Composing the Youth of the Community

With the summer season beginning to wane, school will soon be in session. While academics will comprise the majority of a student’s day, extracurricular activities also contribute to a student’s maturation and growth.

For those who may not find sports or theater desirable after a long school day, the Door County String Academy is an extracurricular avenue that has been quietly gaining momentum over the past four years. It provides an outlet for the musically inclined interested in classic orchestra composition and is the only organization of its kind in the Door community.

String education for youth on the peninsula began in the mid-1990s in association with the Peninsula Music Festival. In 2010 the academy broke off from the Peninsula Music Festival and became its own entity. In its inaugural year of independence, the school started with 15 students and grew to 20 to 25 students by the end of that year. This past school year ended with 38 students and board president Tammy Hartman expects to surpass that number in the coming year. “It just keeps growing and growing and growing,” Hartman says. “There is a huge demand.”

The Door County String Academy is a 501c3 nonprofit and is open to any and all students in the county between the ages of seven and seventeen. There is variation among all academic backgrounds within the academy. Homeschoolers, private school students, and students within the public school system are all represented.

Private lessons are held at Hope Church in Sturgeon Bay and Gibraltar Area Schools in Fish Creek and students can choose to play bass, cello, viola or violin. They receive one half-hour lesson per week their first year in the program and the following year they continue with a private lesson as well as joining the orchestra. Orchestra practice is one hour a week and consists of two levels, one for the beginners and one for the more advanced students.

The academy performs two concerts during the school year as well as a recital in February. Students will also play at a variety of outlets throughout the year, preferably once a month, in order to raise funds for the school.

A fun and popular activity for the students after the academic year is the annual Summer Jam Camp. This past summer the sessions were held June 10 – 26 and July 15 – 31. The students would receive and practice their music on Tuesday and find out their secret performance location on Thursday. Surprise locations varied from Woodwalk Gallery in Egg Harbor to Kitty O’Reilly’s Irish Pub in Sturgeon Bay.

Hartman says the biggest challenge facing the academy is sustaining a consistent financial flow in order to keep the costs affordable for students and their families. The total cost per student is $15,000 annually but the student is only charged $475 for the entire year. This is a fantastic deal for the student’s family, but leaves a substantial amount of funding that needs to be covered by the academy itself.

From bagging groceries to performances across the peninsula, the academy works hard to keep costs low and provide an asset that is unique to the Door community. Local businesses such as the Wild Tomato understand the importance of strings education. Every month the popular restaurant formulates a specialty pizza called the Donation Creation. One dollar from every specialty pizza goes to a local nonprofit in the community. All proceeds from August’s creation will go to the string academy.

When asked about the benefits of receiving a strings education, Hartman emphasized that the challenge of learning a more complex instrument stimulates a greater degree of mental growth. She said, “The overall benefit of playing any musical instrument is that you gain an appreciation for music.” She adds that it’s also for students who “don’t like sports but find an outlet through learning an instrument.”

For more information visit dcstringacademy.com and check out the Door County String Academy’s Facebook page.