With a track record for attracting top musical talent and inspired by the success of Mary Baldwin’s Program for the Exceptionally Gifted (PEG), the Heifetz International Music Institute will offer an intensive, coed, three-week summer program — HeifetzPEG — for gifted young string musicians between the ages of 8 and 13.
The pilot program is a natural alliance between PEG and Heifetz, both of which have won broad recognition as category leaders in their respective fields. The new summer intensive, for male and female students, is an extension of the Heifetz Institute’s six-week program and follows the same model, but is tailored for this special age cohort in a fully supervised, nurturing environment designed to support the unique intellectual and emotional needs of these brilliant young talents.
“Throughout his teaching career Founder and Artistic Director Daniel Heifetz has had a special gift for identifying and teaching promising young string players at a very early age,” said Heifetz Executive Director Benjamin K. Roe. “Over the years we’ve had students as young as 11 and 12 attend the summer Institute. But a six-week program is often too intensive for students at this age. We think this newly designed three-week program will be the ideal introduction to the unique Heifetz experience at Mary Baldwin University.”
Since 2012, the Heifetz Institute has called Mary Baldwin home, bringing some of the world’s most talented and promising classical musicians to campus and hundreds of classical music lovers to Staunton. The Institute is founded on the concept that young musicians can be taught to communicate the emotion of music, beyond mere technical agility and beautiful playing.
“We are thrilled to partner with the Heifetz Institute to offer this exciting new program,” said Mary Baldwin President Pamela Fox. “It builds on the expertise of both organizations in cultivating the development of exceptional young talent. I look forward to having them on our campus this summer and hope that some will return as full-time PEG students.”
Students enrolled in the inaugural program will attend the same number of private lessons and classes, but will have their own dedicated faculty featuring world-renowned teaching artists from such institutions as The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, and the Manhattan School of Music and who have special expertise in teaching exceptional young musicians. In addition, students will participate in the Institute’s trademark Heifetz Performance & Communication Training, customized specifically for young musicians of this age. HeifetzPEG students also will attend master classes, seminars, concerts, symposia, and all other public functions presented by the Institute. Additional benefits include a final public concert for HeifetzPEG students and preferred enrollment in PEG, with continued study opportunities with Heifetz faculty for those enrolled.