History

CAMP HISTORY

The first Mike Block String Camp was in Summer 2010, led by a small faculty that included Darol Anger, Hanneke Cassel, Brittany Haas, Victor Lin and Lauren Rioux. Their strong reputations helped jumpstart MBSC with surprisingly large enrollment for a brand new camp, which laid the foundations for continued growth in future years. In order to serve MBSC’s advanced students as their skills and needs evolved, we created new programs like The Apprentice Track (begun 2012) and the Florida Band Incubator (F.B.I.) for pre-formed groups (begun 2015).

Inspired by the MBSC experience, people from other parts of the country invited Mike to organize satellite camps in their cities. These partnerships resulted in the creation of MBSC Michigan at Saline High School (2012-2013), MBSC Maine at Mackworth Island (2013) and the Goodnow Ranch Camp in Bentonville, AR (2011-2013). Mike also founded the Brooklyn Pop String Camp at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, which ran from 2013-2017. From 2017-2020, Mike even directed a version of the MBSC Collaborative Track for orchestral students in Guangzhou, China as part of the festival Youth Music Culture Guangdong. 

In a testament to this regular expansion and commitment to transformative musical experiences, Yo-Yo Ma invited Mike to create Silkroad’s Global Musician Workshop, begun in 2015 at Depauw University (Greencastle, IN). Now hosted at the New England Conservatory of Music (Boston, MA), GMW expands on the underlying values of MBSC to feature instruments and cultures from across the entire world, using a structure modeled on the MBSC Apprentice Track. In 2017, GMW even ran its own satellite camp for Fellows at the Tanglewood Music Center, and in 2024 GMW expanded to a second location in Hangzhou, China a the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music. Also in 2024, Mike founded a Creative Music Retreat, focusing on composition, hosted at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater.

Come join us for a transformative week at camp! :)

VERO BEACH FACILITY HISTORY:

2010/2011: Storm Grove Middle School, hosted by Richard Ballinger

2012/2013: Freshman Learning Center at VBHS, hosted by Matt Stott

2014-2019: First Presbyterian Church of Vero Beach, hosted by Jacob Craig

2020-2021: ONLINE via Zoom (due to COVID-19 Pandemic)

2022-present: First Presbyterian Church of Vero Beach, hosted by Jacob Craig

“WHY VERO BEACH?” – THE PRE-HISTORY

When Mike Block met a student cellist at a music camp in Summer 2008, neither could predict that meeting would lead to the creation of a new camp community in her hometown of Vero Beach, FL, thanks to the instigation of the student’s mother, Kathryn Johnston. After hearing about her daughter’s positive experience studying with Mike, Kathryn recommended to the Vero Beach Orchestra Boosters that they invite Mike for a solo concert and a series of guest workshops at the Vero Beach public schools. During his first visit to Vero Beach in May 2009, Mike and the students made such a meaningful connection that Kathryn organized a group of VBHS Orchestra students to travel across the country to study with Mike that summer.

When Kathryn raised the idea of starting a camp in Vero Beach to include more local kids who might otherwise be unable to travel, Mike was excited for the opportunity; having grown up in land-locked Kansas, he wasn’t going to miss the chance to return to beautiful Vero Beach and hang out by the ocean. Within a week of Mike’s agreement to lead a string camp in Vero Beach, Kathryn had already printed flyers and was locally promoting MBSC.

At this point, Mike realized he better start hiring some faculty to help make it happen, and began developing a concept and a set of values that could serve musicians from a range of backgrounds and levels. From the very beginning, MBSC’s goal was to create transformative musical experiences by exploring creativity and group collaboration in small bands, as well as skill development and learning repertoire in multiple styles, in preparation for public performances.

HISTORICAL FACULTY LIST:

Alex Hargreaves

Arun Ramamurthy

Brittany Haas

Casey Driessen

Clay Ross

Colin Cotter

Courtney Hartman

Curtis Stewart

Darol Anger


Emy Phelps


Eric Wright


Greg Liszt

Hanneke Cassel

Jacob Craig

Jefferson Hamer

Jenna Moynihan

Jeremy Kittel


Joe Craven


Joe K. Walsh


Joe Troop


Kai Welch


Kathleen Parks

Kimber Ludiker

Lauren Rioux

Lily Henley


Matt Smith


Mazz Swift

Melissa Brun

Michael Thurber

Mike Block


Natalie Haas

Natalie MacMaster

Phoebe Hunt

Rushad Eggleston

Taylor Morris


Trina Basu


Victor Lin


Zachary Brown

Zach Brock

Guest TEACHERS:

Rachel Barton Pine

Loren Weisman

Tessa Lark

Daniel pearl memorial violin

In 2019, an anonymous donor commissioned the violin maker Jonathan Cooper to build a new instrument and gift it to MBSC, in honor of the slain journalist Daniel Pearl, who was also a passionate amateur fiddler. The purpose of this instrument, the MBSC Daniel Pearl Memorial Violin, is to support and encourage promising young musicians by providing an exceptional quality instrument for them to play on and develop their musicianship. Our tradition is to pass the violin on to another deserving member of the MBSC family each year.

RECIPIENTS:

YEARLY CAMP PHOTOS