A popular music camp at the International Peace Garden will be back in session this summer.

The International Music Camp started back in 1956 and over the decades has attracted thousands of students from Canada, the United States and from around the world.

The International Music Camp Summer School of Fine Arts offers a wide array of cultural study for students and adults.  In weekly sessions, students of all ages gain concentrated knowledge in their particular area of interest.  While the camp name speaks of its foundation in Music, IMC also offers one week summer camp programs in June and July in Dance, Creative Writing, Painting, Drawing, Theatre, and several other Fine Arts disciplines.

Christine Baumann is a co-director at the music camp and she says after two years without sessions they look forward to having youth and adults on site at the camp facilities south of Boissevain.

“We’re returning the camp this summer and we’re really excited. We have a full range of sessions with more than 40 programs to choose from. The camp will feature kids between the ages of 10 to 18 and also adults 21 and up.”

A staff of 150+ artist-teachers, internationally noted guest conductors, and outstanding clinicians from the United States and Canada provide instruction to students from around the world.

“Over the past two years we’ve done a lot of maintenance and made sure our grounds and buildings were taken care of. Hopefully things are in better shape when people return from when they left the camp back in 2019” said Baumann.

Registrations are coming in and camp officials says things are really picking up.

“We normally host about 2,000 people but this year as we start back up again we expect to have about 1,200 people for the sessions. We recognize we are still working through the pandemic and this year we will have Canadian and American participants and we’ll add our international students in 2023.”

Most of the jobs at the camp have been filled. Baumann says they are still looking for people to work in the kitchen and the dining hall.

The weekly sessions start June 19 and the final session starts July 30.