ENRICHMENT CLASSES - check back in January 2026 for updated classes

CLICK HERE to Register

March 15: Early Bird Registration Deadline for $40 off (automatically applied at checkout)
May 1: Registration Deadline

 

PLEASE NOTE: Children under the age of 12 will have to be accompanied by an adult at all times. 

– Core Enrichment: classes that are automatically assigned to students according to age and level. Each student receives one core enrichment class included in their registration.
– Optional Enrichment: classes that students can add to their schedule. $90 for each additional enrichment course (includes five sessions of each class).

Enrichment enrollment options –

  • Enrichment Only: students are welcome to register for only enrichment courses and take as many as they would like (up to 6 total). This is especially popular for siblings.
  • Twinkle Program: up to 3 optional enrichment courses, except for Music & Movement which is already built into their schedule.
  • Lower Book Program: up to 2 optional enrichment courses.
  • Upper Book Program: up to 1 optional enrichment course.
  • Young Artist Program/Chamber Days: up to 1 optional enrichment course.

PLEASE NOTE:

  • Some classes may not be available during your student’s free hour(s). If there is a conflict, you can pick a different enrichment course or you will be refunded the full $90 for the extra enrichment class.
  • There are caps on class numbers that we have to adjust manually. Consequently, we will reach out if the class fills before registration closes. In these cases, you can choose another enrichment class or receive a full $90 refund for the additional enrichment course if your choice fills.
  • Book 2-3 students, ages 11 and up will receive ensemble as their enrichment class. You will not be able to add it for them.
Optional: Art (ages 6+)
Join Ruth Gledhill for an art adventure in the sky with the moon. Students will paint, draw, and collage city scapes on 1/2 moons using acrylic, pen and ink, and their imaginations. Have you ever wondered what your home town would look like on the moon? Students should be able to work independently and cut with scissors. Bring smocks if desired.
Cutting with scissors required age 6+
$8.00 additional fee per student for art materials
Optional: Beginner's Pluck (Book 2+ or some guitar experience, ages 10+) with Sophie Stanley

This course covers strumming basic guitar chords, plucking melodies, and reading TAB – learn how to play ANYTHING with a basic understanding of how chord charts and TABs are read!

We can provide guitars during class time, but if you have your own guitar, please bring it and make sure to indicate you are bringing one on your registration form!

Optional: Conducting (Young Artist Program, ages 13+) with Emmett Drake

For students enrolled in the Young Artist Program with a few exceptions for Upper Book Curriculum students (upon approval). Ages 13+.

Come learn the basics of conducting! Students will learn some conducting techniques, some score-reading strategies, and how to lead an ensemble from the podium. Each student will have a chance to conduct live musicians over the course of the week. Students should bring their instrument to class.

Optional: Enrichment Orchestra 1 (Perpetual Motion-Book 3, Ages 4-8) All String Instruments

Taught by Alice Ashton Coulam, this orchestra class will focus on developing and reinforcing reading fundamentals. Most importantly, no previous music reading experience is necessary. Students in this class will explore reading concepts including pitch and rhythm. Furthermore, they will learn to sightread short tunes as a group. Students will need to bring a music stand – music materials are given out each day.

Optional: Enrichment Orchestra 2 (Book 3 & up students, Ages 9-10) All String Instruments

Taught by Alice Ashton Coulam, this orchestra class will focus on developing and reinforcing reading fundamentals. Most importantly, no previous music reading experience is necessary. Students in this class will explore reading concepts including pitch and rhythm. Furthermore, they will learn to sightread short tunes as a group. Students will need to bring a music stand – music materials are given out each day.

Optional: Musical Theater with Ernesto Garcia Velasco (ages 10+)

Experience the thrill of musical theatre with a staging of scenes from classic and modern Broadway musicals, enhanced by live acting and costumes. For the first time at ISSI, come and step into the scene.

Requirements:

  • Age: 10+
  • Know how to read (music and lyrics)
  • Previous experience is desirable but not essential
  • Submit a video singing a song on the online portal (to know your voice and profile)
  • Bring a bottle of water

Optional: Jiu JitSuzuki with Chris Bedoya (Ages 7+)

Come learn “the gentle art” called Jiu-Jitsu as a fun body-moving break from playing! During this class, students will be matched with people of similar size as we learn fundamentals of the art of Jiu-Jitsu through various objective-based grappling and movement games. Jiu-Jitsu is one of the few martial arts that can be safely practiced at full speed and with full effort. We will train with full contact, having the goals of body-awareness, self-defense, and FUN! Taught by Chris Bedoya.

Optional: From Bach to Beats: Music Through Time with Keenan Reesor
Join Keenan Reesor for a trip through music history. We’ll look at some of the best music ever made, along with the times, places, & people that produced it, including the Three Bs, Stravinsky, & the Beatles. How did geniuses like these draw from past and present to create music that could last into the future?
Objective: To introduce musical high schoolers to the principal style-periods of Western classical music through its most celebrated creators—plus a session exploring popular art music.
Sessions & Repertoire:
   1. Bach & the Baroque Period (Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, I)
   2. Beethoven & the Classical Period (Symphony No. 5, I)
   3. Brahms & the Romantic Period (Piano Quintet, I)
   4. Stravinsky & Modernism (“Infernal Dance,” from Firebird)
   5. The Beatles & Popular Art Music (“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”)
Optional: Pop Music Arranging/Composition with Michael McLean- (Book 1+ students or ages 6+ )

Composition – this course will take the entry level composition student to a basic understanding of harmony, phrase length, and form in 5 days! Basic arranging skills are added to leave the student craving to composer before the week is out! This class is taught by Michael McLean, an internationally noted composer. Michael’s music has been recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra and has composed many award-winning film scores.

Optional: Strings Pop! (Book 3, Ages 10+) All Instruments

StringsPop! is a performance-based class for teens and tweens to experiment with popular and folk music. We’ll learn how to read lead sheets and charts to arrange melody, harmony, bass, and percussion parts for a group performance. Create and compose your own part of the song with the music literacy and chord theory skills presented as games on our instruments.

Optional: Suzuki Early Childhood Education (SECE)
Suzuki Early Childhood Education (SECE) seeks to harness a child’s natural enjoyment of learning, lay the foundation for lifelong learning and create a calm, pressure-free environment for children in which they can acquire skills, a sense of purpose and in life, an understanding of discipline and an appreciation of beauty. Caregivers and children experience this through activities that involve singing, rhythm, movement and finger play, instruments and language. Taught by Melodie Garder and Marguerite Jayasimha.
– Ages: newborn to 4 years, approximately.
Each child must be accompanied by one parent/adult relative who will actively participate with their student during the class.

 

Optional: You Can Ukulele! (ages 9+)

Taught by Sophie Stanley. This course covers all the basics of the ukulele: chords, strumming patterns, left hand and right hand technique, singing while playing, and a handful of fun tunes!

We can provide Ukeleles during class time, but if you have your own ukelele, please bring it and make sure to indicate you are bringing one on your registration form!

Core & Optional Enrichment: Music & Movement with Emilie Lundberg

Kodaly-based music and movement class teaching students music literacy, composition, music mapping, and music form through song games and play!

Music & Movement is core enrichment for twinklers.

Optional enrichment for ages 2-8 and Suzuki book 1 or below, depending on availability.

Students will be sorted by age as much as possible: 2-3 year olds, 4-6 year olds, 7-8 year olds.

Core Enrichment: Choir with Ernesto Garcia Velasco (ages 6+)

If you can sing it – you can play it: the most friendly way to make music is the chorus, a family where you can feel comfortable and safe to express your feelings with your voice, while getting to know places through music. Join the choir with Tato, a Mexican choral conductor who loves to teach and empower yourself to bring out the singer within you.

Requirements:

  • Ages 6+
  • Be able to read lyrics
  • Bring a bottle of water

 

Core Enrichment: Exploring Creativity and Artistry Through Improvisation! (Upper Book/YAP and ages 11+) with Dr. Lisa Caravan

(All bowed and plucked string instruments)

Upper Book Curriculum/Young Artist Program and ages 11+

We will explore various approaches to improvisation to foster creativity and artistry. We will learn specific techniques for musical improvisation, including free, modal, melodic, harmonic, and motivic development. We will incorporate singing and playing tunes and basslines from classical, fiddle, and blues traditions, inspiring all to unleash their creative potential!

 

Core Enrichment: Exploring Creativity Through Play! (Lower Book and ages 6/7-12) with Lisa Caravan

(All bowed and plucked string instruments)

Lower Book Curriculum and ages 6/7-12

Explore the world of creativity through games, movement, singing, playing, and storytelling. We will learn some familiar and unfamiliar tunes, create rhythm machines, and depict different characters and scenes through musical play. We will also create a soundscape as a group, using melodies, drones, sound effects, ambient sounds, and percussion to tell a story.

Core Enrichment: Fiddling with Gretchen Grube

Discover the joy of fiddling in this fun, interactive class! Try out a variety of fiddle tunes and learn what makes each style unique. Students will learn all music by ear through engaging call-and-response activities. You’ll explore essential fiddling techniques—including chopping, slides, arranging, and distinctive bowing patterns. No prior fiddling experience required!

You will be placed in a fiddling class according to book level:

Fiddling 1: Books 1-3 (If you are in Book 1, you must be at Minuet #1 or above).

Fiddling 2: Books 4 and above. 

This class is available for violin, viola, cello, and bass players.