July 16-19, 2025
Interlochen, MI Description

From the writeup of the 2009 event (the first at Interlochen):

Nestled between Duck Lake and Green Lake in the northern part of Michigan's lower peninsula, the Interlochen Center for the Arts was founded in 1927 and is a world renowned organization boasting a 2500 student summer arts camp for kids ranging from ages 8 to 18, a 500 student visual and performing arts high school, two 24 hour listener supported public radio stations, an evolving series of adult arts programs and almost a century's worth of alumni worldwide.

The 2025 event featured instruction from world class performers and teachers Steve Adelson, and Kevin Keith.

Jump to a Topic

• Who Was There?
• Pre-Event
• Wednesday
• Thursday
• Friday
• Saturday
• Post-Event
• Wrapup
• Original Announcement

The faculty and students at this event were as follows:

Pre-Event

Between the 2023 event and this one, my own life was essentially tossed into blender and set for "puree". My lovely wife Rasa was diagnosed with cancer back in 2020. In the summer of 2024 she passed away. It seemed like throwing myself into music would have been an appropriate response. Instead I generally found it hard to really get into anything and had even wondered about the future of these events. Interestingly enough, Rasa was very specific that these events needed to continue and had even designated help and instructions for our Friday night social event. I couldn't really say no to that so on we went. As luck would have it, I started re-discovering my interest in music making and especially Stick playing in the months leading up to this event so that was good.

As far as teachers, I knew I wanted to have Steve Adelson back this year. I had a few ideas for a second teacher. After the last couple of events, I polled the people who'd attended to see who they'd like to see here. A few names came up but Kevin Keith seemed to come up the most often. Then after Rasa passed in 2024, Kevin got my number from Jim Meyer and reached out personally. I had only met Kevin once when I flew to LA to attend Emmett's funeral. But here he was calling to express his condolences and I was really touched by that. I hadn't decided on teachers yet but that call just felt like karma. So that was it.

Before I confirmed with Steve and Kevin, I had to confirm my dates with Gary at Interlochen. I was hoping to avoid the last week of camp like we'd done last summer. There's a lot happening on campus which is cool but I had neglected to think about the demand for hotel space. So this time around, I nabbed the week of July 14th which was a couple weeks shy of the end of camp. After that I reached out to my teachers and they were both on board so, with that, we had ourselves a workshop. I made all of my usual announcements and as the dates drew near, we had 15 signups.

Tuesday the 15th was travel day for my teachers. As luck would have it, Steve and Kevin were coming from opposite ends of the country but were arriving within about fifty minutes of each other in the afternoon. This would give us plenty of time to go back to my house for a bit, have dinner out, and get them to campus. Everything started on schedule. I parked and went in to meet Steve figuring the 50 minute wait would be better in an air conditioned terminal than sitting curbside in my car. Steve was right on time. Kevin ended up coming in a bit early. We chatted while waiting for Kevin's Stick and suitcase at baggage claim. Suddenly, the conveyor stopped, everyone from his flight was gone, no more bags, and Kevin still didn't have his. We wandered over to the United desk and a young woman insisted his bags were here and at least one was on the carousel. We went back and found his suitcase positioned behind a pillar in just such a way that we couldn't see it. One down. The Stick was still missing though so we went back. The young lady turned us over to a more experienced woman who got on the computer and ended up insisting that Kevin's Stick was here somewhere. She wandered into the back area to look for it. A short time later she emerged with Kevin's Stick. It was pretty quiet in the terminal by that time so she asked a bunch of questions and asked if Kevin would show her the instrument. So Kevin opened the case and a lively conversation ensued. The woman introduced herself as "Isabel" and said that in addition to working at the airport, she was also a percussionist originally from Columbia. Steve told her about the faculty concert on Wednesday at Interlochen and asked her if she wanted to play. She was very eager. They exchanged numbers and we were off and running. I commented to Steve that "I think she might actually show up" to which Steve replied "oh I'm certain of it". More on that later.

From there we went back to my house. We hung out with the dogs for a bit and chatted while waiting for Tim Longfellow to show up. Tim was going to be staying with me during the workshop and had planned on getting in early enough to join us for dinner. He showed right on time and the four of us set out to Broomstack Kitchen and Taphouse to grab dinner. As has become somewhat of a tradition, Claire Steger was already in the area and she met us for dinner as well this time traveling with her mom. We had a great time. After that we parted ways with Claire while Tim and I drove Steve and Kevin to campus and got them checked into the hotel. From there Tim and I returned to my place for the duration of the evening.

Wednesday

The schedule for Wednesday read as follows:

1:00-2:00
Registration

2:00-2:45
Welcome/Intros

3:00-5:00
Instrument Setup/Tech Talk

5:00-7:30
Dinner

7:30
Faculty Concert

Tim and I opted to drive separate on the first day. It's the only day where we don't start until after lunch and Tim wanted to run some errands. I got there a bit early (before noon) to load in my gear to make sure I was there when people started to show. The group was a little slower to arrive than usual but still everyone was there by the time registration officially opened.

Note to self. Control the length of the introductions. We had 45 minutes set aside to go around the room and have everyone introduce themselves. After that the plan was for two hours of "tech talk". The idea there is that with the average Stick player's tendency to talk about their "stuff", this provides a sanctioned two hour window to let everybody get it off their chest. The introductions ended up eating almost the rest of the day. Aside from just intros, we all went into a little bit of our background and it just ran really long. It was good though. Pretty informative and everybody enjoyed it. We did just a little gear talk but then broke for dinner.

Before I headed down to Stone for a meal, the people running sound showed and began to setup for the evening faculty concert. We chatted a bit and I mentioned the percussionist. Right around then she started messaging with Steve and then sent me pics of what she was bringing. It was pretty apparent that she was serious. She had what looked to be some pretty high end instruments. I set her up to get through security and told where to go and bring stuff in. It was one.

For today, our mealtime was right when Stone opened for dinner so we had a pretty sizeable lineup to wait in. I ended up chatting with a young lady who was a cabin counselor. We were trading some notes on camp life and the morning routine. Turns out things haven't really changed much since I was there in the late 70s. As we usually try to do, we grabbed meals and went down to the outdoor area outside Kresge to eat. From there it was downtime until showtime. I hustled Steve and Kevin back to our building for soundcheck. By the time we got back there, Isabel had shown up and had setup her rig on stage. Steve and Kevin both followed suit and moved through soundcheck pretty fast. It was apparent at that point that Isabel was quite good (no surprise really ... we just got that vibe).

The faculty concert started right around 7:30pm. These are always open to the public but never really publicized. We do always get a few extras coming in addition to our student body though and tonight was no different. Steve and Kevin both setup on stage and spent the evening trading off a couple of tunes each. They wrapped up the evening playing a couple of jams together. Isabel accomanied them on all of the tunes they played. There was a lot to take away from this one. First was Isabel. What a strange and great story to meet her at the airport simply because we couldn't find Kevin's bags. Twenty four hours later she was at Interlochen with us and she was very good. Second was the first Michigan workshop for Kevin. Of course we'd seen many of Kevin's videos but having him here performing live was a real treat. Lastly (but not least) was having yet another opportunity to listen to Steve perform live. A great night all the way around.

We wrapped up the evening a little after 9:00pm. There was no big clean out necessary as we'd all be back the next morning. So we moved out and locked up the building behind us. Tim and I both took our separate vehicles back to the house. I cracked open a beer and we sat up for just a bit chatting. Had an early day coming up though so we didn't stay up long.

Thursday

The schedule for Thursday read as follow:

9:00-10:00
Art Durkee - Morning Lecture

10:15-12:00
Session
Steve (Great Room)
Kevin (106/107)

12:00-2:00
Lunch/Practice Time

2:00-3:20
Session
Kevin (Great Room)
Steve (106/107)

3:30-4:50
Session
Steve (Great Room)
Kevin (106/107)

5:00-6:00
Ensemble Practice

6:00-7:30
Dinner

7:30
Open Mic, Mallory-Towsley Great Room

Tim and I were up early and out the door shortly after 8:00am this time driving together. Like last year, both Thursday and Friday were starting out with hour long sessions taught by Art Durkee. Art started to fill in a few years back when either Oz or myself were not available. Right from the start, the attending players seemed to enjoy Art's sessions to the point where he's essentially become a fixture. In 2023 he took on both morning sessions and was kind enough to do so again in 2025.

The idea behind Art's Thursday session was basically that improvisation is composition and that anybody and everybody can and should improvise. He went over a handful of pieces of his own making and had the whole group holding down grooves while going around and getting everyone to solo. The best part is that everybody did and seemed to both enjoy and relish in it (hence proving his point rather well).

We took a short break and then launched into the first full teaching session of the week. This year took an interesting turn that wouldn't fully reveal itself until Friday. We generally split our student body into a more experienced group and a less experienced group. While that has worked well in the past, the number of returning players is generally tipping the scales and our less experienced group is shrinking. Steve took that group in the Great Room while Kevin took the more experienced players in 106/107. Both groups had great morning sessions. Steve was quick to point out, however, that he managed to get his group up to speed pretty quickly and is seeing less and less distinction between the two. These are the sorts of things that certainly make you start re-thinking how you schedule and I'm nothing if not flexible. We did wrap up the morning sessions and also (after some discussion) decided that we'd finish Thursday as the schedule was written but would consider some changes for Friday. More on that tomorrow.

At noon we broke for lunch. The group headed over to the Stone Cafeteria. The weather took a very noticeable turn for the week. After opening on Wednesday with temps in the 80s, Thursday didn't break 70. The cooler weather was actually welcome. Especially during the walk to and from the cafeteria and sitting out in the sun. As usual we took our meals down outside Kresge Auditorium by the lake.

After lunch and a lengthy break, we started our afternoon which consisted of two full sessions. We started with Kevin in the Great Room with our less experienced group and Steve taking the rest of the crew in 106/107. After almost an hour and a half, the two teachers switched places again and we run another full hour and half session. A really good first day.

At 5:00pm we broke into two groups to work on ensemble pieces. We generally do this for an hour at the end of Thursday and Friday with the intention of performing the pieces for the group on Saturday. The groups not based on experience but more on who wants to do with who. For this exercise we try and to spread the skill level out and try to adjust so that the two groups are roughly the same size.

At 6:00pm we were back over to Stone for dinner. After dinner would be the traditional open mic. In 2021 because of COVID, we'd moved these events from a public space (The Karlin Inn) to the Great Room in Mallory-Towsley. It's very informal setting with everyone setting up on the floor just like they would for a class session. Then we just go around letting people who want to play something until we run out of time. After the COVID risks were a little less, I'd thrown the idea out to everyone about returning to a public place but the bulk of players I talked to seem to like the event in the Great Room so we're sticking to it (no pun intended).

We ended up having a really great evening. The number of players having a go at the open mic seems to go up a bit every year. This year we went around the room once and were almost out of time. A handful opted to take another go at it and I wrapped up with one of my own pieces putting us right up to 9:00pm. With the next day putting us right back in the same room, we left our stuff right where it sat and wrapped up our evening. Tim and I headed back to the house and turned in reasonably early once again.

Friday

The schedule for Friday went through some modifications on the fly. As I mentioned for yesterday, our groups have gotten rather lopsided and we opted to make some tweaks on the fly. The idea for Friday then would be to start the day with both Steve and Kevin working with the whole group in the Great Room. For the two afternoon sessions, the greater group would remain in the Great Room but then both Steven and Kevin would taking turns having small breakout sessions (2-3 players at a time) in 106/107. This would allow some more focused teaching stopping short of one on one lessons. With that then, the modified schedule for Friday look as follows:

9:00-10:00
Art Durkee - Morning Lecture

10:15-12:00
Session
Steve/Kevin with full group (Great Room)

12:00-2:00
Lunch/Practice Time

2:00-3:20
Session
Steve/Kevin with full group (Great Room)
Breakout Sessions (106/107)

3:30-4:50
Session
Steve/Kevin with full group (Great Room)
Breakout Sessions (106/107)

5:00-6:00
Ensemble Practice

6:00-7:30
Dinner

8:00
Social Gathering

Once again Tim and I were up and out early. Art opened up our day with another 9:00am session. This session essentially continued what he talked about on Thursday with the improvisation as composition talk. There was a lot of good back and forth and everybody seemed to have really put some thought into it.

At 10:00am, we started the morning session under our newly modified schedule. Both Steve and Kevin worked with the entire group in the Great Room. We started with some questions from the players and those questions seemed to give us some direction and send us downa a few very thoughtful avenues. This setup is nice too as it gives us a chance to get different approaches to a topic.

At 12:00 we broke for the group photo and then lunch. Generally we'll shoot our group shot on Saturday but Steve Sawyer was likely going to have to head out before then so we opted to move it up a day. We got our usual "official" shot but Steve Balogh also managed to get a nice drone shot of the group as well. With the photo done, we headed over to Stone for another lunch down by the lake.

After lunch we were getting ready for our afternoon session when we opted to take just a slight detour and get instruments into the hands of our interns. The day before, we had gotten into a somewhat lengthy discussion about the future of the Stick, getting younger people to play, etc. One of the action items to come of it was to let Benji get his hands on it as he is a young guitar player. Both he and Emily were handy so we spent a little time having them play with it. They seemed to get it pretty fast, and enjoyed making some noise. We'll see if either of them end up getting another crack at it some day.

From there we launched into our afternoon sessions. For both sessions, we kept the greater group in the Great Room. Steve and Kevin took turns working with the larger group while the other did breakout sessions. We set it up so that each of them would do maybe two or three sessions with three players each and then they'd switch. This provided for some more focused teaching sessions. We essentially did this for the duration of the afternoon with just one break in the middle. It seemed to go really well and will likely become part of our planning going forward.

At 5:00pm we did our ensemble practice for an hour and then broke for the night. Friday night was the traditional social gathering at my house. This was something that Rasa had always taken great pride in preparing for. I was a little unclear on how this might go or if I'd even continue it this year. As it turned out though, Rasa was fairly adament that this continue and left instructions with our friend Janice on how she had historically prepped for this and what we needed. Janice gladly took on the job and was a life saver. It just would have never worked without her.

So folks started to roll in. A good number had stopped in Lake Ann for some pizza on the way. They had planned on sitting down to eat there but the wait was such that they ended up getting take out and just bringing it over. We had a good night as usual. We started in the kitchen but eventually I fired up a bonfire out back and people scattered around the house and outside. Both Art and Tim ended up taking turns playing on my piano. At one point I'd gone outside and came back to find a sizeable group gathered around the piano singing. This is what happens when you put a bunch of musicians in a room full of instruments and alchohol. It was a great time actually. At one point someone (I think it was Ted) discovered the Theremin I had in a box. It's not really mine and the story of how I got it is for another day. But needless to say, we pulled it out and people started playing with it. All good clean fun except I began to realize at one point that the youngest of my dogs was kind of freaking out. He'd managed to make his way out back and as the evening wound down, he refused to come back in unless I took him around and up the stairs bypassing the basement. He just wanted nothing to do with the noises apparently.

Saturday

The schedule for Saturday read as follows:

10:00-12:00
Discussion, Q&A session

12:00-2:00
Lunch/Practice Time

2:00-4:00
Master Class/Ensembles

4:00-4:30
Wrapup

Saturday started with the full group in the Great Room having a discussion. Mostly it was about things gone right, things gone wrong, and potential improvements. For the most part, everyone was pleased with how the week went. The schedule changes ended up being pretty popular. We talked a lot about mixing the groups up more and even how Art and/or myself could pull beginners aside for intro stuff. At that point I was ganged up on just a little bit asking why I don't do much teaching at these. It's not the first time this has come up actually. I've had this same discussion with Jim Meyer. Honestly, this might be just the onus I need to start considering it. Maybe Art and I could both spend some additional time teaching giving our primary teachers more time for the breakout sessions. Maybe. I'm not sure. But I will take all this into consideration in prep/scheduling for 2027.

At noon we broke for our last lunch by the lake. This was another two hour lunch and practice time slot. At 2:00pm, we re-convened and spent the rest of the day with master classes and ensembles. There were only a few people that played pieces for the master class but it was good. As anyone who has studied music in a more formal setting will attest, these classes are beneficial for everyone present. Not just the performer. At the end, we broke into our groups and did our ensemble pieces. Both groups played really well and seemed to have a good time. From there, we wrapped up. We packed up and said our goodbyes until next time.

Post-Event

Both Steve and Kevin were flying out of TVC the next day. After our Saturday session wrapped up, Tim and I met up with Steve and Kevin and we had dinner at the Hofbrau. After dinner we said our goodbyes and Tim and I went back to the house. On Sunday morning, Tim set out for home and that was pretty much it. Another event in the books.

Wrapup

This was another great event for us. To a degree we have gotten to the point where these events almost plan and run themselves. There are always some surprises and tweaks along the way though and this year was no different. We made schedule changes on the fly. We discussed a few different approaches going forward in order to ebb and flow with our student body. All good stuff and we came out with some solid ideas on how to proceed in future events. The whole things was somewhat bittersweet for me personally. Rasa was always part of these of these workshops even though she was never there in person. As a seasoned hand therapist and a member of her state board, she had a lot of experience in planning medical conferences and was always quick with advice for me. She was also a big fan of the Friday night get together and always did a lot to prepare for it. I'd wondered if would even enjoy the whole event as much without her here. But all that advice was still with me and she'd made arrangements to make sure the Friday night event still worked. All in all we made it work and I did enjoy it in spite of her absence.

My teachers are always my first thanks. Steve has decades of experience under his belt teaching both Stick and guitar. He brings so much to the table and is really good at getting players out of their comfort zones and doing things they didn't realize they could do. Kevin made his first visit to Interlochen this year. I've enjoyed his videos for quite some time. He's not only a player but also a singer and we don't get that in the Stick world nearly as often as we should. His performances are all pro and polished. His whole approach is really interesting too and he brought some different aspects. Having him here this year ended up being a very popular choice. Art continues to bring fresh teachings to these events. He always goes off into some territories our other teachers don't and it always works. He has essentially become a fixture here.

A huge thanks to the Interlochen College of Creative Arts, director Gary Gatzke, and this years interns Benji and Emily. They always work really hard to keep the ship afloat and we all appreciate it. This place has meant a lot to me for most of my life and I'm grateful to the ICCA that they keep having us back. It's such a great place to hold events like this and everybody, both students and teachers, always leave jazzed not just by the event but by the surroundings as well.

Special thanks also to Isabel at TVC who not only helped find Kevin's bags, but was inquisitive enough to ask about what we were doing and then coming to Interlochen to lend her percussion expertice to our faculty concert.

I will always put out a big thanks to Rasa. She's been integral ever since my first Ann Arbor event back in 2000. She made sure the event would go as planned this year and I'm sure she was looking out for us the whole time. I also want to thank our friend Janice Derian for taking on the task of making our Friday event go on as planned without a hitch.

My biggest thanks will always go out to our participants. You folks just continue to amaze and inspire me. The level of musicianship is always high and it's been my experience that you all bring as much as you take away. It's a real honor to provide such a cool space where we can all get together and learn.

To the people we've lost who are the most responsible for these events. To Emmett Chapman who had a vision and invented this instrument that we all play. You gave birth to a revolution. A whole new way of playing strings. Without you we don't exist as a group. To my friend and the godfather of Stick pedagogy Greg Howard. You taught me everything I know about organizing and running events like this one and just about everything I know about playing the Stick. There will always be a big hole here where you used to sit. Hopefully the rest of us do a reasonable job of carrying on the legacy left by both of you.

As usual, the end of one of these events leaves me looking forward to the next one. Hopefully I'll see you all in 2027.