Lessons Learned at Interlochen

Have you ever had a glass of Kool-Aid?  If it's made properly, it has the correct amount of sugar,

flavoring and water.  With too little sugar, it tastes nasty--just give me a plain glass of water--and with too little water, it's a blast of too much flavor (again, just give me a glass of water, but this time dump it into the Kool-Aid).

It's nice when life is like a well-made glass of Kool-Aid.  The correct amount of goals, trials and successes.  We aren't really stretched, and we just sit back, put our feet up and drink our Kool-Aid with some ice cubes and a straw.

Life at Interlochen for my musical children?  It's like the glass of Kool-Aid with not enough water, but lots of sugar and flavoring.  You say, "WOAH!"  While this is plenty sweet and exciting, this is way too strong.  Do I have to learn so much in such a short period of time?

I believe that my children have several years of learning experiences in the very short six weeks they are here each summer.  Maybe this is why they love their concentrated Interlochen Kool-Aid--they learn and grow so much in such a short period of time.

I wish that I had recorded the things that Mark learned while here.  There were so many of them, and I know that his life has been built upon some of the experiences he had here.  There are however some general things that all three kids have gone through and that are making them stronger people:

Competition exists, and the meanest kids are frequently the best musicians.

As much as I don't want to record this story (and I wish that it had never happened), I'm going to, because in the end, a great lesson was learned.

Before Johannah came to Interlochen, she attended a music festival at BYU.  She didn't place very well within the viola section, and she didn't have the best of time at the school.  She tried to go into it all with a good attitude, giving the school the chance it deserved.  After a fantastic lesson with the viola teacher there, she was practicing her upcoming Interlochen audition excerpts in a practice room.  To her surprise, she heard someone else in the next room playing the exact same excerpts, only the person played them perfectly.  She thought this was rather unusual, but she continued to practice.  After a few more minutes, she heard the neighbor playing exactly what she was playing, mistakes and all.  If Johannah was working through one or two measures, the neighbor would play them back the exact same.  Not knowing what was going on, she went out in the hall, and saw the third chair violist and a friend of his laughing at her.  These are Mormon boys, boys who have attended countless Primary and Young Men's classes.  Boys who have been taught to be kind.  The third chair also happened to be coming to Interlochen the next week also.

While Johannah didn't tell me about this experience (or about any of the other bad ones she had there) while she was at the festival, after I had picked her up from the airport and driven her here to Interlochen, she was unpacking and starting telling me about her week.  It didn't take long for her to break down in tears, telling me this story.  In the words of Mark (after I had written him), I too wanted to just "break the kid's knuckles"!

After the initial audition here at Interlochen, Jerk-Face ended up being seventh chair in WYSO (the top high school orchestra), and Johannah was fourth chair in IP (the lower high school orchestra).  So much for nice girls finishing last, right?

After you fall off the horse, you need to get back on.

The following morning (after Johannah had seen the posted results), she actually had to wear sunglasses to rehearsal because her eyes were so swollen from crying.  She was terribly disappointed, and I must admit that I wasn't much help.  I think after all the practicing she had done this past year, we couldn't believe that she hadn't really moved up any chairs since last summer.

To Hannie's credit, she kept going.  All of us?  We just prayed that something good would come out of all of this.

While we can't see the benefits of trials in the moment, there is always a purpose in them.

As a result of being placed in IP, Johannah was able to work with one of the best conductors she's ever had at Interlochen.  Intelligent, interesting programs with challenging music.  Too, the conductor got to know Johannah because she stood out in the orchestra, cueing when nobody else was.  At one point, he asked all of the strings to watch her and her stand partner (while they played with the woodwinds and brass) to see how he wanted all of them to move--just like Hannah and her stand partner.  Maestro Moran was only here for two weeks, but in the end, Johannah wanted to get him a "thank you" card for all he had done for the orchestra.  She set it out on a stand for anyone to sign, and as a result, there was a line out the building to sign it.

For Johannah's second set of auditions, she moved up two chairs to first stand, second chair.  As it turned out, her conductor for the fourth week was the choral conductor for WYHC, the best high school choir on campus.  Turns out, Mark and Dr. Fryling had worked together for several summers, and Dr. Fryling instantly recognized Johannah.  In fact, he would occasionally forget that Hannah wasn't the first chair and would tell the section to follow her and not the actual section leader.

Turns out that kids who aren't the best tend to be nicer kids all around.

Johannah made real friends this summer in IP.  She pulled her My Little Pony prank which kept everyone laughing.  She would bring treats into the violas (making other instruments wish, for that day, that they too were violists!).  Too, when she found out that one of the girls in the viola section was having a birthday, Hannah went into town, got her a cupcake and arranged for the violas to play "Happy Birthday to You" for her.  The girl didn't know Johannah had arranged it, and when the section leader got the credit for it, Johannah didn't try and steal the spotlight.

Sometimes, just sometimes, things turn around (in other words, the sun does come out tomorrow).

After her final set of auditions, Johannah was placed in the top orchestra (and as she likes to point out, she's not even last chair).  You might wonder how Jerk-Face did.  Ninth chair, just one stand in front of Hannie.  And what was the first thing Johannah said to me (after telling me that she had made it into WYSO)?  She's going to miss all of her friends in IP :-(

A lesson that John says all the kids need to learn if they are going to be musicians:

You just can't care too much about your audition, or the results.  It's like the Olympic figure skaters.  They spend over a decade, getting to the Olympics.  We can't even imagine how many hours they have spent on the ice, or how many times they have practiced their jumps.  They have exactly four minutes to show the world that they are the best.  Unfortunately, all kinds of things can get in the way.  Maybe somebody that they have consistently out-ranked has the skate of their life that day.  Maybe a skater has an ingrown toenail and can't accurately perform a jump that they could normally do in their sleep.  There are so many variables, and luck is a big one.

It's all about perspective.

Many of the kids here feel unsuccessful.  It's the idea that at home, they are big fish in little ponds.  Interlochen is more like an ocean, and pretty much everybody here (with a few exceptions) is a little fish.  That can be a hard adjustment.  However, all of us have tried to keep perspective here at Interlochen.

Interlochen is the premiere music camp of the world.  There is nothing like it anywhere.  If you want to go anywhere with orchestral music, Interlochen is the place to be.  This year, almost 700 high school violinists sent in audition tapes, and only 70 were accepted.  As you many know, violists are NOT a dime a dozen, and in most global situations are taken as is.  This year at Interlochen, 44 violists auditioned, and only 22 made it in.

Each year, I remind the kids that it's honor just to be accepted here.  It's an experience like no other.  However, that's a hard perspective to maintain when you aren't sitting at the top.  However, just today, it clicked for Johannah.  While we were eating lunch, she turned and said, "It's amazing to think that I'm the twelfth best violist here at camp."  Indeed.  That's a great perspective!

All you can ask from any audition (or any trial in life) is knowing that you did your best.

As hard as it is to not look at the results and see either success or failure, success really needs to be measured individually (and not comparatively).  Did you do your best?  Could you have done anything better?  If you did your best, and put in the hours of work/study/practice, you can't ask for anything more.  Hopefully, these will result in something wonderful, but they don't always end that way.  The challenge is finding satisfaction within ourselves.

As much as I would like to say this only applies to musicians, it can apply to just about anything in our lives.  

Am I feeling disconnected from my family?  (on the flipside) Am I doing everything I can to spend time with them?

Am I feeling lonely?  (flipside) Do I spend anytime thinking of others?

Do I feel like a loser? (flipside) Am I trying to help myself?

If we are feeling inadequate, or unsuccessful, can we say to ourselves that we have done everything in our power to change things?  Have we had a "good audition"?  Have we done our best?  If we have, then we need to cut ourselves a break and move on.  Life isn't always perfect.  It's about making lemonade out of lemons.  Or adding just the right amount of sugar and water to the Kool-Aid.