The hills around the Rocky Ridge Music Center in Estes Park are alive with the sounds of music – chamber, jazz, guitar, piano, and even maharachi.
For 83 years, the Rocky Ridge’s Summer Camp has provided a setting for musicians of all levels and from ages 10 to 88 to gather, be coached by world-class faculty, nurture their talents, and connect in a setting tucked into the forest at the foot of Longs Peak just off the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway.
Founded in 1942 by pianist Beth Miller Harrod, Rocky Ridge operates in Estes Park from June to August. The program also offers lessons, classes, and concerts in Boulder and Denver throughout the year.
This summer, 225 musicians will participate, arriving for one-week, two-week, and month-long residencies with celebrated instructors who teach at universities and perform with philharmonics, symphonies, and orchestras worldwide.
While many of the students involved in Rocky Ridge hope to pursue a career in performance or academic music, in an interview with the Estes Valley Voice, Assistant Director Evan Jay Williams highlighted a new program this summer, “The Art of the Guitar,” a class for amateur adults scheduled for Aug. 9 to 13.
The main lodge and surrounding cabins of the historical site were built in the early 1900s by Charles Edwin Hewes, one of the area’s early pioneers and homesteaders. The rustic buildings, originally part of the Hewes-Kirkwood Inn, sit on 17 acres surrounded by forest between the Longs Peak and Twin Sisters Ranges.
Rocky Ridge Music holds student and faculty recitals in the Hewes-Kirkwood Lodge, at the Presbyterian Church of the Rockies in Estes Park, and at the Old Gallery in Allenspark. The calendar of recitals can be found online, and interested community members can register to receive the bi-weekly newsletter. The next Rocky Ridge Music recital will be Wednesday, June 25 at 3:30 at the Old Gallery in Allenspark.
Among the numerous institutes and concerts this summer, Rocky Ridge will host Nuestras Raíces: Musíca Mariachi in partnership with the Latino Cultural Arts Center for beginner and intermediate-level musicians interested in mariachi and the musical cultures of the Americas. Click here to RSVP for the recital and a barbecue dinner on July 26.
Merit and need-based scholarships provide an opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students to participate in the program, which can cost as much as $4,900 for the month-long college intensive for solo and chamber musicians.