Interlochen Center for the Arts (pronounced IN-tər-lock-ən; also called ICA or Interlochen and formerly known as the National Music Camp) is a nonprofit organization that offers arts education programs and has performance spaces. 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. It is directly south of the town named Interlochen and approximately 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 created the National High School Orchestra Camp and looked for a good place to hold it. He visited properties owned by Willis Pennington in Interlochen, Michigan, which included a hotel and summer camp near Interlochen State Park. Maddy selected the site, and the first season of the National High School Orchestra Camp began in 1928. In 1932, the camp changed its name to the National Music Camp. It kept this name 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.

In 1962, Interlochen Arts Academy, a year-round arts boarding school connected to the camp and located on the same campus, opened. The school combines college-preparation classes with high-quality arts training, making it 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 founding member of National Public Radio. In 1989, the station expanded to include a second network, WICV. In 2005, Interlochen bought a Christian radio station, WDQV, and changed it to WIAB, a third station serving eastern Michigan.

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 provide classical music and news programming to northwest Michigan. These stations include Classical Music 88.7, 88.5, 94.7, and 100.9 FM, and News Radio 91.5, 90.1, and 89.7 FM. Programming includes arts, news, and culture from around the world, as well as local and regional news. IPR became a founding member of National Public Radio.

Interlochen Public Radio, founded in 1963, was created to extend the Music From Interlochen program, which aired on the NBC radio network. This program shared information about the activities at the National Music Camp and the new Interlochen Arts Academy. In its early years, the station struggled to gain popularity, but it eventually grew by offering separate music and news services.

In 1993, Interlochen Public Radio had one of the highest rates of donations 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 started a 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.

At Interlochen Arts Academy, students can major in music, dance, theatre, visual arts, creative writing, film and new media, and interdisciplinary arts.

Sustainability

In 2019, Interlochen Center for the Arts was honored by the US Department of Education as a Green Ribbon School. This recognition placed Interlochen among 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 implementing a Climate Action Plan focused on learning, sustainable operations, and building practices. With bold goals, the school has made important improvements in sustainability, including purchasing green solar energy, installing electric vehicle charging stations, providing 39 water-bottle filling stations, using local and regional food sources, and operating industrial composting on campus.

Interlochen’s sustainability efforts apply across the entire campus, with many initiatives 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 explore the site.

Built in 2019, Interlochen is home to one of the few school-based mid-sized industrial compost facilities in the country. The facility processes large amounts of food waste combined with dried leaves, woodchips, and branches collected on campus during fall cleanup. 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 to the end of August each year. Topics include nature, art, and sustainability, such as watercolor painting, farm-to-table cooking, mocktails, botanical art, poetry, and other related subjects.

Awards and accolades

In 2006, the Interlochen Center for the Arts received the National Medal of Arts from President George W. Bush.

In 2021, the Interlochen Center for the Arts was added as the 14th musical group in the American Classical Music Hall of Fame.

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

The podcast Points North from Interlochen Public Radio won the Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in journalism. Interlochen Public Radio has received 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 nation.

The Sustainability Department at Interlochen has received many awards, such as Michigan Green Schools and the US 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 after S. S. Kresge
• Interlochen historical sign
• United States Army Herald Trumpets at Interlochen in 2010

Controversies

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, individuals involved in illegal activities, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, used a summer camp to locate underage girls. Epstein was a teenaged bassoon player at Interlochen summer camp in 1967. Over a period of 13 years, Epstein donated approximately $400,000 to Interlochen. This financial support ended in 2008 when the connection between Epstein and the camp was stopped.

Faculty and guest artists

• Composer Lauren Bernofsky
• Educator Allen Britton
• Pianist Van Cliburn (1961–2007)
• Conductor Roderick Cox
• Composer George Crumb (1957, 1958, and 1961)
• Director of bands Albert Austin Harding
• Director of academy orchestras Leslie B. Dunner
• Organist and composer Richard Ellsasser
• Composer and pianist Percy Grainger (on faculty 1930–1944)
• Conductor Louis Langrée
• Saxophonist Cecil Leeson
• Composer and conductor Howard Hanson (visiting conductor 1928–1931; composed the "Interlochen Theme," later used in his Symphony No. 2)
• Camp counselor Marie Hartwig
• Composer John S. Hilliard
• Jazz vibraphonist Milt Jackson
• Conductor Jerry Junkin
• Violinist Dennis Kim
• Composer Homer Keller
• Composer Casey Kriechbaum
• Cellist Yo Yo Ma (embarked on a national tour with an orchestra)
• Conductor and music educator Joseph E. Maddy (founder of the academy)
• Composer Gary Lee Nelson
• Pianist William Chapman Nyaho (current faculty)
• Conductor and director of orchestras Jung-Ho Pak (since 2003)
• Violinist Itzhak Perlman (1989–1995)
• Bassoonist Vincent Pezzi
• Administrator Susan Poser
• Conductor and composer John Philip Sousa
• Oboist Daniel Stolper (visited 1972)
• Singer-songwriter Chris Thile
• Conductor and director of orchestras Carolyn Watson (since 2013)
• Composer Paul W. Whear
• Electrical engineer Jerome Wiesner