Campus
Our campus includes student housing, practice rooms, ensemble rehearsal rooms, dining facilities, and a performance venue, along with our administrative offices.
Housing
Our campus includes three cottages, which feature shared bathrooms, screened porches, lounges, laundry facilities, and kitchenettes. Rooms are shared between two to three students and equipped with shelving, two wardrobes, air conditioning, and floor board heat.
Students are assigned to rooms according to age and gender, with a counselor assigned to each cottage. These counselors are on-call throughout the summer, assisting with everything from planning and leading recreational activities, administering medication, transporting students, and supporting our concert operations.
Facilities
Practice and Rehearsal Rooms
The practice facilities are adjacent to the three student lodges. The quadrangle of four buildings contains 21 rooms—9 ensemble rehearsal rooms and 12 solo practice rooms.
Mary Lange Center
The Mary Lange Center houses the organization’s cafeteria, administrative offices, box office, student lounge, and music library.
Clubhouse on Madeline Island
The Clubhouse, which overlooks the golf course and marina, is used for performances, master classes, rehearsals, and presentations. All performances at the Clubhouse are live-streamed for free on our YouTube channel.
Activities
Madeline Island Chamber Music offers various activities, including games and sports, crafts, kayaking and canoeing, hiking, bicycling, swimming, and other activities depending on student interest. None of these activities are mandatory. During all sponsored activities, Madeline Island Chamber Music staff are present to promote student safety.
Meals
Three meals a day are provided. Food is freshly prepared in the Mary Lange Center’s kitchen and served buffet-style. Dietary needs and food allergies are collected prior to the summer and communicated to our kitchen staff.
About Life on Madeline Island
Madeline Island is one of 22 islands in Lake Superior off the northwest tip of Wisconsin. Fourteen miles long and three miles wide, Madeline is reached by car ferry from the mainland town of Bayfield, Wisconsin. The island has a year-round population of about 400 people that swells to several thousand in the summer. Many summer residents come from Minneapolis-St. Paul, which is about a 4-1/2 hour drive.
Weather
Weather on Madeline Island is widely variable, especially in June; temperatures can range from 40°F-90°F.
Practicalities
- There is no drugstore or gas station on the island.
- There are two markets on the island offering limited options for food, drink, and supplies. Prices are at a premium due to its location.
- There is not a luthier available on the island, but we have been fortunate to have Claire Givens Violins visit for a few days around the midway point of programming to assist with any adjustments or accessories needed.
- Madeline Island has a post office and ATM. Packages can be received through USPS, FedEx, and UPS.
Staying Connected
- Cell phone service is increasingly available and reliable; however, the campus is still quite remote and occasionally service is interrupted.
- Wireless high-speed internet is available in all campus buildings.
Bugs and Wildlife
The number of bugs and when they arrive varies considerably from year to year. Insect numbers also vary from one location to another, due to micro-climate effects, and from day to day due to weather changes.
Getting to Madeline Island
Madeline Island Chamber Music offers students a chartered bus from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport (MSP) to Madeline Island. A Madeline Island Chamber Music representative will meet participants at the airport and escort them to the bus. The bus will drive directly to Madeline Island. Transportation back to Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport is provided at the end of the program. Details are communicated upon acceptance to the program.
Students and their families can also elect to drive to Madeline Island.