Ball State is one step closer to becoming the permanent home to the Music for All's Summer Symposium.
The university will host the summer camps for high school music students and directors for the second year later this month. The symposium will offer student leadership-training workshops that they will choose based off musical interests.
Kristin Conrad, a senior marketing coordinator for the Music for All organization, said the symposium offers different racks for those attending to choose from.
"The students can choose from concert band, marching band, we have jazz and orchestra, percussion, color guard and drum major," Conrad said. "High school and middle school directors can choose from different tracks as well that kind of fit their different professional skills."
The symposium offers several performances open to the public throughout the week of June 25 including the Yamaha Young Performing Artists, the Indianapolis Brass Choir, the Buselli Wallarab Jazz Orchestra, Time for Three and a Drum Corps International show.
"The marching band track students that we have at camp, they also get a chance to perform on the field as part of that show so that's kind of a cool opportunity for them," she said. "There will be seven drum corps that will be there for that show, so it's one of their full regular season shows for Drum Corps International for that organization, but they basically make a stop on campus and do the show there."
Debbie Asbill, the Music for All director of marketing and coordination, said the organization is happy to return to Ball State.
"The support we receive from BSU and the community helps make the camp possible, from the music department faculty who are serving on the camp faculty, to the staff in conferences and special events and those who help us coordinate the housing, dining and facilities, to the community members like Muncie Music," Asbill said via email. "The 1,000-plus people who will attend the symposium will have a wonderful and memorable week thanks to this collective effort to create a positively life-changing experience through music."
While the symposium is an educational experience for various high school students and directors attending, it is also beneficial to the campus, said Rita Stewart, Ball State's director of conferences and special events.
"When we have a vibrant conference season, facilities continue to be used, buildings are open," Stewart said. "The off-season usage of the facilities and keeping employment alive at Ball State University reduces that cost for the students when they return for the academic year."
The idea is to make Ball State the new home for the Music for All Symposium, which was previously hosted by Illinois State University for nearly 19 years, Conrad said.
Stewart said she believes that hosting two years in a row is a good sign of this transition.
"We are looking for this to be the new home for the Music for All Symposium and they are hoping that that's how it is, too. They tend to stay where they are," she said. "We started out in our negotiations with them for a five-year contract because this is a massive undertaking."
The directors attending the symposium will be also be able to earn college credit through the School of Music while taking the various workshops.
"Some of the directors are getting college credit while they're here, they're studying, they are working toward a master's degree," she said. "It's not a great deal of credit but it does work toward that and we are currently in negotiations with the School of Music to expand that program so that they do work before they come to campus - this is the band directors from across the country and some international - to do online work and protectoral kind of activities and then they are on campus where they do study with our excellent staff."
The event will host more than 1,700 people from June 25-30 and all the events except the Yamaha Young Performing Artists and Indianapolis Brass Choir cost money to attend.
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