themselves, and they have opportunities to get to know students from other parts of the county,” Allen said.
The camp has long been supported by the community and especially FHSU, and this year is no different.
“The community and the university have supported this camp for these students so much. … If anyone would ever like to help contribute to this, I would say over half of our students come by scholarship,” Allen said. Without this support, many students would not be able to attend the camp, she said, and would miss an opportunity to study during the summer break.
“We have students who, literally, this is the only thing they get to do this summer besides stay home until the next school year,” she said. The community support has been necessary to keep the camp open to as many as possible and the camp has worked also to keep prices low for attendees.
“We have deliberately not raised the prices of the camp because we know its hard, but yet our expenses have kept going up so we appreciate anyone who has helped us help these students get to camp,” Allen said.
The campers are not the only ones that will benefit during the week. There will be a concert every night of the camp at 7 p.m., which are free and open to the public.
For more information, including a camp calendar, visit the camp’s facbeook page or their FHSU webpage.