Along the road that runs beside the Interlochen campus, banners hang from posts placed about 100 metres apart, each one bearing the slogan ‘Art Lives Here.’ Every time we pass them, Patty says: ‘Who’s Art? And where does he live?’ Of course, it doesn’t really refer to someone called Arthur – unless that person were Arturo Toscanini, perhaps. Because even though Interlochen has a great creative writing program and fine art program, and stunning purpose-made buildings to match, music is still King here.
As I go out for my morning walk (briskly, 3 pound weight in each hand, Olympic-style weird-wiggle-walk, approximately 4-5 mph) I see the high-school kids emerging from the cabins in the woods and sloping off to their summer camp music programs. When I pass some of the campus buildings, I can hear even at 8 am the sound of a young pianist practising two-handed scales at lightning speed, someone in the percussion building banging a glockenspiel, a clear soprano voice singing a heart-stopping chromatic scale.
In the woods around the lake are dozens of practice cabins, some plain wooden ones with just a chair and a music stand inside, some built from stone with mottos over the doorways and grand pianos inside:
It's a short walk from anywhere on the campus to Green Lake:
And there's nothing like standing on the edge of the water each evening and looking out at the sunset:
I like cities -- a lot. But trees and water can be nice sometimes, too.
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