Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp

     This passed twelve days, I was attending a widely known camp called Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp.  I went there to play my trombone and I was placed in the highest ensemble for trombone, the Symphony Orchestra.  Unfortunately, I skipped right over the apparently more fun Wind Ensemble which is the most advanced concert band.  Instead, I was placed in the trombone section of an orchestra where the parts involved little challenge and lots of rests.  Also, the wind section of the Symphony Orchestra also had to play with the Concert Orchestra which is a level lower than the Symphony Orchestra.  Members of the orchestra wind section also had to participate in an ensemble, and because of this we only got a morning break every other day unlike everyone else who got one every day.  Luckily, my experiences in the orchestras lead to an increase of experience with orchestral playing and I hope that my next orchestral experience with CYSO is better than the one I had at Blue Lake, but at least I have an idea of what to expect.

 It's raining and pouring, and unfortunately my rain poncho was still in my suitcase.  To make matters worse, I went out and played soccer for half an hour while it was pouring.  

 My proactive mom packed a clothesline in her care package, so we used it to hang our wet clothes in the cabin!  Unfortunately it had to be taken down because it's a "fire hazard".

 This is Tyler who was dancing at Blue Lake.  From him I learned that dancers complain ... a lot.

 This is Marshall, otherwise known as Vanilla Bear.  He makes a lot of faces.

 The song from "Space Odyssey".  It was our encore, and it was quite impressive!

Resting.

Resting.

Still resting.

More resting!

There are many ways for trombonists to relieve boredom while resting for eternity, and this is one of them.  Unfortunately the rehearsal supervisors started taking them away from people so I had to quickly put mine away.  I think it looks impressive considering it was my first one!

Sleeping is a good way of passing the time.

It's the trom-buddha!  

Floppy Unicorn.

It is an orchestra, not a band.  I wish it was a band.

Those two measures were my favorite part in the entire concert!

"Sinfonia Piccola" was my favorite piece we played.  It was composed by a fifteen year old who died a year after its completion and he never heard it performed.  It's sad because it was such a brilliant composition.

There weren't any trombone parts so we were given the cello parts.  Not even Trom-Buddha could play this!

This is Skyler.  We met in team sports where we were always trying to beat the monstrous German kids at soccer.  Sadly, we never won.

It's the concert master!

Here is the brass section for the orchestras.  "Brass, you always play to loud!" ~Mr. Endres

This is Matt, my cabin counselor.  I couldn't have asked for a better counselor while I was at camp.

"Please pass the red drank"

This is Maddy, who was one of my first friends at Blue Lake.

Skelton is saying goodbye to its favorite member, Tyler.

R.I.P. Charlie the mouse.  I'm glad you're underground because you were appalling to look at.

Josh was the one with the electric wheel chair that was always being rode by someone.  This shows the pure intensity of this chair!

Meet Chandler.

Meet Isiah who also shared a common goal of beating the German kids.  Isiah got way more into it than I did, and he was mad when we never won.  I think the Germans would've kicked our butts at any sport, but that's because they're German!

The trombones of Highlights Unit!

Goodbye Highlights!  I will not miss your dirty bathrooms and cabins.

It's Friday, the rooster (or chicken as some people called him)!

     Campers at Blue Lake experience a hectic schedule with constant activity and little rest.  The only recreation time is less than an hour, especially if your cabin is on the other side of camp and you have to carry a heavy trombone in a Stradivarius case around.  The cabins were hot, the showers always had lines, and the sand was everywhere!  The best thing, however, was the people.  I met some wonderful people at Blue Lake, and they are an entirely separate group of people than what I have here in Naperville.  We are all separated by hours of driving, but we all have Blue Lake as a common experience.  This experience was one that I will never be able to recreate even if I go back.  I won't say that I miss Blue Lake, but I will miss being able to see the people all in one place.  I will also say that I do not miss wearing those dirty polo shirts.