Asha Sundaram, a talented young musician from Sun Prairie, spent the past two weeks in Door County studying at Birch Creek Music Performance Center.
Sundaram, a student at Cardinal Heights, was among 55 other musicians from throughout the country to attend the Symphony Session at this prestigious academy whose unique mission is to provide intensive, performance-based instruction to promising young musicians by immersing them in a professional, mentoring environment.
Birch Creek celebrates its 47th concert season in 2022 and continues to support a student-to-faculty ratio of approximately 2:1. This provides students with an abundance of personal attention from their faculty mentors, who represent top music educators and performers from around the country.
Students are given the opportunity to hone their technical skills and learn firsthand all the aspects of life as a professional musician. During their two-week residency this summer, students attending the Symphony session performed seven concerts alongside their teachers in front of paying concertgoers.
Ricardo Castañeda is the Program Director of the Symphony program. This year marks his 25th year on faculty at Birch Creek, and 22nd year as Program Director. He has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in music performance from Northwestern University. Castañeda is currently Principal Oboist with the Chicago Sinfonietta and solo English Horn with The Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra.
Birch Creek Music Performance Center in Egg Harbor is a residential summer music academy for advanced young musicians. With a performance emphasis, students are taught by nationally known performers and educators during the day, and perform alongside them in concerts at night. Four sessions focus on Percussion & Steel Band, Symphony, and Big Band Jazz. This summer’s concert and session dates are posted at BirchCreek.org/Tickets.