The Preparatory Department in Millikin University's School of Music offers a variety of summer music experiences for children of all ages including Summer Sings, the annual children's choir camp, held for one week in early June. Each year the camp takes on a new theme and includes daily choral practice, a variety of electives and a combined finale concert.
This year's theme for Summer Sings is "Peace," where students in grades K-8th are learning dance, drumming and technology with a focus on music from the 1960s and '70s.
"Those years were marked with the war in Vietnam, and many musical legends wrote songs about peace," said camp director Christine Smith, program and artistic director for the Millikin Children's Choir Program.
Those songs are the focus of the camp, along with students learning how to use Garage Band software and learning the basics of drumbeats. Older students in third through eighth grade had the option to choose from those two electives.
"We want to get them used to singing and performing," Smith said in a recent interview with the Herald & Review.
The students will perform in concert on Friday, June 9, in Kaeuper Hall inside Perkinson Music Center at Millikin to show what they've learned.
With Garage Band, the technology students are learning to use, the user can layer instruments and create a recording.
Other Millikin Preparatory Department summer activities include a high school piano camp, a preschool arts adventure and a guitar experience camp. For more information about the 2017 Summer Music Camp offerings visit millikin.edu/musiccamps.
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