A Summer Camp Where Play Time Isn't Just for Kids

Andrew Green, right, and Stan Hamrick were two of 42 adult campers at one session of the Maryland Summer Jazz Boot Camp, at which they honed their skills. (Photos By Lois Raimondo -- The Washington Post)

Saxophonist Matice Wright took a deep breath and hoped she wouldn't mess up when the teacher called on her. Owen Dall and Glenn Spiegel also were fidgeting with nerves.

It was the second day of band camp, and performance anxiety was building.

Never mind that Wright is a 41-year-old former Navy navigator, Dall, 55, is a software designer and Spiegel, 58, a senior analyst for the federal government. Unlike many day-campers across the Washington region, these students had life experiences to draw on.

They weren't antsy preschoolers eager to master papier-mache, or self-conscious middle-schoolers learning to dunk like Shaq. Among the 42 participants at the Maryland Summer Jazz Band Boot Camp held two weeks ago were a former federal judge, a defense industry consultant, lawyers and computer systems analysts, along with a smattering of physicians, teachers, sales representatives and clergy members.

The campers had traveled from as far as New England to a Rockville church to take a shot at dreams they'd closed the case on and stuffed into the backs of their closets.

Spiegel, a Chevy Chase father of three and business owner, said he attended the camp for a "rare opportunity to do music."

"You've got music in you, and you are trying to get it out," he said. "I know that coming to this camp, I'm going to get encouragement, and I need it. I'm a 58-year-old guy who is not confident about his musical abilities. I listen to great jazz -- Coltrane, Ellington, Michael Brecker -- and think, 'I'll never sound like that.' I need encouragement to get up there and play the way I play and not be self-conscious, like 'Oh, I'm going to mess up.' "

Maryland Summer Jazz, which held two three-day summer camps this year, was the brainchild of jazz saxophonist and bandleader Jeff Antoniuk of Annapolis. It costs about $400 to participate in the camp, which ends with student and faculty performances.

"I had adult students who were taking private lessons from me, and they were interested in expanding their jazz experiences," said Antoniuk, 40, who has played on about 25 jazz albums and leads a band called Jazz Update that is releasing its first album this summer.

Drawing instructional help from his colleagues in the East Coast jazz community, he held the inaugural session last summer and, when it proved a success, decided to make it an annual event.

For three days, campers come together for eight hours a day for in-depth instruction in everything from theory to hand position. They tested their mettle during improvisation sessions that often sounded so polished that listeners could have sworn the group had played together for years. Lunch was catered by Antoniuk's wife, Terry.

Campers performed such popular jazz standards as "The Girl From Ipanema," by Antonio Carlos Jobim, and "All Blues," by Miles Davis, and more modern tunes such as Pat Metheny's "Song for Bilbao," honing the improvisational skills necessary for any good jazz performer.