Music camp keeps children active and builds skills during summer; will hold upcoming concert

Dozens of musical munchkins lined the classrooms with a bevy of wind and string instruments as part of Wilson Junior High School’s Forte Finale Summer Music Camp on Tuesday in El Centro.

The two-week summer music camp combines three levels of string orchestra groups and two band groups with four hours of musical instruction from their El Centro Elementary School District music teachers.

“The whole point of having this camp is to give students the opportunity for the kids (to stay active and learn music throughout the summer) and also so that they get a long duration of instruction,” Joseph Kaye, string orchestra director for El Centro Elementary, said.

“It gives the children some recreational activity during the summertime, which they can truly enjoy,” added Mitch Sturman, band director for Wilson Junior High.

“It keeps them off the streets and keeps them together with their friends,” he said.

Throughout the Valleywide program, students in kindergarten through eighth grade learn new techniques used in playing their instruments, or work on perfecting those already learned, the music directors said.

They also learn some fundamentals, or music theory, necessary to be able to both read music and better understand it.

“If they can gain a basic knowledge about music it will help them be able to read it, understand it and understand the deeper meanings of music,” Kennedy Middle School band director Scott Devoe said.

Parents, too, saw the benefits of putting their children in the summer music program.

“I heard how effective it is from other parents who had their children in it last year,” said Karina Alvarez, an El Centro resident and parent of three girls in the program.