The battery in the video camera is charged. The white shirt is pressed. The black bow tie is out and next to the polished black dress shoes. The big event is almost here.

After final rehearsals and a sound check on stage, the young musicians of the Summer String Institute will present their chamber music concert. It will include everything from Mendelssohn's Octet to Beethoven's String Quartet op. 135 to Brahms Quintet op. 88...as well as Hadyn, Mozart, and Schubert. Then in the evening, the kids do their orchestra concert, and that is when they wear their formal attire. We really will be able to march with the penquins.

It has been an intense week (not to mention a daily adventure on the area roads - ah, D.C. traffic!). Each SSI day started with either a sectional or full orchestra rehearsal. Then the kids had a rhythm class with a very entertaining percussionist. After that, each chamber group got together by themselves to work through ideas about their music.

The first break of the day came with a half hour lunch, and then came a private lesson for each kid. Next up was a coaching session for each chamber group, and as the final event of the day, a full orchestra rehearsal. After hours of music making (with a few quick card games thrown in between rehearsals), I assumed my son would be dead tired. He says he was not - that has to be either youth or a lack of knowledge about musician union rules!

The week went by too quickly, but now we can look forward to the upcoming season of the Howard County High School GT Orchestra with selections by Rossini, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Tchaikovsky.

Tomorrow is the first day of the high school National Philharmonic String Institute 2006. For one week my son will spend the day in chamber music rehearsals, orchestra rehearsals, and private lessons. He has been working hard to prepare his music, especially the Brahms Quintet in F major, Opus 88 and Tchaikosvky Serenade for Strings in C major

The National Philharmonic has a program called All Kids, All Free, All the Time that allows all kids from 7-17 to attend their classical music concerts for free. These concerts, as well as the summer institutes for middle and high school kids, are an opportunity to nurture the next generation of classical music lovers. Regardless of whether these kids choose to make music their vocation - and most won't because it's a hard way to make a living - one can hope that they will recognize music of quality as being one of the few remaining miracles left in an increasingly consumer-driven world.