The final music camp of the season - September 4, Marmelade, Haiti

After a hectic but very fulfilling week with the Chamber Music/Chamber Orchestra Institute in Cap Haitian I piled into a van with the amazing American volunteer teacher, David Einhorn, and 11 other musicians for the long, dusty and VERY rough road to the small mountain village of Marmelade. Four hours later, we had arrived and started to get ourselves organized for the week long Marmelade Music School Summer Camp. 

The Marmelade Music School was begun by former Haitian president, René Préval, a strong supporter of music education, and in 2017, became one of three El Sistema type programs in Haiti under the aegis of the Institute National de Musique d’Haiti. The program draws students from a large area and has become a focal point for the entire community.

The next morning students were late in arriving because the bus had broken down. For this program, if they can’t take the bus, kids spend up to an hour on the colorful TapTaps to get to the center where the camp is held. It took several days but, eventually the bus was repaired and we were able to get back onto schedule.

This camp had about 250 students and, of these, about 100 beginners. These youngsters are SO eager and SO cute!

We had a choir, a jazz band, two concert bands, two string orchestras and a full orchestra. The repertoire was challenging but the participants all rose to the occasion and the final concert was a great success.

David and I, along with a number of the Haitian teaching staff were on the road by 4:30am, headed either to Port-au-Prince or, in our case, to Cap Haitian where David caught a morning flight to Florida and, after a few days, I did the same.

My two months in Haiti the summer had come to an end in a flash! I plan to return in February to hear auditions for the 2023 Haitian Orchestra Institute - we can’t wait!