Overture Magazine - 2015-2016 Season May-June 2016 | Page 13

A day in
the Life
of an
9am

Shelton Flemming, Ephraim Dorsey and Ebban Dorsey
with Craig Alston, woodwind and jazz band Instructor.

while the younger students do little orchestras or string band.
The music program is combined with
tutoring, art, and twice weekly themed
enrichment classes. Last summer, students
focused on literacy, nature and nutrition.
Young students planted seeds and learned
about healthy eating while older children
made their own birdhouses. All the students
participated in a neighborhood clean-up,
bringing the brass band along to keep everyone’s spirits high. Two groups of children
also explored themes through composition classes; students in grades 5–10 went
to Graffiti Alley off North Avenue and to
a park in Bolton Hill to find “beauty in
everyday life,” which they translated into
an original composition they performed at
ArtScape. Students in grades 1–3 went to
Druid Hill and the Rawlings Conservatory
to learn about nature and also created an
original composition.
Sisters Jacqueline “Jacky” and Evelyn
Ruiz, ages 10 and 11, normally attend
OrchKids in Highlandtown, so summer
camp at Lockerman-Bundy is a chance to
make new friends. Jacky plays trumpet and
Evelyn plays violin. They’ve earned the privilege to take their instruments home, where
they like to play together. At camp, Evelyn
participated in bucket band and jazz band
while Jacky sang in the choir in the morning
and did ensemble work with the woodwinds
or with her fellow brass players.
For the sisters, summer camp gave
them a chance to attend ArtScape for the
first time. “My favorite part was when
we went inside the Baltimore Symphony
Orchestra and saw some of the older kids
play,” says Evelyn, who aspires to be one
of those kids some day. Jacky thrilled to
see her sister playing on the sidewalk in
the bucket band.

11am

12pm

1pm
If the goal of OrchKids’ camp is to stave
off the summer slump, the sisters are proof
of success. When asked what she would do
between the end of camp and the start of the
school year, Evelyn has one word: practice.
Without camp, the sisters explain their musicianship would have hit a lull.
“Before summer camp I didn’t know
what to practice. I learned new music here,”
says Jacky. “[If we hadn’t come to camp] I
don’t think we’d be practicing as much.”
While other kids were maybe watching
television, Evelyn was learning French folk
songs and music from Candide while Jacky
learned an arrangement of “Carnival of
Venice.” Before school started they hoped to
take what they learned in camp and put it
into a performance at their church.

10am
While other kids were
at home, maybe watching
television, Evelyn
was learning French
folk songs and music
from Candide

2pm

3pm

4pm

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