Get ready once again to hear incredible music performed by recording artists skilled in a mix of multicultural genres at the Vero Beach International Music Festival, which runs concurrent with the 13th annual Mike Block String Camp, July 10-15 at the First Presbyterian Church of Vero Beach.
Concerts on Wednesday, July 12, and Friday, July 14, feature the exceptional MBSC faculty, which is made up of acclaimed musicians trained in everything from Americana and Celtic to classical, bluegrass and jazz. The final concert on Saturday, July 15, showcases the MBSC students, with faculty occasionally joining in, followed by a barn dance for players and audience alike.
The camp and the festival are led by Grammy-winning cellist, composer and educator Mike Block, who with wife Hanneke Cassel, a captivating, award-winning fiddler/violinist, are now part-time residents of Vero Beach.
“We are succumbing to the snowbird lifestyle, if that’s what people who enjoy Vero in the winter are called. We really like the community. We’re pinching ourselves every time we’re down there,” says Block. They otherwise reside in Boston, where Block is an associate professor at Berklee College of Music.
Julliard-trained, Block toured the world with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, and may be even better known for his Block Strap, which enables cellists to stand and move about the stage; he was the first standing cellist to perform at Carnegie Hall. In a display of his versatility and creativity, Block also produced a “Bach in the Bathroom” series, playing in acoustical concert hall ‘facilities’ around the world.
The faculty concerts will feature different performers each evening; half the faculty leading one night and half the other night.
“Everybody’s still kind of collaborating with each other and supporting each other, so you’ll likely see all the faculty play each night, but only half of them will be featured each night,” Block explains. For the full experience, you will likely want to go to both.
“And our final concert is going to be featuring 20 different student ensembles that have created music during the week that they’ll be sharing,” says Block.
The roughly 100 camp participants are of all ages and skill levels and from around the world. When COVID put a halt to in-person camps in 2020 and 2021, Block offered virtual camps, complete with live-streamed faculty performances. The camp returned to in-person in 2022, albeit with fewer participants.
“We definitely feel like we’ve recovered from our post-pandemic enrollment dip last year. So it’s been really great to see that we’re pretty much back where we were pre-pandemic,” says Block.
“We’ve got 10 faculty this year and I’m particularly excited that for the first time we finally have a local Vero Beach musician on our faculty, the great Jacob Craig,” says Block.
A multi-talented jazz pianist and educator, Craig is director of music and arts at First Presbyterian. He earned a Bachelor of Music Education and Piano Performance from Shorter University, a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from Florida State University, and a Doctor of Sacred Music from the Graduate Theological Foundation at Oxford University.
Craig directs the Vero Beach Choral Society, ACTS Choristers, Sea Oaks Chorus, John’s Island Singers, and the Senior Resource Association Silver Tones. An accomplished highland bagpiper, he is Pipe Major of the Vero Beach Pipes and Drums. Craig and Block also serve together on the Indian River Symphonic Association board of directors.
“Jacob’s a good friend and he taught a single elective last year, and it was so brilliant. So I was really excited that he was able to join us for more this year. He’s going to teach a series of elective classes exploring improvisation and vocals, primarily. And he’ll also be coaching our student ensembles that perform on Saturday,” says Block.
He explains that while Craig is an accomplished pianist, piano isn’t part of the curriculum, which is primarily structured for bowed and plucked string instruments.
“Jacob is an inspiring performer and teacher and despite us being in a string camp, we finally got him to join us last year for just a single class. Like I said, he was so brilliant, and the student feedback was so positive, that I thought even though Jacob plays piano, he would have so much to offer our camp. We’re really excited to have him be a bigger part of our community since he’s such a big part of the Vero community already,” Block explains.
“And we’ve got a new cello teacher, a young musician named Zachary Brown that I’m excited to bring into the community. His background is also more jazz and R&D,” says Block.
“So I am now finding myself in this position of not being in the younger generation anymore. I was excited to reach out to a young, really promising, talented cellist who’s doing interesting things and so I’m eager to get to know him better myself. As a performer, he’s particularly special with his rhythmic playing. He’s really groovy and a really, really special improviser as well. So I think he’s going to bring that to the concerts.”
Brown, equally adept at classical and contemporary repertoires, has a double degree in Cello Performance and Jazz Studies from Ithaca College, and a Master’s in Cello Performance from SUNY Purchase. He is a member of the Westbound Situation string quartet that, according to their website, “blends the precision of classical chamber music, the rhythmic drive of bluegrass, and the colorful expression of jazz into a new style of chamber music – chambergrass.” What fun!
The others are all returning faculty.
Cassel, a U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Champion, among other awards, has a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from Berklee College of Music. She skillfully blends Scottish traditional fiddling with an Americana vibe in a unique style filled with exuberance and passion.
Casey Driessen, another fiddle player and violinist, earned a Master’s in Spain, at the first international campus of Berklee College of Music, and has been described as “a mad scientist with a five-string fiddle.” In 2021 he produced “Otherlands: A Global Music Exploration,” a six-country, nine-month European tour featuring video and audio recordings of local music and cultural traditions.
Natalie Hass, another Julliard graduate, is a classically trained cellist with an ability to provide rhythmic accompaniment to fiddle tunes and Celtic music. She has toured the world with Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser for 20-plus years and as a member of the Appalachia Waltz Trio. She holds an associate professorship at the Berklee College of Music and teaches privately and at fiddle camps around the world.
American violinist and fiddler Jeremy Kittel is fluent in multiple musical genres, including folk, jazz, Celtic, classical and electronic, and performs with his group Kittel & Co. An exceptional composer and arranger, Kittle has a Master’s in Jazz Performance from the Manhattan School of Music. He was the first recipient of the Daniel Pearl Memorial Violin, gifted to the MBSC in memory of Daniel Pearl, a journalist and violinist, who was murdered by terrorists in Pakistan. The violin is annually awarded to a camp student for one year.
Taylor Morris is known for blurring the line between violin and fiddle, whether playing classical music with an orchestra or folk tunes with a band. He is quoted as saying that “music is music. I actively play music from a wide variety of styles, so why identify with one label over another?” He received a Bachelor’s in Violin Performance at Arizona State University and a Master’s in Education from Harvard University and has toured the world with Barrage, a Canadian troupe.
Lauren Rioux, who plays viola and violin, holds degrees in Violin Performance and Music Education from the University of Southern Maine and resides in Scarborough, Maine. She has toured the United States and Europe and is sought after for her teaching expertise, leading classes and workshops around the world to beginners and skilled players alike, and on her online community, JamWithLauren.com.
Lastly, alphabetically only, is Joe Walsh, an award-winning, internationally renowned bluegrass mandolin player and acclaimed master of American roots music. Walsh was the first mandolinist to graduate from the Berklee College of Music and returned there in 2011 as a mandolin instructor and as managing director of its American Roots Music Program.
The Main Stage faculty concerts are ticketed at $25. The Culminating Concert of Mike Block String Camp students is free, with a suggested donation of $20, which goes directly to the MBSC Scholarship Fund to support camp scholarships such as for Gifford Youth Orchestra students. All concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 520 Royal Palm Blvd., Vero Beach, Fla. For more information, visit VeroBeachInternationalMusicFestival.com.
Photos provided
