Music at Port Milford, established in 1987, offers a four week intensive chamber music experience for serious string players, ages 12-18 in historic Prince Edward County, Ontario. Students, who are admitted competitively, work together to produce weekly performances of chamber, orchestral and choral works. The atmosphere is one of cooperation. The 2007 Artist faculty include the award-winning Tokai Quartet. Weekly Faculty Artist and Student Performances.

While putting together challenging weekly performances, students work cooperatively and often form lasting friendships through their common interests. The camp is located on an historic thirty-five acre farm overlooking South Bay. The Students are housed in charming cabins, complete with front porches and lake views.

While the string quartet literature forms the heart of the program, each day is started with singing in the full camp chorus. The Chorus covers a wide range of repertoire from 16th century madrigals through contemporary folk. Evenings are dedicated to exploring string orchestra repertoire.

In 1995, Music At Port Milford won Chamber Music America's Gruber Award for excellence in chamber music instruction.

Chamber Music: It was the founders' great love of string quartet playing and their many happy years as students and teachers in summer music programs that led to the creation of MPM. Consequently, quartet-playing is at the heart of our program. Each student is assigned to a chamber group based on their level and experience and given daily coaching sessions. Music is chosen from the standard quartet literature: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Dvorak, Schumann.

Choral Music: Everyone sings in the MPM chorus, which meets daily. We believe that singing, besides being great fun, is one of the best ways to teach sight-reading and pitch-discrimination. We sing challenging rounds, folk songs, and 3-4 part motets and cantatas for local church services. The Madrigal Singers group is an option for students who are strong readers.

Orchestra: The string orchestra rehearses each evening after dinner. Reading skills are emphasized. The repertoire ranges from the baroque period to the contemporary.

Performances and Special Events: At the end of each week the chamber groups, orchestra, chorus and Madrigal Singers perform in Milford and Picton. As part of our community outreach, the chorus and select instrumental ensembles perform in local churches on Sunday mornings. The artist faculy present weekly chamber concerts.

Individual Lessons: Each student receives weekly individual instruction with an assigned teacher. Our high student/teacher ratio optimizes opportunities for additional individual attention.

Quartet-in-Residence: The Tokai Quartet will serve as coaches, mentors and private teachers as well as give public performances in the town of Picton.

Recreation: Afternoon time allows for a bit of relaxation or activities such as volleyball or swimming (certified lifeguard on duty at all times), pick up soccer games, frisbee, chess, reading in the hammock, chatting with friends. On non-performance nights, evenings include movies, jam sessions, the famous MPM dances on the deck, and campfires overlooking South Bay.

Facilities: Campers are housed with their counselors in cabins overlooking South Bay. All classes are held in the farm house and adjacent farm buildings. Our big country kitchen produces fine meals, relying heavily on local farm produce.