By Micah Friez
Published 2:02 p.m. on July 25, 2023
The annual summertime serenades bursting from Bangsberg Hall this time of year are as much a tradition as anything else on the Bemidji State University campus. Dedicated BSU alumni have made sure to preserve that harmony.
“The tradition of the camp is immeasurable,” said Bemidji MusiCamp director Matthew Marsolek. “Over 75 years, we’ve seen generations of families come through here.”
MusiCamp is a week-long experience for middle and high school students to hone their crafts and forge connections through music. This year, 182 kids were on campus from July 16-22 to embrace the same resources that MusiCamp has provided young, aspiring musicians since 1948.
“It gives kids a place in the summer to create music and make connections,” Marsolek said. “Connections with music, with each other, with adults who create a safe environment for them to dig deeper into music than they might be able to during the school year.”
Extra special this year, MusiCamp celebrated its 75th anniversary. The camp was founded in 1948 as the BSTC Band Clinic and Conference and has evolved into its present-day iteration, growing from just a band element to all facets of music.
Students stayed in the dorms all week and journeyed across campus for all sorts of music lessons, culminating in end-of-week concerts for the public. Workers at the camp volunteered as a labor of love, which is a microcosm of how MusiCamp is still standing today.
The camp endured a three-year hiatus from 2011-13, but soon a crew of leaders put their heads together on how to bring it back. The end result was the formation of a new nonprofit organization, which has revamped MusiCamp back into an annual affair since 2014.
A large number of Bemidji State alumni were involved in the camp’s resurgence, including Marsolek (class of 2006); TJ Chapman (2006); Beth (Holzhueter) Hahn (2010); Katie (Roslee) Hahn (2004); Ashley (Bremseth) Sands (2010); Jeff Sands (2009); and Jini (Lawless) Zuniga (2012).
“The partnership with the university goes back 75 years,” Marsolek said. “It is really special. There’s something special about going to Bemidji, especially in the summer. That’s how I got hooked into it, because it was a beautiful place.”
Marsolek only ever found BSU as a prospective college student because of his exposure to campus during his days as a MusiCamp camper. He attended the clinic in 1999 and fell in love with the scenic nature of the northwoods, then decided to further his education at BSU when the time came to forge a collegiate path. He emphasized the importance of bringing youth to campus and said he “probably wouldn’t have known that the college was here, and it wouldn’t have been on my radar, had I not come to camp.”
Now, Marsolek and others are creating that same experience for the next generation of musicians – some of whom may very well enroll at Bemidji State in the next few years. But no matter where music takes them, Marsolek is passionate about providing them all that music can offer.
“A lot of kids play or sing from September to May, and then in the summer, they don’t have a lot of opportunity,” he said. “Something like this keeps them going and gives them a little more spark.”
