Schedule
Classes
Ensembles
Traditional large ensemble and chamber music experiences are reflected in the sample schedules below.
Private lessons
Each woodwind, brass, and percussion student will receive one 30-minute private lesson and one 50-minute group lesson each week. String students receive two 50-minute private lessons each week. Piano students receive one 30-minute lesson daily. Each singer and composition major receive one 25-minute private lesson each week.
Performance class
All students gather daily for a live music listening experience (30 minutes) featuring mini-recitals by the Seminar faculty, alumni and guest artists.
Musicianship
Each student has a daily 50-minute musicianship (music theory) class assigned by level of ability ranging from the fundamentals of intervals, scales, key and time signatures to modes, counterpoint, and harmonization. There is an aural skills component to each class, where students have an opportunity to refine their sight singing and ear training and develop more reliable musical memory.
Electives
Each student will choose up to two 50-minute elective class from an array of options. Possibilities include instrumental jazz techniques, computers and music, beginning piano, beginning guitar, introduction to music therapy, music history topics, chamber winds, chamber choir, etc.
"Since the late 1960s, I have been delighted to teach and coach Seminar students in both lessons and ensemble formats. The uniqueness of this program is twofold: It is a very select group of talented young students participating in a program that emphasizes chamber music; and which has a low student/faculty ratio that allows these students to have a special relationship with the faculty, the counselors, support staff, and the administration, all whom are dedicated to the musical growth of the individual students. I regularly encounter adults who participated in the program and they all have good memories of their experiences. That even includes all of my three children, who are proud Seminar alumni." – Robert Whaley, Principal Tuba of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra and Professor Emeritus, Western Michigan University School of Music