MIDDLEBURY — The sweet sounds of music will be coming from the Middlebury Community House next week as the stately, 198-year-old building near the top of Main Street hosts a one-week summer camp — the first offering of the new Middlebury Community Music Center.
Camp Adagio at MCMC for kids 7-11 will be led by accomplished pianist Sadie Brightman, violinist Emily Sunderman and composer Jorge Martin. Local jazz musician Justin Perdue will offer workshops in improvisation. The camp will also include yoga, swimming, games and instrument making.
The Middlebury Community Music Center, a new nonprofit that will provide music instruction in the Middlebury Community House, will formally launch its first year of programming next month. Private lessons begin Sept. 8, and group classes begin Sept. 15.
“We are thrilled to be joining the community this fall,” said Brightman, the music center founder and director.
MCMC is dedicated to providing holistic music education for community members of all ages through excellence in musical instruction, community collaboration and comprehensive programming in the musical arts.
The center announced a founding faculty of 18 instructors that Brightman described as a talented and dedicated team of professional musicians who are eager to share their love of music with students. MCMC plans to offer private lessons in 16 instruments, including piano, guitar, violin, voice, clarinet, flute, banjo and more. Group classes for budding musicians of all ages, from infants through senior citizens, will include among others, Music Together, Group Piano, Chamber Music, and Music Enrichment Classes for Kids.
“We are also thrilled to offer Allegro Choruses at MCMC, continuing the program’s legacy in our beautiful location,” Brightman said.
She said the center looks forward to hearing about the musical goals and dreams of potential students so the organization can shape programming that will inspire and reflect the community.
Trustees of the Middlebury Community House last year said they were eating into the institution’s endowment to pay for upkeep of the stately home that was given to the town in 1938 by Jessica Swift and her brother, Philip Battell Stewart. So they sought proposals from individuals who wanted to rent, or even purchase, the building at 6 Main St., one of the best examples of post-colonial, Federal-style architecture left in town. The music center is the first to come to fruition.
Brightman said the MCMC plans monthly performance salons and other performance opportunities to give musicians a chance to give back to the community, and to pursue their own artistic growth. More information on the school’s offerings is online at www.mcmcvt.org.
“MCMC is a community immersed in music,” Brightman said. “We can’t wait to hear all the music making to come this year.”