PIMF’s Music in the Mansion winter break mini-camp for strings was at capacity again in Miami as twenty talented young musicians gathered to rev up their skills and start 2024 on a high note.

While stretch limousines were NOT deployed to bring arriving students from the airport, as soon as they entered the grounds of Casa Tranquila, they entered a world of elegance and pampering designed to elevate their entire educational experience.

“There’s really nothing like it in the country,” PIMF President and co-Founder Sandy Marcucci says. “It’s a specialized, intense music program much more like ‘glamping’ than ‘camping,’ where PIMF surrounds students with the best of everything to energize them to practice and perform at peak capacity. Their teachers include members of The Philadelphia Orchestra, so these future classical superstars want to make every moment with current classical superstars COUNT.”

Instructors included: Kimberly Fisher, Principal Second Violin of The Philadelphia Orchestra and Co-founder/Artistic Director of PIMF; Richard Amoroso, Violin, The Philadelphia Orchestra ; and John Koen, Cello, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and others.

“It is always a great pleasure to be in the Mansion which is filled with music during the sunny and warm winter in Florida!” collaborative and chamber pianist and educator Piotr Kozłowski told us. He went on to say that the Music in the Mansion program offers “a unique opportunity to complement students’ applied instrumental lessons with daily rehearsals and coachings with collaborative pianists. This creates a wonderful balance of learning from the master and putting ideas into practice where interpretations can be explored and tried out in real time. Additionally, daily performance classes and performance opportunities add up to an excellent growth environment!”

Violinist Kutay, who traveled from the United Kingdom to take part, contributed to his school’s news roundup, calling it “𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭, 𝘶𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘊𝘢𝘮𝘱. S𝘰 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 @𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘶𝘯𝘸𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 & 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦…𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 f𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 @𝘗𝘪𝘮𝘧 𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘮!”

We cornered bassist Jayden and violinist Grace during High Tea one sunny afternoon at the mansion to get their on-the-spot takes on the program. Grace is a veteran of PIMF’s and was delighted by the tropical vibe as well as the curriculum at Music in the Mansion. Here is a snippet of our conversation:

Grace: It’s a great place where you have intense lessons and you get to work with amazing faculty —

Jayden: The food is really great! I’ve never eaten better in my entire life!

G: We’re living in a mansion, this is so nice!

J: The chandeliers!

G: There’s a pool and it’s warm, there are peacocks EVERYWHERE.

J: And there are loads of trees with fruit you can just pick and eat –

G: Star fruit! Where can you just go pick star fruit?!

J: And coconuts!

G: You’re just surrounded by music all the time, and you’re in this tight group of amazing musicians who just impress you and motivate you to do better.

J: And you have daily accompanist workouts with world-class pianists —

G: — and you have studio classes where you get to perform in front of your peers and get advice from them as well as from members of The Philadelphia Orchestra. And at least 4 private lessons, which are really fun and really helpful.

J: And you can do it outside!

G: Now, when you go to a summer camp, like PIMF, that’s good, you can focus because you don’t have anything else going on, but a winter camp like Music in the Mansion is kind of crucial. Because when you’re going to school and you have things going on during the year, you kind of lose that motivation and focus so this is a great way to rejuvenate your practice.

J: And also, winter break can feel really long. So, if you go to music camp for a bit of it, it’ll make it fly by.

G: YES, and it’s actually productive! Instead of just staying home and –

J: –and watching TV—

G: — watching the clouds, that’s what I’d be doing –

J: — playing Candy Crush!

(lots of laughing)

J: So, come here next year instead!

Indeed you should!

See and hear more about Music in the Mansion in our social media feeds, and at our website.