What is KlezKamp?

This is the question of the day, after our four days as Kampers. So here goes.

Imagine Interlocken Music Camp, in the woods of northern southern Michigan, near the shore of the lake of that name, with hundreds of campers taking performance and related music theory and culture courses.

Now take that camp, remove it from the Michigan woods and instead put it on a cruise ship.

Now, lower the temperature from about 80 degrees to about 35 degrees.

Now, take the cruise ship and put it in the middle of the mountains of the Hudson River Valley, and turn it into a hotel, which resembles a cruise ship, in that you cannot disembark from it.

Now take the restaurants on the cruise ship and compress them into one restaurant, serving three meals a day, under the supervision of the local kosher authorities.

Now change the music from classical to klezmer, and the language from English to Yiddish.

Now give each camper the opportunity to attend four ninety minutes classes a day, whether they are performance related (instrumentation, voice or dance), culture related (Yiddish literature, or the history of the language, etc.), language related (Yiddish instruction at various levels), or art related (Hebrew/Yiddish calligraphy, papercutting, etc.) along with eating his/her three meals a day (dairy breakfasts and lunches/meat dinners).

Now in the lobby of the hotel, place several artists who are hawking their works, a piano around which there are jam sessions going on most hours of the night or day, and sellers of related books, tapes and cds (along with Kamp tshirts and sweat shirts). And because it is Hanukah, put several tables together on which Kampers can place and light their menorahs.

Every night, schedule an activity (a staff concert, a student concert, productions by Klezkids and by Klezteens, a spoof on the Purim megilla written by a Yiddish poet and produced in Yiddish, a showing of the 1970s movie Hester Street, with a discussion with Joan Micklin Silver, the director.

Add an orthodox morning and evening minion. And create a general feeling of informality and music making, and you get the general idea.

The instructors include some of the most accomplished klezmer players in the country, the instructors include well know authors and university professors.

Picture about 500 or 600 campers, ranging in age from 3 year old toddlers to 93 year old toddlers.

You begin to get the idea.