For Immediate Release
Contact: Michael Leavitt
(516) 829-8709
Band of Long Island Inaugurates a Student Intern Program
Shortly after its inception, The Band of Long Island (BOLI) began its student intern program, designed to provide a challenging performance environment for advanced students of high school and college age who have, in a sense, outgrown their local bands. These students, often the concertmasters or section leaders, in their own school groups, are often recommend for the Intern Program by their own band or orchestra teachers. In some cases these teachers, performing members of BOLI themselves, or have known about BOLI though its School Workshop Program, in which their schools may have participated. In other cases, well-known and respected private instrumental teachers have contacted BOLI to find out how their advanced students might participate.
Over the years the participants in the BOLI Student Intern Program have benefited in many important ways, among them:
1) They are able to be an integral part of a music organization which performs at a higher level
than they are able to participate in their own schools, or even in all-county or all-state festivals.
2) They are able to sit side-by-side with adult players, many with fully professional skills, and
absorb the playing wisdom of many years of performance experience, a rare opportunity to be mentored.
3) They are been challenged to "produce" at a level that is far beyond what they encounter in their
own school groups. At the same time, despite their ages
4) They have been able to share the seriousness, as well as the fun, of performing in a non-
competitive environment of life-long learning, which emphasizes a high standard of personal excellence,
without connecting it to grades or other standards imposed from an outside source.
5) They are expected to take the full responsibility for mastering their own part at the level that fits
into the band's own high level.
Some of the student interns have chosen to join the music profession, and have gone on to become the next generation of music majors and/or music teachers. Others have gone into other fields of endeavor but have joined the ranks of those who love to perform music and contribute to their own communities as adults, populating community bands and orchestras around the country. In other cases, well-known and respected private instrumental teachers have contacted BOLI to find out how their advanced students might particlipate.
Over the years the participants in the BOLI Student Intern Program have benefited in many important ways, among them:
1) They are able to be an integral part of a music organization which performs at a higher level
than they are able to participate in their own schools, or even in all-county or all-state festivals.
2) They are able to sit side-by-side with adult players, many with fully professional skills, and
absorb the playing wisdom of many years of performance experience, a rare opportunity to be mentored.
3) They are been challenged to "produce" at a level that is far beyond what they encounter in their
own school groups. At the same time, despite their ages
4) They have been able to share the seriousness, as well as the fun, of performing in a non-
competitive environment of life-long learning, which emphasizes a high standard of personal excellence,
without connecting it to grades or other standards imposed from an outside source.
5) They are expected to take the full responsibility for mastering their own part at the level that fits
into the band's own high level.
Some of the student interns have chosen to join the music profession, and have gone on to become the next generation of music majors and/or music teachers. Others have gone into other fields of endeavor but have joined the ranks of those who love to perform music and contribute to their own communities as adults, populating community bands and orchestras around the country. In other cases, well-known and respected private instrumental teachers have contacted BOLI to find out how their advanced students might particlipate.
Some Comments from Student Interns
My experience with the Band of Long Island started when I was in high school and it continues even now that I'm at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College." --- Karen Kupferberg
"I would never have been able to do what I did in my freshman year at Wesleyan without that experience." — Rebecca Gordon
"Although I'll still be part of BOLI's Student Intern Program for another year before I graduate, the experience helped me get into the Usdan Program, the best music camp on Long Island., and the University of Michigan" — Gabriel Pomerantz
"I would never have been able to do what I did in my freshman year at Wesleyan without that experience." — Rebecca Gordon
"Although I'll still be part of BOLI's Student Intern Program for another year before I graduate, the experience helped me get into the Usdan Program, the best music camp on Long Island., and the University of Michigan" — Gabriel Pomerantz
A Sampling of Students Interns
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* Now a full-fledged member of the Band
