The Interlochen Center for the Arts, also called ICA or Interlochen, is a non-profit organization that provides arts education and hosts performance spaces. It was founded in 1928 by Joseph E. Maddy. The center is located on a 1,200-acre campus in Green Lake Township, Grand Traverse County, Michigan. This area is just south of the town named Interlochen and about 10 miles southwest of Traverse City.

History

In 1925, Edgar B. Gordon, president of the Music Supervisors National Conference, asked Joseph E. Maddy, a conductor and teacher, to gather talented high school musicians from across the United States to perform at the conference’s 1926 meeting in Detroit, Michigan. The group, called the National High School Orchestra, played at Detroit’s Orchestra Hall on April 16, 1926. The orchestra performed again in 1927 and 1928.

In 1927, Maddy started the National High School Orchestra Camp and looked for a good place to hold it. He chose locations in Maine and Michigan. He visited Interlochen businessman Willis Pennington’s hotel and summer camp properties near Interlochen State Park, which included Camp Interlochen and Camp Penn Loch for boys and girls. Maddy selected the site, and in 1928, the first season of the National High School Orchestra Camp began. In 1932, the camp’s name changed to the National Music Camp. Even after adding other art programs, the name stayed until 1991, when it became the Interlochen Arts Camp.

In 1944, Maddy bought Camps Interlochen and Penn Loch and added them to the National Music Camp.

Interlochen Arts Academy, a year-round arts boarding school connected to the camp and located on the same campus, opened in 1962. The school combines college-preparation classes with high-quality arts training and was the first of its kind in the United States.

In 1963, Interlochen Public Radio (WIAA) began broadcasting. It started with eight hours of daily programming and grew quickly. Within a decade, it became a member of National Public Radio. In 1989, the station became a network with the addition of WICV. In 2005, Interlochen bought a Christian radio station, WDQV, and changed it to WIAB, a third station for the eastern part of the area.

Interlochen Center for the Arts is home to Interlochen Public Radio (IPR), a National Public Radio member station that broadcasts to most of the lower peninsula of Northern Michigan and parts of eastern Wisconsin. Two listener-supported stations broadcast to northwest Michigan: Classical Music 88.7, 88.5, 94.7, and 100.9 FM; and News Radio 91.5, 90.1, and 89.7 FM. Programs include arts, news, and culture from around the world, as well as local and regional news. IPR was a founding member of National Public Radio.

Founded in 1963, Interlochen Public Radio (WIAA) was created to extend the Music From Interlochen program, which aired on NBC radio. This program shared information about the activities at the then-called National Music Camp and the new Interlochen Arts Academy. The station had a slow start and faced challenges in its early years. It later grew with two service channels: one for music and one for news.

In 1993, Interlochen Public Radio had one of the highest rates of contributions per person among all public radio stations in the United States. The classical music service is broadcast from WIAA 88.7 FM in Interlochen, WIAB 88.5 FM in Mackinaw City, and W234BU 94.7 FM in Traverse City. In 2000, IPR began a separate news service on WICA 91.5 FM in Traverse City and later added WLMN 89.7 FM in Manistee and WHBP 90.1 FM in Harbor Springs.

Programs

Interlochen Center for the Arts is the main organization that includes the summer program Interlochen Arts Camp, the arts boarding high school Interlochen Arts Academy, the National Public Radio (NPR) charter station Interlochen Public Radio, the performance series Interlochen Presents, the adult arts program Interlochen College of Creative Arts, the online arts program Interlochen Online, and the lodging and dining provider Interlochen Hospitality.

Students at Interlochen Arts Academy can study artistic majors such as music, dance, theatre, visual arts, creative writing, film and new media, and interdisciplinary arts.

Sustainability

In 2019, the Interlochen Center for the Arts was honored by the U.S. Department of Education as a Green Ribbon School. This recognition highlighted Interlochen as one of 35 schools nationwide that made progress in sustainability, reducing environmental impact, and improving the health and well-being of staff, students, and the school community. Interlochen is dedicated to creating and following a Climate Action Plan focused on learning, sustainable operations, and building practices. With bold goals, the school has made important progress in sustainability efforts, including purchasing green solar energy, installing electric vehicle charging stations, providing 39 water-bottle filling stations, using locally sourced food, and operating on-site composting systems.

Interlochen’s sustainability efforts affect the entire campus, but many initiatives are visible at the RB Annis Botanical Lab and Community Garden. This location includes environmentally friendly features such as permaculture, an orchard, native plants, mushrooms, hoop houses, raised beds, chickens, aquaponics, backyard composting, and a honeybee apiary. Visitors are welcome to tour and explore the site.

Built in 2019, Interlochen is home to one of the few school-based mid-sized industrial compost facilities located entirely on campus. The facility processes food waste along with dried leaves and woodchips collected during fall leaf pickup and from fallen branches and trees. Staff manage the compost on-site, and the finished compost is used in garden beds, flower beds, and to improve campus grounds.

The Sustainability Department offers weekly classes from early June through the end of August each year. These classes cover topics related to nature, art, and sustainability, including watercolor painting, farm-to-table cooking, mocktails, botanical art, poetry, and other subjects.

Awards and accolades

National Medal of Arts: In 2006, the Interlochen Center for the Arts was named the winner of the National Medal of Arts by then-president George W. Bush.

American Classical Music Hall of Fame: In 2021, the Interlochen Center for the Arts became the 14th music organization added to the American Classical Music Hall of Fame.

Each year, many graduates of Interlochen receive some of the most respected awards in the arts field, including 29 Emmy Awards, 158 Grammy Awards, 36 Tony Awards, and Jimmy Awards. More than 50 students from Interlochen have been named Presidential Scholars in the Arts. Over 700 students have won YoungArts Awards, and hundreds have been recognized as Scholastic Winners in Art & Writing. Many students also earn recognition in other important competitions and programs. Interlochen alumni, including Mary Oliver, Tom Kitt, George Crumb, Beverly Gage, and Margo Jefferson, have received the Pulitzer Prize, as well as more than a dozen finalists.

Interlochen Public Radio’s podcast, Points North, received the Edward R. Murrow Award, which honors excellence in journalism. Interlochen Public Radio has won many awards over the years for its work in journalism.

In 2025, Niche named Interlochen the #1 best high school for the arts in the United States.

Interlochen’s Sustainability Department has received many awards, including recognition from Michigan Green Schools and the U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools. It also has certificates from Certified Naturally Grown, USDA People’s Garden, and the Michigan Agricultural Environmental Program.

Gallery

• The Osterlin Mall
• The Stone Hotel with a view of Green Lake
• The Maddy Administration Building
• The Fine Arts Building in 2018
• Interlochen's Kresge Auditorium, an open-air amphitheater named for S. S. Kresge
• Interlochen historical marker
• United States Army Herald Trumpets at Interlochen in 2010

Controversies

According to the United States Department of Justice, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell used the summer camp to find girls who were too young to be legally involved in certain activities. Epstein attended Interlochen summer camp in 1967 when he was a teenager who played the bassoon. Over a 13-year period, Epstein donated approximately U.S. $400,000 to Interlochen. This relationship ended in 2008.

Faculty and guest artists

• Lauren Bernofsky – composer
• Allen Britton – educator
• Van Cliburn – pianist, 1961–2007
• Roderick Cox – conductor
• George Crumb – composer, 1957, 1958, and 1961
• Albert Austin Harding – director of bands
• Leslie B. Dunner – director of academy orchestras
• Richard Ellsasser – organist and composer
• Percy Grainger – composer and pianist, on faculty 1930–1944
• Louis Langrée – conductor
• Cecil Leeson – saxophonist
• Howard Hanson – composer and conductor, visiting conductor 1928–1931; composed the "Interlochen Theme," which was later used in his Symphony No. 2
• Marie Hartwig – camp counselor
• John S. Hilliard – composer
• Milt Jackson – jazz vibraphonist
• Jerry Junkin – conductor
• Dennis Kim – violinist
• Homer Keller – composer
• Casey Kriechbaum – composer
• Yo Yo Ma – cellist who went on a national tour with an orchestra
• Joseph E. Maddy – conductor and music educator, founder of the academy
• Gary Lee Nelson – composer
• William Chapman Nyaho – pianist, current faculty
• Jung-Ho Pak – conductor, director of orchestras since 2003
• Itzhak Perlman – violinist, 1989–1995
• Vincent Pezzi – bassoonist
• Susan Poser – administrator
• John Philip Sousa – conductor and composer
• Daniel Stolper – oboist, visited 1972
• Chris Thile – singer-songwriter
• Carolyn Watson – conductor, director of orchestras since 2013
• Paul W. Whear – composer
• Jerome Wiesner – electrical engineer