Leahy Music Camp, 2018

Last week, I went to the Leahy Music Camp.
It was at the beautiful Lakefield College School just outside Peterborough.

This year, I focussed on piano so each morning, I would go to workshops for piano where I learnt how to vary bass lines and chords when accompanying fiddle.

Each afternoon they had electives where you could choose to learn fiddle, guitar, piano, accordion, bagpipes, banjo, step dancing, composition, improvisation, arranging, computer lab or  even recording!

It's really difficult to choose what to do in the electives.

I chose:

Beginner Step Dancing with Jacqueline Enright

Beginner Accordion with Timi Turmel

Improvising on Fiddle with Shane Cook

Intro to Bagpipes with Liam McGlashon

Composing with Erin Leahy

And Mac Lab with Gary Atkins.
(Sorry, I don't have a pic from this elective.)


Each evening they had lots of fun stuff planned for us.... You can choose to do as many or as little of the activities as you like.

Monday Evening, the Instructors put on a performance.
I put together a little montage of clips from their performance.

They were awesome!
So much talent in one room and to think they are the ones who would be teaching us for the week!

On Tuesday, we had a Dance.
It was so much fun and my legs were sore the following day. :-)

On Wednesday afternoon, we had a special Slow Fast Jam. In between some of the songs that we were all playing together, we got to see some of the campers perform.

I didn't do the evening activity on the Wednesday though.... We decided to stay in and rest for the busy Thursday ahead.

On the Thursday, we recorded the Camp Chorus.

For the Camp Chorus, I played in the piano section this year. (Last year, I did the fiddle.)
Each section learns their own part separately, and the first time we hear the full thing is when we get together to record it.

It is really exciting!

After the camp edits it and send it out this year, I will make a post about it here on my blog.


On the Thursday afternoon, we had our group challenge performance.

The group challenge is my favourite part of camp.
For the Group Challenge, we get together with other campers who we don't normally see or work with throughout the year and work together on something to perform for everyone.

This year, I worked with Olivia Werden and Gail Poulsen. Olivia wrote a beautiful song called Leia's Lullaby and we arranged and performed it for the group challenge.
We also performed it in the evening at the Grand Jam.


The Grand Jam is the final performance at the camp... It is a lot of fun but it also means that the camp is over. We all get to share the stage with the Instructors and play the tunes that we've learnt throughout the week.

Thank you so much to the Leahys for having such a wonderful camp. It is so nice to be around a family which really seems to like each other and take care of each other. 

And of course, a special thanks to Frank Callaghan for opening doors once again for us!

And thanks to Mom for being my chaperone and taking such good videos throughout the camp!

~~

Update:
This blog post has been edited to include a link to a video of the performance of "Leia's Lullaby".

Leahy Music Camp 2017

I just got back from Leahy Music Camp yesterday. 

It has been a very busy few days. 

I did workshops in Fiddle, Piano Composition, Intro to Mandolin, and Singing. It was really hard choosing which workshops to do. They had workshops for Step Dancing, Guitar, Technique and others. There were opportunities for private lessons, recording and using computer equipment. 

Of course, there was lots of live music and concerts. 😁

On the first day, the instructors put on a concert. All of our instructors performed for us. 

Here is a video from that performance with Timi Turmel on Accordion and Erin Leahy on Piano.

On the Second Day, we had a special performance from the Schryer Triplets - Pierre, Louis and Daniel.

We learnt how to jam with other musicians in the "Slow Fast Jam."

Even though I signed up for Fiddle, I got to try accompanying on Keyboard. Siobhan Donohue showed me how to play the chords.

Here is another video from the jam.

That same day, we also had a Big Dance.

We did some Square Dancing and I even managed to squeeze in some Highland. 

I love dancing!

Can you spot me in this video?

Here is a picture of me in the Singing Workshop with Don Sills. 

It turns out I sing Bass!

My favourite workshop at the camp was Piano Composition with Erin. 

She spoke with my Mom and encouraged her to get notation software for composing.  They both have faith in me and my music. 

Some mornings, I got to play on the organ in the chapel!  

On the third day, there was a Symposium about the theme of this year's camp which was "The Colour of Sound" 

On  the fourth day of camp - our last day - we recorded our Camp Chorus.
Each part learned their own section separately and we put it all together on the last day.
I played with the fiddles and Mom sang with the singers. The piano people and the dancers had their own parts as well.
 


On the last night we had a big performance where we performed the Camp Chorus and 

we could all play along with the instructors in the "Grand Jam". 

Swallowtail is still one of my favourite songs.

A big part of my camp experience was the "Group Challenge" 

Campers could get into small groups of 3 to 5 people and do anything.... Play instruments, sing, or dance, or any combination. 

My group was called "Journey On". I met Natasha Coffing and Gail Poulsen on the way to camp from the airport and we practiced each day. Natasha wrote the song and we did this arrangement at camp. It was such an amazing experience being able to work with such talented musicians on this beautiful piece. 

Here is the video of "Aliyah" at the final performance at camp.

Thank you so much to the Leahys, and to all of the Instructors and Volunteers at the Camp. Thank you to Frank Callaghan for opening doors, literally and figuratively. And an extra special "Thank you" to Natasha and Gail. It was a pleasure working with you.
Camp was so amazing, I know this blog post doesn't even begin to describe how wonderful it was.
I have never been around so many talented people who play two or more instruments and also dance! It makes me so happy! 

I hope to see you all again next year!



Update: Mama J from the Singing Pilgrims put together this video from the Instructors' Concerts.
Thank you Mama J!
Hope you all enjoy the video: