by Martina Adams
I have been involved in music festivals every summer for as long as I can remember. My mom was on the faculty of the Csehy Summer School of Music, and I started going with her to camp around the age of five. While our parents were teaching, I would hang out with the other faculty members’ children, but when I was old enough, I started attending as a camper for another 4 or 5 years. Csehy was the first place I ever played a horn: my mom told the horn teacher that I was interested, so she let me blow a few notes on her horn, and I was hooked.
Since Csehy, I have attended several other festivals, varying in size and type, including the Philadelphia International Music Festival (PIMF), Curtis Summerfest, Boston University Tanglewood Institute Horn Workshop, the All-City Philadelphia Orchestra’s Italy tour, Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival, and the Atlantic Brass Quintet Seminar.
In my third year as an undergraduate student, I decided I didn’t want to pay to attend a summer festival but wanted to see if I could actually make money while not in school. “Normal kids” seemed to always have summer jobs; could there also be a summer music job option? I had been thinking about my time at PIMF as a student. I enjoyed it then, and had some friends who had worked there, so I decided to reach out.
I’m currently completing my Master’s degree at the Curtis Institute of Music where I study with Jennifer Montone and Jeffrey Lang of the Philadelphia Orchestra. I received my Bachelor’s degree in Horn Performance at Temple University where I had also studied with Jeff Lang. I’m from Philadelphia, attended Philadelphia Orchestra concerts as a kid, and knew I wanted to go to Temple from a young age since my entire family studied music there (my two older sisters and both of my parents). I had also heard great things about Jeff as a teacher, and after having worked with him in a sectional with my youth orchestra, I knew I wanted to study with him at Temple. Students at PIMF receive a number of private lessons with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, so that Philadelphia Orchestra connection with the festival was the primary reason I first attended in 2014.
Every summer since 2018, I have been working at PIMF. I have auditioned only for free summer festivals since then. I was supposed to go to the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Austria in 2020, but like everything else that year, it didn’t happen, and it was postponed to this summer. But since my original audition for AIMS, I got married and my priorities have changed. Ultimately, I decided I didn’t want to be apart from my husband for so much of the summer—plus, I’ve grown to enjoy working during the summer; so I decided to return to PIMF again where my husband also works now.
I didn’t know what working at a festival would be like before I started. The only experience I had working at a summer camp was volunteering at the Vacation Bible School at my church for a few years, and those skills helped me understand how to work with kids. But the vital, behind-the-scenes planning was an unknown to me.
I started at PIMF five years ago as a student manager (counselor), and every summer I have been given more responsibilities. Now my role at the festival is Orchestra Co-Director, which involves running all of the logistics and behind-the-scenes aspects of the program. Before the festival, I work with our artistic director on the seating auditions. I communicate with all orchestra students and their families to answer any questions they have, with the conductors on the repertoire they choose, and then I send that music to students ahead of the festival. We have one orchestra in our June session and three in July, so planning ahead of time and communicating with staff is crucial to operating three orchestras, especially when it comes to setting up the rehearsal spaces and coordinating the grand finale concert in which all three orchestras perform.
I also get to do some teaching while at the festival. I run wind/brass sectionals as needed for the orchestras, and coach one or two chamber groups. Coaching is rewarding and helps me learn how to structure chamber rehearsals for my own groups. From the summers coaching groups of varying levels, ages, and instrumentation, I’ve learned a great deal from the students about how to efficiently run a rehearsal, about important musical aspects to consider, and especially about not taking the very basics of music-making for granted.
Another job I’ve taken on since last year is directing our Chamber Music Intensive program. Here, a few select chamber groups get to perform off-campus and practice what it’s like to run their own chamber music concert. The students have to provide spoken introductions to the pieces they perform, so we have a class dedicated to public speaking. We also provide the students with other classes throughout the session on issues such as performance anxiety, college auditions, and freelancing, in addition to hearing from professionals about running your own music business.
Maintaining “chops” while working at a festival
Keeping up my embouchure is definitely the hardest part of the festival for me. The first few days, while all the physical set-up happens and as students settle in, are the most hectic. But horn players know that taking even one day completely off means that we have ground to recover during the next couple of days.
It’s also difficult to maintain function if I don’t manage to get a good warm-up but then have to play in the morning orchestra rehearsals if we need a part covered. The longer I’ve been working at PIMF, the more I realize how important it is to find time each morning to get a good, undistracted warm-up.
Attending a music festival forces you to be smart about your time because you have such a strict schedule yet have to play most of the day. Working at a festival is the same, except no one is carving out “private practice” time for you—you need to figure that out for yourself while fulfilling your other responsibilities. A benefit I have built into my contract is that I will get a couple of lessons with a Philadelphia Orchestra member during the festival; this provides additional motivation to keep my chops ready while I’m working.
Working at a festival has made me prioritize my horn playing, as “absence does make the heart grow fonder.” Coordinating so many details behind-the-scenes means that I have less time with my horn. Most players know that the more time you take off to prioritize non-horn responsibilities, the slower the journey back will be; so I am forced to thoughtfully prioritize. I truly enjoy being around students each summer who take music seriously and work hard to improve. It is inspiring to me and helps me want to continue to get better, too.
