To most kids of the right age, summer camp is the best, especially when it’s devoted to a specific interest they is interested in. It’s an opportunity to take a deep dive into a favorite activity alongside other passionate young folks of a similar age. 

Parents in northeast Indiana have lots of options for great summer camp experiences, and this year a new option is coming.

The wildly popular local newgrass collective Debutants will be offering a bluegrass-themed weeklong experience called Hoot Camp from July 28-Aug. 1. Hosted on the Purdue University Fort Wayne campus as part of their Community Arts Academy, Hoot Camp has opened registration for those in grades 4-12.

Something new

I talked to Debutants cellist Ellen Coplin, who is director of the camp alongside her husband, Debutants fiddle player Sean Hoffman, about this exciting new opportunity for Fort Wayne area youth.

One of the first questions on my mind was the origin of the phrase “Hoot Camp.”

“Debutants have always had the owl in their band logo,” Coplin said. “It’s also sort of turning the phrase ‘Boot Camp’ on its end with the idea of a Hootenany.”

Coplin and Hoffman actually hosted a class at PFW this winter as part of their duo folk group Bobcat Opossum. However, this will be a first for the entire band that includes Lynn Nicholson, Jon Swain, Michael Earl Newsome, Lauren Blair, and Colin Taylor. 

“This kind of a camp is new to Debutants, but a lot of us have done similar projects in the past,” Coplin said. “This is the first time we’ve come together to do this sort of thing in Fort Wayne. Separately, a lot of us have done very similar things with different organizations.

“We’ve worked with Red Wing Academy, attached to the Red Wing Roots Festival in Virginia. It’s a similar project with a week-long camp where students play with a band and then perform at the end of the week with the band.

“Having done that for five-plus years now gave us the ideas we wanted to implement with Debutants, taking those ideas and making it more based around the skills of Debutants and the needs of the Fort Wayne area.”

Teaching experience

Along with being touring musicians, some of the band members are also music educators.

“That’s what’s unique about us,” Coplin said. “We’re really experienced musicians who have done touring and recording and all that. But there are a lot of educators in the band. 

“It’s really cool to have those two features in the band. We have a great mix of both: The education side and the touring musician side.”

That education background helps Coplin and Debutants be ready for campers of all skill levels.

“Honestly, we are ready for anything,” she said. “Because the whole band will be on hand for the whole week as teachers, that gives us a lot of experienced staff. We’re going to open it up to students who have musical experience already to kids who have a year or less and have just started.”

On top of teaching experience, Debutants will have “tools” on hand.

“We also have instruments available,” Coplin said. “If a student has been playing guitar but has never tried a banjo, we’ll have some instruments available. They can sign up at registration and request a banjo, and we’ll partner up with them to find instrument they might try.

“If they don’t have an instrument at all, they just have to let us know in advance so we have everything ready. A lot of folks have been really generous about offering to donate instruments for the week. We’ve gotten a lot of community support for this project in a lot of cool ways.”

The approach for Hoot Camp is to get kids thinking about music with ear training and improvisation practice. 

“We will use sheet music as a reference when needed, but we’ve done workshops where we teach entirely by ear and then have the printed sheet music as a resource for the student to take home with them,” Coplin said.

“There are a lot of really excellent programs in Fort Wayne with a strong focus on reading music. We wanted to strengthen the other side of that: the aural skills, improvisation, and the freedom to play off the page.

“Those two things really go hand-in-hand. We will have some resources available to tie it in with music reading, because we believe both things are really important.”

Continuing education

The camp will take place entirely at PFW with small group sessions and larger ensembles using the rehearsal spaces in the Music Center. 

The week will end with all the students onstage with Debutants for a celebratory concert at the magnificent Auer Performance Hall in collaboration with PBS-39’s Summit City Music Series.

This is the first year of the camp, but organizers don’t want it to be limited to just the days the students are on-campus.

“We are really trying to build a program that lasts longer than just a week,” Coplin said. “So that students get an intensive hands-on week-long camp experience, but then the relationship you build with the teachers and the band and the community of musicians is something we’re really trying to keep the kids tied into.

“If you come to Hoot Camp, you’re building relationships with Debutants as a band, then you have these band members as mentors and resources that you can come back to after the camp is over. 

“We’re going to try to get the campers involved in local jam sessions and other opportunities in the area. More than just a one-and-done, once-a-year camp, we want this to be a process and build connections throughout the year.”

Debutants are committed to giving as many students as possible the camp experience.

“The camp has a price that accompanies it, but we really want to open it up to whoever is interested in coming,” Coplin said. “So, if a parent or a student is interested in the camp but feels like it’s outside of their budget for the summer, we are very excited to talk to people and set up scholarships or financial assistance to get anybody who’s interested there.

“Don’t let the ($275) price of Hoot Camp scare you away. As a student, I had a lot of siblings, and the cost for a music camp would not have been something my parents had a budget for. Different people really stepped in to help me in my musical path when I was 13 or 14. 

“That’s something I’m really interested in paying forward to this next generation. There are so many really talented students who might not have the means but really have the heart to do it.”