Journeys›Photograph

Music and Nature at Interlochen Michigan

·Green Lake Township, Michigan·#music#travel#summer#michigan#interlochen
A person stands next to a large bronze bear statue on a concrete plaza surrounded by green trees.

Interlochen today — the music camp Joseph Maddy started in 1928, now 1,200 acres of northern Michigan pine sitting on the strip of land between Green Lake and Duck Lake. Music and nature was the whole point of the trip, and the campus delivers both without trying: every path runs under white pines, and campers in their uniforms move between stone practice buildings and cabins that look like they haven't changed much since the thirties. First stop was the bronze bear near the entrance, which apparently everyone poses with, so we did too.

We wandered the central mall past the chapel rose garden — a little koi pond with a heron sculpture and marigolds around the memorial plaque — then over to Corson Auditorium for a percussion concert. The stage was wall-to-wall instruments before anyone played a note: marimbas, gongs on racks, rows of snares, a bass drum tipped on its side. A student sat out front giving the pre-concert talk while the ensemble filed into the front rows in black.

Afterward we walked out past the green cabins toward the water, past a volleyball net nobody was using, to the bluff over Green Lake. Flat water, the far shore a low line of trees, a few marker posts sticking out near the beach.

A group of people walk on a paved path lined with tall trees and buildings under a cloudy sky.A paved path leads past rustic and modern buildings, surrounded by tall trees, with people walking.A garden with a pond, colorful flowers, green plants, a sign, and a building with large windows.A blue Interlochen Corson Auditorium sign above glass doors and a plaque on a concrete building.A person kneels center stage, surrounded by numerous percussion instruments, in front of white acoustic panels and blue curtains.A stage with many percussion instruments and music stands, a person kneeling, and an audience in red seats.Light green cabins with dark roofs among trees, with a paved path and several people walking in a grassy area.An outdoor scene featuring a grassy field, trees, buildings, a volleyball net, and people on a path under a cloudy sky.A grassy hill slopes down to a wide lake framed by two large trees under a cloudy sky.A view of a large lake with distant forested land, framed by trees and tall grass in the foreground under a cloudy sky.

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