Our Values

We Spend All Year Developing an Inspiring Musical Community With These Values in Mind

From our camper recruitment and staff hiring to our musical programming and activity planning, Camp Encore/Coda works to create a safe space for young musicians to be inspired and experience personal growth. Our staff know the importance of cultivating a true summer home that’s welcoming, nurturing, and supportive. We are all dedicated to upholding these values that make camp the best place to be summer after summer!

Safety

Safety is a top priority at Camp Encore/Coda. We have fantastic nurses on staff 24/7 to manage our camper’s medications, health, and wellbeing. At the waterfront, our lifeguards are always prepared to keep our campers safe and having a blast. Each summer we train our counselors in CPR, and we are commited to excellent supervision throughout the summer. Our staff are trained around supporting campers’ social-emotional needs, and one of our Head Staff members is a Licensed Social Worker who provides support around mental health.

Serious and
Non-Competitive 

Camp Encore/Coda is a supportive, non-competitive musical environment that nurtures every camper and staff member to be the best musician they can be. Our professional music faculty teach and inspire campers of all skill levels, and we have ensembles and classes appropriate for all of our age groups. You can tell how supportive we are by the standing ovation that every camper gets when they perform on a camper concert!

Welcoming Environment

As part of our efforts to create an anti-racist and anti-oppressive environment, policies, and mindsets, we value pursuing equitable opportunities for all, and we consistently re-evaluate our practices and policies. Musically, we think that representation matters and actively program works by composers of color and incorporate diversity into our music history programs.

We have gender-expansive cabin options, both for campers who don’t fit the gender binary and want to be in a gender-expansive cabin, and for campers who are cis-gender and prefer this option. For some campers, summer at Encore/Coda can be a time to explore identities in a supportive environment.

Being Fully Present

Camp Encore/Coda is a summer filled with genuine social interactions, engaging classes, memorable performances, and stunning nature. All parts of camp are experienced real-time and in person without the use of phones and screens! We value giving our campers and staff a retreat from a world filled with distractions and technology. We are fully present in the moment, soaking up all of the music, friends, and nature we can get! Interested in our screen free policy? Read more about it in our blog!

Choose Your Own Adventure

Encore/Coda’s musical programming offers a wide range of ensembles, classes, genres, and performance opportunities. Our system is set up so the camper can choose their own musical adventure. Campers have the option to dive deep into their favorite genre, take a class in every genre, and everywhere in between! We give campers the opportunity to truly find their musical passions. The adventure doesn’t stop at music: campers can also choose to enrich their lives with sports, waterfront, arts and crafts, and other activities!

Accountability

We know and understand that everyone from campers to counselors, faculty and head staff make mistakes, which can sometimes cause harm to other people. We want to work with campers, our staff and within our head staff team to own mistakes when they happen, and to address any harm that may have been caused. This is one way in which we aim to center the importance of relationships within our small camp community. 

From the counselors to the directors, we expect our staff to be open to feedback and evaluation, and we value honest and open communication. We have begun to engage in the long-term work of incorporating restorative justice values and practices into our camp community.