Applications are now open for the third annual University of Delaware Master Players Festival and School (MPF), which will take place from July 26 to Aug. 6, 2017, at the Roselle Center for the Arts on UD’s Newark campus.

MPF is an intensive training program that offers boarding and accepts local commuters at a discounted rate. Merit-based and need-based assistantships and scholarships donated by the China Music Foundation are available for full time UD music students and alumni, music students of the tri-state region and current UD Community Music School students.

MPF is co-sponsored by China Music Foundation (USA), Blue Resources USA, the UD Department of Music and Community Music School, the Courtyard Newark-University of Delaware hotel and Bromberg Fine Violins in Wilmington.

All information can be found at the MPF website. Those with questions can contact MPF at masterplayers@udel.edu.

This past summer, under the direction of its founding artistic director Xiang Gao, UD Trustees Distinguished Professor of Music, the second annual Master Players Festival and& School tripled in size after just one year to become one of the fastest growing international music festivals in the U.S. Click here for a short film of last year’s festival.

Many talented music students will be selected from elite American and other international music institutions to have the opportunity to work with professional concert artists and elite pedagogues in master classes, private lessons, chamber music coaching sessions, special workshops, orchestral and jazz studies, solo and concerto competitions, and winners concerts.

In addition, a group of advanced young musicians under the age of 14 will be selected through auditions to participate in the very successful MPF Little Masters Camp, where they will enjoy daily excursions including fencing, horseback riding, skating, canoeing among others in addition to intensive music training under renowned musicians. Click here for a short film of the Little Masters Camp.

The performing music faculty who will be featured in many MPF concerts and teach during the festival includes leading members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York City, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, as well as performing faculty hailing from such esteemed institutions as the University of Delaware, Peabody Conservatory of Music, Pennsylvania State University, Temple University, University of Maryland, Louisiana State University, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, University of West Virginia, East China Normal University in Shanghai, Hong Kong Academy of Arts, Capital Normal University in Beijing, China.

Next year, two additional programs will be offered during MPF. The inaugural MPF music theory program synthesizes music theory, analysis, and compositional practice using an innovative and performance-orientated approach that is unique to the field.

Music theory participants will have the opportunity to compose, have their composition performed, as well as learn from working with performing faculty and students. The program will feature top pedagogues from leading institutions like the Juilliard School, the University of Delaware, and East China Normal University.

Also making its debut is the MPF visual art and design program under the direction of Troy Richards, interim associate dean for the arts in UD’s College of Arts and Sciences. Participants will learn from renowned faculty through specially designed workshops in a variety of media including: digital, animation, illustration, printmaking, painting, sculpture, photo and video.

The art and design faculty will include leading art faculty at UD as well as professional artists who teach at major art institutions in the U.S. Program participants will be able network with them and see their artwork in person, and even collaborate on original works for exhibition at the festival.

Festival participants also have the opportunity to attend educational lectures and seminars designed to introduce American and international students to life on the University of Delaware campus and music career planning in the U.S.

In addition, students have the opportunity to take trips in the days preceding and following the festival. As a part of the American Musical Journey designed and led by MPF director Gao and other faculty, some MPF students will visit historical and tourist sites as well as major American musical and visual art landmarks. Participants will travel to New York City to visit the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and Broadway; Philadelphia to visit the Curtis Institute, the Kimmel Center, University of Pennsylvania, and Temple University; Baltimore to visit the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University and Meyerhoff Symphony Hall; and Washington, D.C., to visit the Kennedy Center, among others.

Gao explains that the festival is designed to help "recruit high quality music and art students from the U.S. and abroad to our beloved university, raise the profile of our university while making Newark, Delaware a true cultural destination in the summer.”

In addition, Gao points out that the international music festival is co-managed and co-supported by the China Music Foundation to promote Sino-U.S. relations through the arts. The festival is also a part of the expansion of the Master Players Concert Series, also founded by Gao, which entered its 13th season this fall with sold out concerts under the leadership of the Master Players Advisory Council.

The festival’s daily concert and exhibition schedule from July 26 to Aug. 5, 2017, will be announced in the spring.