Happy campers

If you're a Scottish/Cape Breton music enthusiast, and you play the fiddle, it's got to be one of your favorite things, ever: The Annual Boston Harbor Fiddle Camp, which is taking place for the sixth year on Thompson Island from Aug. 9-16.
The camp is one of those countless examples that abound in the Boston folk/acoustic music community of tireless efforts by the relative few benefiting the many. In this case, credit goes to Barbara McOwen, a teacher and mentor to Scottish-style fiddlers everywhere, and Marcie Van Cleave, executive director of the Folk Arts Center of New England and a well-regarded folk dance caller (during the summer she runs a popular weekly open-air dance in Copley Square).
Think of it as a very desirable turn on the "What if you were stranded on a desert island?" bit: Classes are available in all levels for fiddle and other instruments, including piano, cello and pipes; the camp's faculty has included the likes of Jerry Holland, Laura Cortese, Kimberley Fraser, Troy MacGillivray, Hanneke Cassel, Laura Risk and Janine Randall.

PHOTO: A welcome for Visitor's Day guests at the 2006 Boston Harbor Fiddle Camp (Photo from the BHFC Web site)

Disclaimer: I've never actually been there. But people I know who've attended swear by it, and if you look at the photos on the camp Web site you can see why. The setting is picturesque and secluded, all the better to immerse yourself in the music, enjoy yourself, make new friends and learn a ton. They also have a "Visitor's Day" for non-campers which includes an afternoon concert, dinner and (of course) jam session. One of these years...

Scott Alarik interviewed Hanneke Cassel about the importance of such camps in this 2004 Boston Globe article.

--Sean Smith