How clinics inspire students

Every one of our student performance tours is different – as they should be, because every group we work with has a  different dynamic, unique needs and specific goals for their trip.  One of the most requested features on our itineraries is a clinic or master class. We’ve found that these types of experiences are so much more than educational and today we’ll share why – actually, we’ll have some of our clients and their students do the sharing!

Expert instruction

Professional clinicians. Exciting “classrooms.” Once-in-a-lifetime access to musical expertise. Clinics provide unparalleled opportunities for students to study under orchestra, choral and musical theater experts. From the New York Philharmonic to Broadway to the Walt Disney World^® Resort, we work with master clinicians in destinations across the country.

(Clinics) expose the students to things they haven’t had a chance to experience before. We’ve got kids who are interested in singing. We’ve got kids who are in orchestra and band and we just had a clinic with Michael Eidelson from the New York Philharmonic. We’ve got kids who are involved in Broadway style musicals back home so we saw musicals on Broadway, and it wowed them to see it done at the highest level possible. — Joe Hartson, Director

The best part was the amount of detail the clinicians could go into – in our regular band/orchestra class we only have eighty-five minutes every other day. These people really know what they’re talking about so it’s great to get those extra levels of depth from them. — Devon, Student

The more experience you have, the more you can understand different points of view – and the more you can think about when you’re playing. When we were in our Broadway clinic, the person who was working with us was comparing us to Glinda and Elphaba from Wicked arriving in the Emerald City. We’re from a small town and arrived in Times Square and there’s a feeling like awe that you experience. So now I’ve experienced that and then I can go and apply it to whatever I’m singing or playing. And that’s really cool! – Nora, Student

Horizons, expanded

Clinics offer students the opportunity to dive deeper into the performance world and provide a look into the possibility of music as a career. It’s one thing to enjoy an evening at the symphony or experience a Broadway musical, it’s quite another to meet those performers and learn about their professional techniques and career experiences.

Having the opportunity to work with someone who conducts the New York Philharmonic is just an incredible experience for high schoolers. I don’t think that some of them will recognize how incredible it is for a few years and then they’ll look back at it and they’ll realize wow what an amazing experience. We were so fortunate to be a part of that. It was amazing to see the kids growing instantly. And it was so fun to see how much more they were capable of than I even thought in just a couple of seconds. — Nate Mendl, Director

Working with a Broadway clinician was definitely different than working with the choral clinician. They taught us a lot of facial expressions and more of that theater tone of singing than the long vowels of choral music. We got to sing a song from Wicked, which is one of my favorite musicals, so that was so much fun and I got to do a solo! – Lili, Student

We started with a Broadway pit clinician and it was really interesting to see what he focused on. Then we worked with the staff director of the Philharmonic. I noticed they have different styles and thought that was really interesting and cool to experience. – Sam, Student

Team building

Students bring home new skills, techniques and hands-on experience but they also bring home camaraderie. Sharing the experience of a clinic and learning together creates stronger bonds and a greater sense of community for their performance groups.

I think being able to do all of this together brings us closer together because we’re experiencing it together – we’re sharing stories, we’re exchanging glances over certain things and it’s a really nice bonding experience to do this trip together because we get to know each other a little bit better than we did before. – Kierstyn, Student

Clinics are just one way our travel experiences create lasting impressions and memories for student performers. If you’d like to know more about the clinics and master classes available on our performance tours, we’d love to share those opportunities with you. Reach out for more information today!