Once a year, sometime in mid-August, Skyline’s band, choir, and orchestra pile on to buses to be shipped up North to the Interlochen Center for the Arts for a week of musical preparation and performance.
“The tradition started decades ago, actually,” stated Choir Director Lyn Ciechanski. “Over 50 years ago with Huron choir attending first, and then the Huron and Pioneer bands began to join in the tradition. And when Skyline opened, Skyline choir, band, and orchestra attended choir camp.”
Although the camp’s format has no doubt changed some since the 70s, today, schedules for the attending musicians are long and intense. “We wake up around six,” said Skyline Orchestra Member Cecilia Deguzman (‘26). Performers have morning, afternoon, and evening rehearsals, with lunch and other pre-orchestrated activities peppered between. “We were really busy, but I enjoyed the time I spent there.”
Rehearsals may be long, but most students who go really enjoy their experience and come back the next year. “I wouldn’t say that there’s too much rehearsal or that it gets boring,” said Skyline Band Member Emmett Blough (‘27). “Because you’re around really cool people the whole time. [I] definitely made friends there that I’m going to be lifelong friends with.”
With Interlochen following Skyline’s phone policy, most people choose to spend their time with friends between rehearsals, whether it’s playing sports, getting ice cream from the Melody Freeze (the ice cream shop on campus), or just hanging out. “I really enjoyed doing hair tinsel with my friends,” said Deguzman.
This sentiment is shared across many who spend the week there. “One of my favorite things about Interlochen is just walking from place to place with my friends and having a lot of time for conversation and building friendships,” agreed Blough.
At the end of the week, Skyline and Huron bands, choirs, and orchestras come together for a big performance inside Kresge Auditorium to show off the work they did over camp. It serves as a bonding experience between the two schools, as well as being a point of pride for the performers.
“Every year, the performance is always super meaningful and very enriching and rewarding,” Ciechanski shared. “There are some pieces that we’ve performed that are super memorable and stick in my mind forever.”
“I think we did well,” assessed Deguzman, in reference to Skyline’s orchestral performance.
Note: Eleanor Wing is a member of Skyline Choir and participated in the 2025 Interlochen trip.
