Paid to play - Summer Gigs and Opportunities, Updated

(Hey, I've updated this in 2015, check it out)

Here are some places for collaborative pianists to spend their summers getting experience and/or paid. Summer stuff only, in this list:

Chamber/Instrumental:
Aspen - Collaborative Artist Program

Aspen - Contemporary Ensemble Fellowship*

Banff Centre - Collaborative Piano Internship

Castleton Festival Orchestra

Chamber Music Northwest Young Artist Fellowship

Eastern Music Festival hires collaborative pianists for instrumental accompaniment, must be 21 to applyInterlochen Summer Arts Camp hires 4-5 Instrumental accompanists

Hot Springs Collaborative Piano Apprenticeships

Kneisel Hall Chamber Music School and Festival

Meadowmount hires string accompanists - send resume & repertoire list (violin-viola-cello only) to gagnona@uncsa.com

Music Academy of the West - Instrumental Fellowship

Norfolk Chamber Music Session Fellowships

Summer Chamber Music Festival is a four-week chamber music program for string players and pianists aged 18-26

Tanglewood - Instrumental Pianist Fellowships

Texas Music Festival Fellowships

University of Nebraska-Lincoln - Chamber Music Institute Fellowships

Opera:
Ash-lawn Opera Festival hires one or two accompanists every summer

Aspen - Opera Coaching Fellowship Program

Atlantic Music Festival Fellowship Program (I think this is an opera gig . . . )

Banff Centre - Assistant Coach/Repetiteur

The College Light Opera Company hires two rehearsal accompanists every summer
CoOPERAtive program at Rider University has a training program for singers and collaborative pianists

Crested Butte Music Festival - Assistant coaches

Glimmerglass
Intermezzo has a 'Festival Orchestra Program'

Merola Opera Program

Music Academy of the West - Vocal Fellowship

Oberlin in Italy - Accompanist Apprenticeships

Opera in the Ozarks hires one or two rehearsal accompanists every summerOpera New Jersey - coach/accompanist apprentice

Opera North - hires pianists

Opera on the Avalon - art song and opera

OperaWorks Summer Intensive Program for coaches

San Francisco Merola Program

Tanglewood - Vocal Pianist Fellowships

Wolftrap Fellowships

Vocal - Art Song:

Asolo Song Festival & Institute for Song Interpretation (Italy)

Baldwin-Wallace Art Song Festival

Franz-Schubert-Institute - summer course for singers and pianists

Songfest - for singers and pianists
Vancouver International Song Institute

Musical Theatre:

Bowling Green State U Huron Playhouse

Intermezzo has a 'Festival Orchestra Program'

Interlochen Summer Arts Camp hires 4-5 Musical Theatre accompanistsKalamazoo Civic Theatre hires accompanists

Surflight Theatre - Musical and Music Directing Internships

West Virginia Public Theatre occasionally hires summer rehearsal accompanists

Choral:

Berkshire Choral Festival has a paid Apprentice program for accompanists

Interlochen Summer Arts Camp hires 4-5 Choral accompanists

Dance:

Interlochen Summer Arts Camp hires 4-5 dance pianists each summer

Etc:

Valleyfair Amusement Park hires keyboardists for summer shows - the rep is R&B, rock and kid stuff (in other words, easy $$)

!!!*Fellowships are [mostly] free

Holidays and Musicians

I pried my fingers loose from the keyboard somewhere around 12:15 am, Christmas Day. My digits are not throbbing - my brain, however, is. The holiday season is great for musician's bank accounts: churches offer services practically 24 hrs a day, holiday parties need background noise and choral concerts all use pianists in their celebration of the season. The holiday season is not so great for musicians on a personal level, however, in the sense of actually enjoying the season. In regards to the actual repertoire, there are only so many times one can play Silent Night, Joy to the World and the Hallelujah Chorus without wanting to torch the music. Even listening to Christmas music becomes a chore when it is usually done out of necessity to learn certain arrangments, sometimes resulting in a strong aversion to hearing ANY Christmas music. Parties are attended so often as a working musician that attending an actual holiday party for pleasure becomes a foreign concept*. On the academic side of things, it is jury time (singers and instrumentalists use pianists to accompany these tests) as well as a popular recital month. Then there are the students recording CDs for colleges and festivals, as well as other odds and ends of non-stop fun and excitement. This is why many musicians celebrate 'the holidays' in January. By sleeping.

*I actually managed to attend a party this year - and upon entry, immediately recognized the song played by the pianist as Webber's 'Music of the Night'. I had a good sympathy chuckle, as Phantom (or Cats, or Evita, etc) is crowd-pleasing, easy to play, and fills time. A.L. Webber should be named the patron saint of cocktail music filler.