Camp Kiya Adds Instructors

Camp Kiya is gearing up for its eighth year of music instruction in Tehachapi Mountain Park, July 24-28. The popular music camp includes local musicians as instructors along with other professionals. This year’s camp will include four new instructors, in songwriting, mountain dulcimer, vocal technique and fiddle improvisation.

Two of the new teachers are local musicians, Jaress and Lauren Loo. Jaress is the concert master of TPOPS. He also plays in the Tehachapi Symphony, and the band, Grit 50. He was heard on the musical track for the recent TCT production of Riverwind, produced by TPOPS members for the theatre. Jaress is a pro at improvising, and will be teaching improvisation techniques for fiddlers. His wife, Lauren, is a singer and vocal teacher, who, like her husband, loves jazz as well as classical music. Lauren sings with the Symphony Choir and, with Jaress, in a jazz ensemble that was heard at the TPOPS concert last 4th of July as part of the City’s Hot Dog Festival. At Camp Kiya, Lauren will be giving a workshop in how to improve your vocal skills.

Award-winning singer-songwriter Kerry Patrick Clark will be coming in from Ohio to give a concert in Fiddlers Crossing July 15. A week later he will return to Tehachapi to join the Camp Kiya staff, teaching songwriting, contemporary guitar techniques, and performance tips. Clark has had chart-topping singles in the Country, American and Folk genres. For three decades, his music has celebrated all that is good in us, with themes that resonate with humility, love, healing and giving across the lines that would try to divide us. He was a member of the folk group the New Christy Minstrels. His songs have been used in film and TV. His song, “Ground Zero,” was included on Wolf Blitzer’s CNN special commemorating the six-month milestone after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He has been called “a musical Norman Rockwell” for his honest, often humorous, depiction of everyday life. Clark presently lives in Ohio with his wife, Amy, and son, Robbie. Kerry is online at kerrypatrickclark.com.

Steve Eulberg is a master player and teacher of both mountain and hammered dulcimers, based in the Bay Area. Raised in Pemberville, Ohio, he was exposed to music at an early age – first piano, then trumpet. At one point he borrowed his mother’s ukulele and taught himself to play it, along with guitar and harmonica. He discovered the dulcimer family in college, and learned how to make his own instruments. An award-winning multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, Steve has sung and composed for religious communities, union halls, picket lines, inter-faith retreats, mountain-top young camps, as well as the more familiar venues of clubs, coffeehouses, charity benefits and concert halls. He holds a Masters degree in Music Education from Boston University. His mother was happy when he took up the dulcimer so she could get her ukulele back. Find Steve online at owlmountainmusic.com.

Registration is still open at Camp Kiya, and may be done online at campkiya.com. Further information about the camp may be obtained by calling Mountain Music at (661) 823-9994 and leaving your name, number and brief message.

Camp Kiya offers instruction in numerous instruments, as well as several dance forms and singing, from beginning to advanced levels. Children ages 5 through 12 will have their own program to explore different instruments, along with arts and crafts and the natural world of the mountains. Jon Hammond will be on hand to teach Kawaiisu crafts and history.

Instrumental instruction includes classical, folk and Celtic guitar; harmonica; Celtic, old-time and gypsy fiddle; cello; folk harp; mountain dulcimer; banjo; mandolin; bass; ukulele and penny whistle. Hula, Cape Breton step-dancing, belly dancing and contra dancing will also be offered, as will vocal technique and harmony singing. A special focus for the camp is improvisation, learning by ear and jamming.

Campers stay in cabins, their own RVs and tents, or if local and they prefer, go home each night. Meals are catered from our local restaurants or cooked on-site. Evening activities include contra dancing, campfires and concerts.

The full fee is $445 for adults, and $385 for students 12 and over. Children 6-11 are $325, and 5 and under are free. Anyone under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian to stay overnight.

Please check the website, http://www.campkiya.com, or call Mountain Music at (661) 823-9994 for more information. Registration forms may be downloaded from the website or obtained by emailing [email protected]