HOLLAND, Mich. — Inside the Michigan Academy of Folk Music on Columbia Avenue, you can often catch Keala Venema playing her fiddle in the same place where she first started to pick up bluegrass and old time music. She says traditional music changed her life.
"When I was 16, I was pretty shy. I wasn't a very outspoken person. So having this kind of music where everybody kind of has a similar repertoire, and it's so accessible, was really important for me to be able to find my own voice through that type of music, and to be able to connect with other people because they also know that music," she said.
"It really provided a lot of personal growth to me. I became not only more outgoing, but also more disciplined through how I interact with my instrument, and it provides value to my life all around."
The Michigan Academy of Folk Music is also the same place Keala first learned about the Great Lakes Music Camp.
"It's essentially a four-day acoustic music symposium where we're sharing a lot of history on traditional and contemporary acoustic music, along with tons of opportunities for jamming, concerts, workshops, classes, a podcast element for us to be able to kind of share some stories about this genre of music, as well a lot of really big names throughout the world that'll be coming from an instructor standpoint," said Jason Wheeler, who serves as the executive director for Great Lakes Music.
"It's for guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, bass, songwriters and vocalists. There's opportunities to either come and stay for the whole weekend on site, as well as commuters. Meals are covered there like so there's several lodging options."
Great Lakes Music started in 2017 and Keala first started attending camp in 2019 when she was a teenager.
"I was just picking up the fiddle for about two years or so. I came there on recommendation from my instructor here at the folk school, and I got a scholarship. So that was really special to be able to have the funding, be able to do that," she said.
"It was an especially eye-opening weekend for me, because I'd been listening to the instructors' music and really fangirling over the type of music that they make. But actually being able to connect with them and see that they're humans and just amazing people, not just amazing musicians, was really special. There was one musician in particular that I was especially awestruck by named Brittany Haas. There's not a lot of girl fiddlers out there, just like rocking it, and she's definitely one of them. So it was really inspiring."
Fast forward to present day, Keala believes Brittany's mentorship is at least partially responsible for the fact that Keala is a professional musician now. Keala has returned to the camp, but now she's an instructor, and she's looking to be a mentor for someone else like Brittany was a mentor for her.
"That would mean the world to me, because the people around me who inspire me are so passionate about that. And I've really found that that's that's kind of my passion too, is to be able to help people find that, and find the value of traditional music. I would feel so fulfilled."
The Great Lakes Music Camp will run from Oct. 3 to 6 at the Camp Blodgett Loeks Retreat Center in West Olive. There are a variety of packages still available, and organizers want to stress the same scholarships that helped Keala attend the camp are available to campers now. They want to help lower some of the barriers that might keep young people from pursuing music.
"If you've got somebody in your life that's under 18, that's into this type of music, they can attend for free, and that can be a really powerful experience, and a launch pad for them," Jason said.
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