As local musicians Sean Hoffman and Ellen Coplin continue their full-time crusade to perform, promote and preserve bluegrass traditions across the heartland, they are inviting area youth to spend a week learning and jamming with their popular newgrass string collective, Debutants.
Designed for students in grades 4-12, this week-long camp will explore ear training and improvisation in an acoustic string band setting and participants can register for violin/fiddle, guitar, mandolin, banjo, upright bass, cello, or viola.
The camp takes place Monday, July 20 through Friday, July 24 at the Purdue Fort Wayne Music Center.
Here WBOI’s Julia Meek discusses the scope and format of this high energy “Hoot Camp” with the couple and how it will impact the future of their craft.
Event Information:
Debutants' Hoot Camp
Purdue Fort Wayne Music Center
Monday, July 20–Friday, July 24
9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Cost: $275
Register and find scholarship information at the PFW Music Center website.
The music at the end of our conversation is Wish I had an Airplane from Debutants' River On The Moon album, a favorite performance piece among Hoot Camp participants.
This is a transcript of our conversation:
Julia Meek: Ellen Coplin, Sean Hoffman, welcome.
Ellen Coplin: Hi, Julia.
Sean Hoffman: Hi.
Julia Meek: So, you are continuing to live your dream of making, sharing, and teaching music, and seemingly there's never a dull moment these days. This is what you wanted. How is it all suiting you about now?
Ellen Coplin: Better than ever.
Sean Hoffman: Yeah, things are going well. We're very busy and trying to take time for ourselves when we can, and we're finding that that is hard, so it's a good problem to have.
Julia Meek: Yes, you've been very, very, very busy, in fact, touring nationally, performing locally, you're hitting the festival and music camp circuit already, even this spring, and now it really is time for you two to get busy with the Hoot Camp.
Before we discuss what's ahead, would you fill us in on the highlights that you Debutants and you two as Bobcat Opossum have experienced?
Ellen Coplin: The one that comes most recently to mind is our opportunity that we had a couple weeks ago to open for the Steel Drivers at the Honeywell Center.
Julia Meek: How was that?
Sean Hoffman: It was a great night. We had a lot of fun. The crowd was amazing, I think, and we nailed our time mark.
As the opening band, if you go overtime, you know, I feel like that's the biggest faux pas that you can do. But we walked off stage at 7:59, [all chuckle] you know, and it was like our half hour was perfect.
But it was an amazing night. We had our friends from Smiley Face Media come and take video, so we got footage of that, and some fantastic pictures. It was a really magical night. We had a great show.
Julia Meek: There's still rave reviews coming out about that event. Good for all of you involved. And fact is, this is all in the name of Roots Music.
Everything we are talking about, especially bluegrass and the preserving of it. Why is this critical, you know, purpose and timing--why now?
Ellen Coplin: More than ever, I see the arts being underfunded and the accessibility for the arts declining. And music is something that begins at such an early age.
You know, young people, they sing, they dance, they start to do all of those things before they realize that maybe you know, before society tells them, oh, you maybe you shouldn't do this.
I've worked with young folks that are brilliant songwriters and musicians, and they have all of that capacity, just born inside, you know, the human has all that born inside them.
And so, I think reaching young people with the arts is becoming more and more important, and maybe less and less supported, or available.
Julia Meek: And then we factor in that bluegrass is something very special. It's nearly on the endangered species list, just for getting people of all ages, but especially young folks interested in carrying on that tradition.
That is where you come in with the sharing all of it. How hard are you feeling it is to make an impression on people about liking it and wanting to play it?
Sean Hoffman: Yeah, I think Bluegrass is actually kind of having a moment with artists like Billy Strings, you know, he's bringing it to a lot of people that, and I'm gonna go ahead and include Debutants in that company because I feel like we are doing a similar thing in our area on a more regional level.
Yeah, bluegrass is having a moment. But I think for me what resonates, and what maybe resonates for a lot of people, is the hands-on sort of nature of it, you know, it's not just a thing that you consume, it's a thing you do.
And I think that's a big part of what we're trying to promote with the Hoot Camp, and by focusing on bluegrass.I mean, it's music we love, but also it's accessible.
Like classical music is amazing, and it produces amazing artists, but you know, you have so many people that study the violin or play in the orchestra through high school or middle school, and then they stop, they quit playing for the rest of their lives.
Whereas Roots Music is more accessible, it's like folk music, right? It's of the people and by the people kind of music.
And so you can, if you can get people on that path and connecting them with some community resources and groups that are promoting it, like the Northern Indiana Bluegrass Association.
Around here they can build these sort of lifelong habits of learning and playing, and they have an outlet for it, and I think that can be really powerful.
Julia Meek: You bring up a great point with the Bluegrass Association, because they are hitting 50 years anniversary, and that is no small number to be celebrating, and they've done it through thick and thin, and the family tradition carrying it on right here, right now.
Do you directly feel like you're helping that cause, and maybe just maybe going to push them in to a real good start on the next 50?
Sean Hoffman: Yeah, it feels really good to be a part of that, and so much appreciation for what they've done over the last 50 years, kind of carrying the torch for bluegrass and this community of people, you know.
Bluegrass can be a really wide umbrella, you know, and I think it's expanding as we move forward, like with the Debutants, we call ourselves newgrass more than bluegrass, you know.
And we pull from really wide ranges of musical genres and experience levels, and it's definitely not your grandpa's bluegrass, I guess. [all chuckle]
I don't know, but it's... I think we all have a really deep kind of respect for that tradition, and I think that shows in our music too.
Julia Meek: And several generations of people you're talking about just in this conversation, which is going to bring the generational thing into play as you go forward.
And all of his brings us to your Hoot Camp project. Last summer, you tested the waters with an initial test run. Basically, how and where did that go?
Ellen Coplin: That was more successful than we had even imagined, and we were dreaming big, but the way the community partners pulled together, and our students dug in, and our teachers really poured into the students.
We had 45 students show up and register for that class, you know, different backgrounds. We had a really diverse student base.
It was really cool to see, and some of the students formed their own bands out of the week of camp, which is our dream, you know, as Debutants, because that's how we got started, was John and Lynn playing together in high school.
And then they did their own thing, and they came back into town, and they, they had that connection.
Julia Meek: Kind of the roots of roots music, if you want to look at it that way.
Sean Hoffman: Mmhmm.
Ellen Coplin: But it starts, you know, it starts in middle school and high school, and if we can get these kids playing together and building those connections who knows where that will lead as far as the next generation of young musicians in this community?
Julia Meek: Well, hopefully you two are going to be able to tell us that after yet another year of your Hoot Camp. But in the meantime, what was the biggest thing you took away? You learned last year and took away for this year?
Ellen Coplin: I think the biggest thing I learned was that as much as you plan and hope and dream, your students will exceed that by miles.
And there's nothing you can even predict or visualize. But the things that students come up with just out of their own hearts and minds and creative brains, it just blows me away.
And I sort of expect that in a way, but you can never prepare for how cool that is.
Sean Hoffman: Yeah, I agree with that. I think one of the biggest things that we learned was just, I don't know, [sighs] it's not as cool as what your answer was, but it's the logistical stuff is also.
I mean, a lot of why we tried to do this stuff was, well, we have this idea, let's see if we can make it happen, and what does it take, and who are the people that we need on our team to do this?
And so I think we learned, at least I learned a lot about, like, oh, okay, this is the money we need to raise. These are the folks that we want to have part of the team and get involved with.
And you know, when you start off, it's like stuff you don't even really think about initially. And it's like, oh, okay, well, some of our kids don't have instruments, where are we going to get those? Where are those gonna come from?
And so getting together with the Guitar Exchange, they were super great, and they said anything you guys need, we'll provide it for the week. And that was really huge.
Julia Meek: Yeah, so the willingness of everybody to make this work sounds...
Sean Hoffman: Mmhm, yeah.
Julia Meek: ...almost overwhelming in a good way of course.
Sean Hoffman: Yeah, yeah.
Julia Meek: Now you didn't just start working on this last week. How long and how much is this official year taking to plan and improve and implement?
Ellen Coplin: I can't even measure the hours. [all chuckle] Just the, so many conversations, and Molly Papier at the Community Arts Academy, I call her so many times, like, hi, Molly, I have this question for you.
And then I turn around and realize I have another one. Thankfully, she doesn't mind talking to me on a weekly, sometimes daily basis. But we've been working on this year, I think, since last year.
Before the final notes of last year's concert, we started working on this year.
Julia Meek: Okay. Crunch a few of last year's numbers for us, Sean, you brought it up.
Sean Hoffman: Mmhmm.
Julia Meek: Who came? What could you accomplish? What was it like?
Sean Hoffman: So, yeah, I think we were aiming at 30 to 40 kids, and we ended up with 45 students for the week.
We coordinated with PBS 39 to come and film the Debutants portion of the concert, so they ended up filming the whole thing, and we did get footage of the kids playing.
Julia Meek: And I believe the Debutants would comprise your teaching staff.
Sean Hoffman: Right. So, we have seven teachers, and everybody really excelled last year.
I mean, of course, Ellen and I have teaching experience pretty extensively, and Lauren is the middle school orchestra director at Miami, but the other people in the band really rose to the, to the occasion, and were just absolutely phenomenal.
Colin comes to mind just because he's so.. I don't think he thinks of himself as a teacher. There's just sort of that, like, oh, teachers, like mmm, weird.
Julia Meek: And he is your big bad bass player.
Sean Hoffman: Yeah, yeah, I mean, he just did so well. He had a group of, I don't know, how many bass players were there, four or five?
Julia Meek: Yeah, there's a good handful.
Sean Hoffman: Yeah, and just the pictures from last year of him, like working with those students and really getting them going.
He has such a great, innate understanding of music and how it all fits together, you know. I mean, the bass player really is like the teacher of the band...
Julia Meek: That's a good point.
Sean Hoffman: ...almost. You know, they're holding everything down, and they, they really dictate the tone of arrangements and how things move, and like sort of the arc of a song, kind of thing, you know.
So it's, it's really fun to see him impart that to younger musicians.
Julia Meek: Having been at that concert. The energy was palpable, the joy was inherent in every note. Now, segue to this year's agenda, what's going to happen more different, bigger, better?
Ellen Coplin: We have been looking for a venue for our camp concert that would reflect the spirit of what we do as a band and love to do, which is festivals.
And creating the festival celebration feel. And we finally found what I think is one of the sweetest and coolest places in Fort Wayne for the performing arts, which is the Foellinger.
Julia Meek: Whoa, so the Debutants, of course, but your band of little bluegrassers all on that stage?
Ellen Coplin: Yes.
Sean Hoffman: The original inspiration for Hoot Camp was the Red Wing Academy down in Virginia, that we both teach at.
And I've been doing that for a long time, but it's it's a camp in front of a festival hosted by our good friends of Steel Wheels, and the kids play on Friday to open the festival, and it is the most packed, jammed...there's usually a couple 1000 people packed in this hot, hot tent, and it's a massive tent. [all chuckle]
So, seeing that happen as a possibility, it's like, man, let's, let's do that. That's been our inspiration, and so to find a venue where we can put the kids on a big, big stage and bring some other bands.
We have our friends, Booze Hounds Bluegrass are coming up from Indy, and they're just all over the place, we're gonna turn it into a little mini-fest, you know, so it's gonna be really fun.
That's kind of the biggest development this year that we're really excited about.
Julia Meek: That is a big development, rain or shine-friendly as well.
Ellen Coplin: Exactly.
Julia Meek: So, you have a wonderful facility, the Purdue Fort Wayne Music Center. What does that mean for the program?
Ellen Coplin: It wouldn't happen without that, that collaboration with Purdue and their Community Arts Academy and their facility that they have there, that they've done so much good community programming with, makes this whole camp possible.
Because you have performance spaces, you have beautiful classroom spaces, you have accessibility, it's very friendly to anybody who wants to attend.
And all of those, like safety, accessibility, and functionality components really make for a smooth week of camp.
Julia Meek: A big deal. Yes, yes, the best, the best experience. So, how many students can you handle, and what instruments exactly? And that does include voice, by the way, right?
Ellen Coplin: Singing is something we all do and will be a part of every instrument. So, we'll have some harmony classes, and songwriting, and all that gets rolled into singing and playing.
We had last year some kids who had never played before, and they had done, you know, mostly just singing.
And to be able to connect them with an instrument and get them started on that, as well as expand what they love to do with voice, is a really cool thing we try to do.
Julia Meek: Is it doable in five days?
Ellen Coplin: It is doable in five days, to get something started. You plant that seed of what is possible, and because we have such a great teaching staff, we can take from absolute beginner to advanced students and really build a curriculum that includes everybody.
Julia Meek: And again, all strings?
Sean Hoffman: Yeah, all the usual orchestra instruments, plus banjo and mandolin and guitar, is kind of what we focus on.
Julia Meek: So, how many students can you handle?
Ellen Coplin: The student-teacher ratio is important. We need to keep that low enough to give a lot of hands-on attention to each student.
However, our teaching staff is big. We have our seven-piece collective, and so we would take 60 to 70 students.
Julia Meek: Bring it on, that's what you're saying.
Ellen Coplin: Bring it on. Yeah.
Julia Meek: That's perfect. And now, five days, five hours per day. What can these amazing kids, plus amazing teachers, accomplish in that amount of time? It's a great amount of time, but it's only that amount of time.
Sean Hoffman: Yeah, so our focus last year, and it'll be kind of the same, we sort of arrange or write out leveled parts for some Debutant songs that are accessible for students.
So, we'll have those sort of parts, and by writing out sheet music parts and sort of leveling things, we really try to meet the students.
Like if some students have experience with orchestra camps and more string classical kind of things, we'll have sheet music available, but also, we really try to incorporate a lot more ear training and improv kind of stuff.
And it's hard to do improv with that many students, but I think we did have some students that took solos, so they were doing improv.
Ellen Coplin: And we have a different way of organizing throughout the day. So, we have big, large group ensembles.
And then we spend part of the day breaking it down into small group mini bands to give students a chance to have more like one-on-one time with small groups.
And then you get the chance to play with a lot of different arrangements throughout the week. It's cool to see kids blossom in like a small group that maybe forms a mini band.
We had last year our band perform, we had a student band, it was formed just across those five days that then got on the stage of the final concert and performed as that band.
Julia Meek: Quite, quite well, as a matter of fact, and we are anticipating we can look forward to that again this year.
Sean Hoffman: Yeah, oh yeah.
Julia Meek: That is just wonderful. Now finessing it all, again, you as teachers and experienced teachers, how easy is that to do, especially getting ready for it without yet knowing who's going to be there on what levels of expertise, you have working with?
Ellen Coplin: That's something that is an ongoing process. Every day of camp last year we had a teacher staff meeting at the end of the day, and we said, How are they doing? Who needs what?
What's working? What needs to be shifted and edited? And the sooner we know who we have at the camp, so register now, because the sooner we get all of those pieces, the sooner we can start working with them to make each camper's experience the best it could be.
Julia Meek: Is it too late to register, and is it filling up fast?
Ellen Coplin: Registration is open, and it is filling up fast. We have some scholarships available, but that's a limited number, so the sooner you can apply for that, the better, because those will be assigned.
So, we're actively connecting students to scholarships right now to get as many students in the door that need that assistance as possible. And the registration is filling up, so now is a good time.
Julia Meek: Now, because if you wait too late, it will be too late.
Ellen Coplin: Right.
Julia Meek: And so, from what all we've just talked about what are the absolute basics a kid needs to have if they want to be a part of this?
Sean Hoffman: Really, just a desire to come. We have a lot of great community partners, and we're still looking for sponsors.
If we have a kid who just absolutely can't afford it, we've had private sponsors and donors who were able to say, hey, I want to sponsor a student, and we connect those.
So, where there's a will, there's a way. If you want to come, get in touch with us.
Ellen Coplin: If you want to play the banjo, but you don't have one, or don't know anybody who has one, our partnership with Guitar Exchange and other individuals will allow us to provide an instrument for the week.
So, say you want to come, but you don't have the instrument, we can hook you up with that,
Julia Meek: They can find you, and there has to be some age limit on either end.
Ellen Coplin: There is, we can't accept toddlers yet.
Julia Meek: [laughs] Yet.
Sean Hoffman: We're saying the camp is designed for fourth grade up through high school.
Julia Meek: Okay, up through 12, that's a nice span, and that's a good challenge for the teaching staff. So, assuming your sailing is smooth as silk, and sounds like it's going to be, what's that concert going to feature?
Sean Hoffman: Well, we're excited, and we're still kind of building that a little bit, but we do have a commitment from our friends down in Indy, another band, the Booze Hounds Bluegrass.
They're going to come up and be involved at least for one day with the camp and then perform at the end of the week festival camp concert, and we'll feature the student bands and the performers.
We might have some individual student solo performances if they're comfortable with that. If there's anybody that has an obvious, like, oh, this is a great musician, they're coming in, and we try to promote that and give them a chance to shine if they want that, you know.
Julia Meek: And what a chance it is.
Sean Hoffman: And then finally, it'll be a full-on Debutants show, so we're gonna end things off with a big old Debutants performance.
And that was a really fun piece last year. We did this student concert, and then the students got to stick around in families and see what we do as a band, so it was really fun for them to see that, I think, and inspiring for us, you know, to be able to perform for them.
Julia Meek: A festival, indeed. The name of this festival will be, by the way?
Sean Hoffman: We're calling it The Hoot.
Julia Meek: [laughs] And it will be. You're promising that, right?
Sean Hoffman: Yeah, it will be.
Julia Meek: Okay, from start to finish this is one major undertaking with major time compression, major opening day, major closing night and a major reputation you all have to live up to, so, how is it all going to come down, do you think from your heart and what will it mean to all of you when it does?
Sean Hoffman: We just love to do this, and to pass this on.
You just, you feel so good about sharing your talents with the next generation of musicians and providing that connection point for both peer connections and for like community connections among the students.
And then with the students among the larger community.
It brings us a lot of joy to be able to do this.
Ellen Coplin: Last year's camp process, every single day was something beautiful. You saw little things unfolding, both in us as teachers and our students.
There's so many things that blossomed that week that make it worth the full year of waking up in the middle of the night, wondering about all the details you forgot to do.
The final day last year, Lynn got up on stage, our mandolin player, and he said, when Sean and Ellen asked me about this camp initially, I thought, why, and now standing here saying this is gonna happen again next year.
So, just seeing all of those elements come together, you sort of forget about how much work it is, and you say, oh man, let's do this again. [all chuckle]
Sean Hoffman: Yeah.
Julia Meek: Sean Hoffman and Ellen Coplin are founders and directors of Hoot Camp. Thanks for sharing your story of this major musical adventure. Good luck to all of you, and long live Bluegrass.
Ellen Coplin: Thanks, Julia.
Sean Hoffman: Thank you.
