Twenty-five years of Summer String Academy
Summer String Academy Director Mimi Zweig (left) works with student Brian Allen.
Led by Jacobs Professor Mimi Zweig, the Summer String Academy is geared toward serious students ages 12 to18 who wish to study violin, viola or cello in an intensive environment. The four-week curriculum began June 20 and runs through July 18 and includes private lessons, chamber music, master classes, performance opportunities and attendance at the concerts of IU’s 2009 Summer Music Festival.
“It’s very intensive,” said Zweig. “The whole purpose of students being here is that they can get a sense of what it takes to pull themselves up to the next level—hopefully, in a very inspiring way and because they're surrounded by young people who are striving for the same goals.”
This year, more than 80 students are enrolled for the academy; they come from throughout the United States, Canada, China, Taiwan, Sweden and France. Past years have included students from Tunisia, Spain, Switzerland, Japan and Korea.
Summer String Academy faculty includes Rebecca Henry, currently at Peabody Music School, who was an initial faculty member; violinist Erin Aldridge, an alumna from the first-ever summer string academy and associate professor of violin and director of orchestras at University of Wisconsin-Superior; internationally known violinist Sarah Kapustin, who was a student in one of the first IU Summer String Academies; co-directors of the String Academy, cellist Susan Moses and IU Jacobs Associate Professor Brenda Brenner, and Chih-Yi Chen, a Jacobs lecturer in piano. Additional faculty members travel from the Liszt Conservatory (Csaba Onczay) and University of Wyoming (Sherry Sinift and James Przygocki).
The nearly dozen master classes offered this summer will be taught by renowned musicians, including Jacobs professors Atar Arad, Henryk Kowalski, Mauricio Fuks, Alan DeVeritch, Mark Kaplan and newly appointed Jacobs Professor of Violin Jorja Fleezanis.
“Graduates of the String Academy end up performing throughout the world as soloists, orchestra members and concertmasters,” said Zweig. "As I go about teaching in different places across the country and around the world, I meet people who will say, ‘I was at the String Academy 20 years ago.’ They talk about how much it meant to them to be here, how it was a life-altering experience to be in the intensive IU environment and to hear their peers playing at such a high level. For many, they say the academy was the inspiration that pushed them to want to be a professional musician.”
