Leelanau students perform at Interlochen Arts Academy

Photo: Glen Arbor native Amelie Sack, a second-year senior at Interlochen majoring in classical voice, will perform at this year’s “Morp” festival.

By Zinnia Dungjen

Sun contributor

At the end of every school year, Interlochen Arts Academy hosts a festival commemorating the hard work and talent demonstrated by their student body. This celebration includes Morp, the palindrome that the students and faculty affectionately call their prom, multiple performances around campus, all of which are open to the public, and to wrap up the year, commencement.

The festival, which runs May 24-27, is the long-awaited crescendo of a successful school year. Interlochen students perform a variety of interdisciplinary shows, such as one-act plays presented by the theater department, film and new media thesis screenings, creative writing readings, classical and contemporary recitals and concerts. Performances take place in the Dow Center for Visual Arts Gallery and Corson and Kresge auditoriums and require tickets. Performances taking place in smaller venues such as Harvey Theatre, the Dendrinos Chapel, and Phoenix Theatre are free but require tickets, due to lack of seating space. Event times and destinations can be found on Interlochen’s website.

Interlochen shares its campus with a diverse student body, ranging from international students and those living in dorms, to students who commute to school every day. Several students and faculty at Interlochen commute each day from Leelanau County.

Audrey Mason, a rising sophomore who majors in Popular Singer-Songwriting, has family in Northport and lives outside Cedar. Prior to Interlochen, Mason attended The Pathfinder School for elementary and middle school. The 2023 festival will be her first one. “I’m really excited for it (festival),” Mason said. “I’m really hyped for what it’s going to be like.”

You can catch her perform at commencement at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 27, along with Emily Baird, winner of the “graduation song” audition, on cello in Kresge Auditorium. Mason said that Interlochen has helped her grow not only as a person, but as an artist and professional hoping to enter the music industry. “I feel like I have more of an understanding with other local artists that are also trying to set up gigs and who are doing what I’m doing,” she said. Mason said she hopes this experience can further allow her to bring more art and music to Leelanau County.

“When I started here (at Interlochen) the campus was locked down because of COVID, so nobody could come,” said Joshua Davis, singer-songwriter instructor at the academy and Leelanau County resident and musician. Interlochen’s campus has re-opened to the community since the pandemic.  Davis has worked at Interlochen for four years and began fulltime in the fall of the 2021-2022 school year. In addition to teaching, he performs around Leelanau County and nationwide. In mid-April, he performed a show at The Old Art Building in Leland—one of his favorite venues to play.

“To have a bridge to the communities that surround Interlochen is really important,” Davis said. He considers the school a hidden gem of northern Michigan, and with the outreach that Festival promises, the campus will become even more of a welcoming space full of music.

Glen Arbor native Amelie Sack, a second-year senior majoring in classical voice, is excited to attend the final festival as a student at Interlochen as well as the school’s high school graduation at the conclusion of the week. Amelie, who attended Glen Lake School prior to Interlochen, lives in Glen Arbor with parents Heather and Chris Sack, who own Great Lakes Tea and Spice Co along with the Arabella jewelry store.

“It gets a little brutal around here when you’re looking for practice rooms … you need to go outside,” said Sack, remarking on the work the students put into their performances during Festival. “Everything around here just gets insanely creative and there’s constantly stuff to go to.” This year at Festival Amelie will sing in the classical voice recital and participate in the choir concert.

Interlochen alum and community member Allie Kessel remembers Festival from her years at Interlochen as “such a fun time of year, with spring coming to campus and everyone getting excited for the adventures with the seniors.” Kessel studied at Interlochen from 2012-2015 and majored in singer-songwriting. She play music at wineries throughout Leelanau County and bars in Traverse City. One of Kessel’s favorite parts of Interlochen’s Festival was “seeing everybody’s projects come together that they had been working hard on.”

I am also a Leelanau County resident and a rising junior in the singer-songwriting program at Interlochen. I live in Cedar with my family, and prior to Interlochen I attended Glen Lake along with my brother. My father Bill still directs the plays and musicals at Glen Lake.

The student body at Interlochen welcomes you to campus to share these works of art. Come see my fellow community members celebrate the coming of summer, and present the hard work we have put into our art. Festival is an opportunity for connection; it’s a fantastic way for students and the surrounding community to come together and build bridges by sharing in love, community, acceptance, and the universal language of art.

Zinnia Dungjen will perform “These Days” on flute together with her friend, day student Clara Devey, on Wednesday, May 24, at 7:30 pm at Kresge Auditorium.