Mission

The Walden School is an educational program that employs a unique, music-based method to foster creative thinking, problem solving, and risk taking in young people.

Through the exploration of music as a language, The Walden School inspires students to develop a personal, creative voice within the context of an intellectual and artistic community.

The Walden School seeks to encourage broad thinking and active listening, teach delivery and acceptance of constructive criticism, plant the seeds of wisdom, and nurture a life-long commitment to creative expression, all resulting in the development of individuals who are capable of effecting positive change in the world around them.

Vision

The Walden School envisions a world with a higher concentration of people who approach life creatively, collaboratively, and with conviction; support music and the arts; and understand and respect each other's differences.

Description:
The Walden School (founded 1972) is a summer music school and festival offering programs that emphasize creative application, specifically through music improvisation and composition. In residence since 1983 on the campus of the Dublin School in beautiful Dublin, New Hampshire, the school provides an inspiring retreat-like environment ideal for creative music making. The Walden School is the successor organization to the Junior Conservatory Camp.
Walden’s renowned Young Musicians Program provides thorough and creative theoretical training for young musicians ages 9 to 18. The school is deliberately small, and a student to faculty ratio of 4 to 1 ensures that coursework is geared to the individual student, beginner through advanced, and that a creative and supportive musical community is formed and nurtured. During the five-week program, students attend classes in music history, analysis, computer musicianship, jazz and other topics to complement their thorough training in Walden’s core curriculum of musicianship and composition. During weekly composers forums, student improvisations and compositions are performed by faculty, students, and visiting artists and a guest moderator leads discussion about the pieces. The Walden School Concert Series features performances by world-class artists and ensembles that interact closely with students. All students and faculty participate in The Walden School Chorus which meets daily and performs a concert at the end of the session. Dances, swim trips, weekly mountain hikes, and ‘open mic’ nights balance this rigorous musical training and are integral to the Walden experience.

The Walden School’s Teacher Training Institute offers unique professional development opportunities to help music educators sharpen their musicianship skills, enrich their teaching with imaginative activities, and more effectively guide the creative voices of their students. Weekend workshops and weeklong intensives are designed for composers, college professors, public and private school music teachers, and private instructors interested in learning proven methods for introducing or further developing composition and improvisation activities in the classroom or studio. Interactive sessions with master teachers include daily classes in musicianship, computer music, solfège, rhythms, and improvisation and provide participants with innovative ideas and specific teaching tools based upon an original music pedagogy, initially developed by Grace Newsom Cushman, that has had proven success for more than 50 years.

History:
Walden School's philosophy and curriculum are rooted in a program for creative music education developed by the late Grace Newsom Cushman, founder and director of the Junior Conservatory Camp, Walden's predecessor, which flourished from the 1940s until 1972. Mrs. Cushman held the conviction that creativity is the primary purpose of education, and that the most successful program is one through which students discover new materials and concepts for themselves and learn to think independently. An outgrowth of her original work, the Walden Musicianship Course is the cornerstone of Walden School's academic program.

Following Mrs. Cushman's death, the Walden School was founded in 1972 by the late David Hogan, Pamela Layman Quist, and Lynn Taylor Hebden. David Hogan and Pamela Layman Quist served as the school's first directors from 1972 until 1994.

In 1994 Pamela Quist and Lynn Hebden turned the operation of the school over to a group of their protégés. Stephen Coxe became the Executive Director, Patricia Plude the Academic Dean, Seth Brenzel, Director of Admissions, Anne Deane, Director of Development and Public Relations, and Laura Mehiel, Business Manager.

In 1996 Patricia Plude assumed the position of Executive Director, and she was assisted by a team that continued to include Anne Deane, Seth Brenzel, and Laura Mehiel. Under Patricia's direction the school formed a Board of Directors that was, for the first time in its history, separate from the administrative team. At that time Anne Deane and Laura Mehiel chose serve as members of the Board of Directors, and Tanja Gubser was hired to be Walden's Director of Development, a position in which she served from 1999 - 2003.

In 2003 Patricia Plude stepped aside and Seth Brenzel moved into the position of Executive Director. He is currently assisted in The Walden School office by an able team which includes Patricia Plude, Director, Teacher Training Institute; Esther Landau, Development Director; Bradley Evans, Office Manager; and Malcolm Gaines, Data Base Manager.

Contact person: Brad Evans, Office Manager, (phone), (email)
Main office number: (415) 648-4710

Address:

31 A 29th Street San Francisco, CA 94110 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.waldenschool.org/

Directions:

Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: 24th Street BART Station,   Walk distance (in minutes): 10   Nearest Bus Stop: 29th and Mission Bus Stop, 1 minute walk

Miscellaneous Information

Besides English, which languages are spoken at your agency?
	No others
What is the minimum age for volunteers at your agency?
	15
Is your agency wheelchair accessible?
	No
Does your agency have the capacity to host groups of more than 10?
	No
Does your agency have the capacity to host groups of more than 20?
	No