Recently in Performing Arts Boarding Schools Category

Dr. Doug Ashcraft, Dean of the Arts at Idyllwild Arts Academy, closes the opening post of his new blog with "Let's just see what happens."

Titled Art In 3D "(Dean Dr. Doug, 3D...get it?..)", Dr. Ashcraft writes "in order to provide information, commentary, thoughts, ideas and questions for our parents, prospective students and interested observers."

Writing from Idyllwild, Dr. Ashcraft's blog should be able to provide some interesting insights into the ways that driven young artists learn and work through the early stages of the respective crafts- in hopes of becoming professionals in the the arts as adults.

His second post (Actors Wear Black) looks at the challenge to find places for auditioning musicians, dancers and actors in the face of limited seats/roles and how the potential players fit within the works they will perform.

"Back to judgment. It's really all about judgment. An audition that is. What do these young artists have? What do they need? How can we use it? How can we stretch it? How does this combination of talents fit together best, in order to produce a Beethoven Symphony, a series of plays that Howard won't let me announce yet, or a balanced dance concert that won't require every dancer to rehearse until 9:30 every day?"

Dr. Ashcraft's voice offers the opportunity to get a glimpse inside a driven students body dedicated to the strenuous and professional preparation of their art.

Red Bennett's first opera "What They Seem" premiered at the Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco this past weekend. At 18, Bennett is an accomplished and seasoned musician whose talents already move through and across music genres. Especially interesting was his move to Interlochen Arts Academy. Red attended Interlochen's summer session in 2007 and stayed for the 2007-2008 school year program (his senior year).

We recently wrote about the three pre-professional arts boarding schools; Red is a quite an example of the talents and seriousness of their students. As Red told the San Francisco Chronicle, "Just as long as I'm writing and working with music," he said. "It's definitely a rest-of-my-life kind of thing."

Visit the Chronicle's site to listen to an audio snippet of "What They Seem."

We recently published an article highlighting the three performing arts boarding schools in the country. While our piece provides a general picture of each school- Walnut Hill School, Interlochen Arts Academy, and Idyllwild Art Academy- and elucidates the idea of pre-professional arts study at the secondary level, we just found an article that focuses specifically on Idyllwild's movie making program.

Movie Maker interviewed Bradley Battersby, chair of Idyllwild's Moving Pictures Department about how this pre-professional program works and what focused artistic study means for, and to, the department's students. The article certainly merits a read if you're interested in secondary school arts programs- especially tightly focused ones.

Checkout our article, Dedicated Study of the Arts in a Boarding School, for a general overview of the three schools.