Children should be seen AND heard.

July brought one of the most anticipated projects for Barrage this past year--a week long intensive "boot camp" for high school orchestra students at the Music For All Summer Symposium in Bloomington, Illinois.

Though Barrage had performed for this eager crowd of high school band and orchestra students the year before, I could not wait to experience what was described to me by other members of the band as "the craziest audience ever."

The week began with an incredibly warm reception from the faculty and coordinators, as well as the receipt of a room key for housing in the residence halls on campus. Because I never chose to attend "summer camp" as a kid (except for a 2-week orchestra program at Idyllwild in high school), I was ecstatic to learn we'd be living on campus, in amongst the campers, counselors, and other faculty members.

Over the span of a few days, we spent quite a bit of time working with the orchestra students, many of whom had worked with us previously during high school visits over this past year. Not only was I blown away by the students' collective enthusiasm towards music and performance, but also by how down-to-earth, friendly, and hilarious they all were. Spending a week with the kids was truly rewarding! As a young musician myself, I'm so glad to see other young musicians similarly enthused about the power of music--Music For All definitely provides the perfect atmosphere for stimulating creativity in and dedication to the arts.

Here are some of the kids backstage before the show:

Picture prompt: "strike a pose like Barrage."

"Everyone get together really quickly so I can take a photo for my blog!"

All of our work with them lead up to a concert we gave toward the end of the week in this hall:

The view from Charlie's drumset.

Imagine that space, filled with 900+ rabid marching band and orchestra students, along with their teachers, some parents, and other staff members. Now imagine all of those students giving a standing ovation after every song. Now imagine that each one of those students is making the shape of an O with their arms above their heads, while saying "Ohhhhhhhh!" [This was the camp's method of visually and aurally demonstrating an ovation above-and-beyond a seemingly weaker form of ovating: standing.]

So they would break into wild applause, all start to yell "Ohhhhhhhh," holding it for sometimes up to 30 seconds, and then burst back into applause before sitting down.

After nearly every song. For 2 hours.

It was--for sure--the most unbelievable audience for whom I've ever had the pleasure of playing.

Here's a small sampling of photos from the greatest concert I've played with Barrage in the past year. [All photographs taken by Jolesch Photography.]