Kickstarter

We are starting a Music Camp in Guatemala!  This first year will be a summer music camp for wind, percussion, piano, and voice students during the mid-semester break of the Guatemalan school year but we hope to expand in the years to come to include orchestra, guitars, dance and other arts.  The possibilities are endless (or almost).  

This first year we'd like to bring a guest conductor to work with the kids.  His name is Nery Cano and he's the director emeritus of the National Military Band in Guatemala, a well-known musician and band leader who loves working with young musicians.  

He has offered to come for a reduced rate but would still be going back to town to teach, perform, etc.  We'd like to be able to offer him full room and board at the camp as well as pay his full fee for the week so that he can stay at the camp and really invest in the kid's lives all week.  

How Music Camp Guatemala came to be.

Vivian Douglas has been a music missionary at an orphange called Casa Bernabe for 15 years.  In 2000 she started the band program there which has continued to grow and expand.  Some years there are four or five different bands and other years there are just three. Some years the advanced band has four or five students and other years there are fifteen.  

The kids don't have families who can care for them.  They are placed at the orphanage by court order.  Most have suffered some form of abuse or trauma in their lives.  Many have learning disabilities and some had never gone to school before coming to live at the orphanage.  

In 2009 Vivian took her two most advanced students to the US for the Masterworks Music Festival.  The kids had to miss five weeks of school (the Guatemalan school year is January to October so the US summer break is right in the middle of the school year) but they really grew as musicians and in their faith.  

In 2010 four students went to Csehy Music Festival.  She found a music camp that was more family oriented where the kids could attend two weeks and not the entire summer session.  They did a week of outreach touring the week before they arrived at the Csehy camp.  But they still missed three weeks of school.

In 2011 six students were eligible to go.  One couldn't get a passport so that left five students going to music camp, missing two weeks of school.  All the money for these trips was donated.

In 2012 there are 28 students eliglble to go!  As you can see the program has grown immensely.  

After the first trip the director at the camp put the idea in her head to start a camp in Guatemala.  There are so many advantages to the idea.  The kids wouldn't have to miss school because it would be during their mid-semester break.  For the price of taking one student to camp in the US, six could attend camp in Guatemala.  Camp would be available to all the music students in Guatemala, not just from the orphanage but from schools and music programs all over the country as well as the rest of Latin America.  We even want to open it up as a Spanish-immersion music camp to kids from North America.  

As you can see the dream has started to grow even before the first camp.

As of now, everything is in place.  We are in the process of becoming a legal entity in Guatemala with non-profit status, we have a location on a coffee plantation turned camp ground, and volunteer teachers and counselors.  In order to keep the cost as low as possible so that as many Guatemalan musicians as possible can come we'd like your help in bringing our guest conductor to camp.  

$1000 will cover his fee and his room and board. 

If we raise more than $1000 that will go towards sponsoring more specialist instrument teachers for Music Camp Guatemala.

Now for the prizes.  If you contribute anything at all you are invited to our final concert on June 30 in Chimaltenango, Guatemala and give your our undying thanks.  But if you contribute at least $25 we'll pay your parking fee (Q20).  You'll still get our thanks as well.

If you contribute $50, we'll pay your parking at the concert (you have to get here) and we'll send you a Music Camp Guatemala t-shirt.  

For a donation of $100 we'll pay your parking at the concert (you have to get here), send you a Music Camp Guatemala t-shirt and mention you as a sponsor in the program and send you a CD of the final concerts.

All of us working on this camp are donating our time and energy (hours and hours!) to make it happen.  

If you know any music students who would like to attend Music Camp Guatemala sent them to our web site.  We have space for lots of young musicians.  They'll perform in a band or choir at their level, have sectionals, music theory classes, private lessons, chamber music opportunities, hand bells, and Guatemalan marimba.  There will be fun activities and quiet times.  It will be an inspiring week.  I recommend a couple of years of Spanish language since rehearsals will be in Spanish and most of the students attending will be Spanish speakers.  See our web site for more information - www.musiccampgt.org

Had there been something like this when I was young I would have been there!

Help us make Music Camp Guatemala a reality!

Here's the text from the video is you have problems or (like me) prefer to read it.

So begins our adventure with MCG

Vivian passed the vision to Richard & Guisela and myself in Dec. of 2010.  We have been working to make it become reality ever since.

Vivian Douglas is music director at the orphanage Casa Bernabé located outside of Guatemala City.

Her program includes 3 bands, 15 in the advanced band, 13 in the intermediate band and 9 in the beginning band.  I work with the beginners two times a week.  (This is after my full-time job teaching music at Colegio Maya)

2009 Vivian took her 2 most advanced students to the Master Works Festival in the USA. They missed 5 weeks of school because the summer is the middle of the school year in Guatemala.

In 2010 she took 4 students to the Csehy Music Festival in NY, after doing a week concert tour in Cleveland OH.  They missed a total of 3 weeks of school.

In 2011 she took 5 students to the Cshey Music Festival, and did a week concert tour and the kids missed 2 weeks of school.

This year she has 28 eligible students who could go to a music camp, but the cost is prohibitive and missing weeks of school is a deterrent.   As you can see the program at Casa Bernabe is growing.

There are many other students here in Guatemala who would love to have the opportunity to attend a music camp, but there is no music camp in Guatemala and  between the language barrier, the cost and the time off school, they are not able to travel to the USA.  So we want to start a Music Camp here in Guatemala to give this wonderful experience to as many students as possible.

We have found a location: Finca La Loma Doña Tina, which is a former coffee plantation turned eco-tourist camp ground.

We have found a guest band director, Nery Cano, who has a very high reputation here in Guatemala and is the director emeritus  of the National Military band.   His reputation makes him a drawing card for students to come participate.

We would like your help to bring Nery to Music Camp Guatemala.  We need to raise funds to support him so that this stage can be filled with young musicians under his direction, working to develop their musical talents.

With your help we can bring our guest conductor to Music Camp Guatemala and touch the lives of not just the kids growing up in the orphanage but also the young musicians of Guatemala.  

Thanks for your support!