By Elliott Andrick

For most high school students, summer does not mean spending seven weeks in an unfamiliar place playing music every day. However, senior Walt Puyear did exactly that, spending June 14 to August 4 at Interlochen Center for the Arts in Interlochen, Michigan, where some of the world’s greatest young musicians and artists come together for the instruction of a lifetime.

Interlochen Center for the Arts was established in 1928 for young people and adults from around the world. Its participants come to share their passion for the arts. The many different activities offered give students an opportunity to gain a huge advantage on their peers in the arts. In fact, over 60% of the world’s professional orchestral musicians have attended Interlochen at some point since its establishment.

The process of getting accepted to Interlochen is pretty difficult. First, students are required to send in a written and a recorded audition of themselves months prior to the beginning of the summer institute. According to Puyear, one of the most stressful parts of the process is waiting for news of acceptance or denial into the institute.

Upon acceptance, Puyear began to prepare himself for the long summer ahead of him. “I tried to practice as much possible, especially sight reading,” he said. It is hard for students to know exactly what they will do while they are at Interlochen, so preparation is of upmost importance.

As a saxophonist, Puyear spent his first week at the Saxophone Institute and then spent six weeks at the World Youth Symphony Institute, which featured young musicians from all over the world. The Saxophone Institute is a group focused on instructing only saxophones. The World Youth Symphony, however, is a large and competitive ensemble, and Walt received one of only six spots available. “The instruction was the best in the world. Just the quality of the instruction can’t be beat,” Puyear said.

Puyear said that the greatest experience at Interlochen was not the playing or preforming, but meeting all of the talented people that were there. Puyear learned the skills he hoped to for his own future in music, and he hopes anyone who is extremely passionate about the arts looks into the fantastic instruction and experience at the Interlochen Center for the Arts.