Since 1987, a 35 acre farm on South Bay has offered a summer camp for classical musicians. Music at Port Milford welcomes string and piano players from 10 to 19. Students must audition for a spot.

Over a stay of one or two weeks, they work with professional faculty and ensembles, building up to public performances both on site, and at pop-ups in Picton.

This year I visited the camp on the Friday of the junior camp’s week. I spoke with Managing Director and founder of the program, Meg Hill, and her daughter, Assistant Director Charlotte Hill, while a dozen or so young musicians (age 10-13) practiced in ensembles or on their own

This is the first year since 1996 that they’ve run the junior camp. For some of these kids it’s their first time away from home. “There was one shy student whose teacher is actually here teaching,” commented Charlotte, “and she said, ‘my goal for coming to camp was to make one friend, so I made one friend. And then I made four friends, and now I have hundreds of friends!’ — but actually there’s a total of 25 people here!”

On Saturday they offered a culminating porch concert.

The following week, the senior camp would begin, working toward Saturday performances on Picton Main Street, as well as a concert at the farm. Meanwhile their faculty mentors were preparing for the first of three concerts at St. Mary Magdalene in Picton.

A preview to Saturday’s opening concert was held at Broken Stone Winery last week. The faculty string quartet and pianist Angela Park performed outdoors, accompanied by a strong wind. They covered a lot of ground, from Mozart’s youthful and sprightly string quartet of 1773 to an adaptation of a pop song made famous by Bridgerton. 

This impressive ensemble hails from several corners of North America. “We teach all day, and then while the students are making s’mores or playing games, we get to work!” said violist Eric Wong. “It’s a different kind of playing.” The full concert concluded with Ernest Bloch’s dramatic and strident modern Piano Quintet, and featured dancers from the Quinte Ballet School.

This year’s concert series is entitled “Art and Healing.” “It’s a complete art to put together a program,” notes Meg, “I’m really looking forward to it: lots of variety. We like to represent composers of different time periods, ethnicities and religions. Canadian composers, female composers and people of colour. Whatever we can do to make sure that we have representation, without forgetting our Brahms and our Mozart. It is a strange recipe!”

There are two more concerts at St. Mary Magdalene, on 26 July and 2 August. Student performances at Port Milford continue on Sunday 27 July and at Mary Magdalene Sunday 3 August.  

Details available at musicatportmilford.org