Calling all 5th-12th graders: Spend your summer making music with Stax Music Academy!
This June, SMA invites students to join its Summer Music Experience, an immersive program designed for young artists ready to explore, collaborate, and grow through music.
Auditions for the Summer Music Experience are required to help place students in the program and are open to performers of varying experience levels.
Stax Music Academy’s Summer Music Experience
- June 1-26 | Monday-Friday (excluding special events)
- 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Location: Stax Music Academy, 910 E McLemore Ave.
Audition Dates
- Friday, April 24 | 4 – 6:30 p.m.
- Saturday, April 25 | 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
- Friday, May 15 | 4 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
- Saturday, May 16 | 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
- Location: Stax Music Academy, 910 E McLemore Ave.
More than a summer camp, the experience offers a chance to dive into multiple areas of the music industry while building confidence and community with fellow young musicians.
Throughout the four-week program, students participate in a variety of hands-on creative opportunities, including:
- Choreography Training: Build performance skills through structured movement training, learning choreography across multiple styles while developing confidence, stage presence, and musicality. Encourages creativity, intentional movement, and a strong connection to the music – preparing for both stage and real-world performance.
- Music Business: Prepares high school students in the program for today’s music industry by focusing on how to craft songs and protect, distribute, and promote their work. Explores compositions from the Stax and Motown catalogs alongside staples across genres, including classical, blues, gospel, country, jazz, soul, R&B, rock, funk, disco, hip-hop, and electronic music, while introducing ways to generate income and build sustainable careers.
- Production: Learn the fundamentals of audio engineering and music production while exploring roles such as producers, engineers, songwriters, and live sound technicians. Includes collaborative, hands-on experience completing a full song or project and producing a live show, with exposure to promotion, marketing, consulting, and management.
- Songwriting: Collaborate in small groups over three weeks to write and develop an original song from idea to completion, covering melody, lyrics, structure, and teamwork. Concludes with a songwriting competition, where the winning team earns studio time and a performance at the final summer showcase.
Beyond developing confidence, students leave with real-world experience, creative discipline, and a deeper understanding of how the music industry works, from collaboration and performance to production and promotion. Along the way, they build meaningful connections with peers and mentors, while gaining insight into potential career paths in music and beyond.
“My first year at camp, I was really nervous. But through the process, I learned how to be more confident and sing out. Being on stage at the finale, in front of hundreds of people, meant a lot. It showed me that others appreciated my voice, and I felt truly seen.”
The program culminates in a Grand Finale performance at the Overton Park Shell on Saturday, June 27, where students take to the iconic stage and showcase all they’ve learned throughout the summer. The event is free and open to the public.
To learn more about Stax Music Academy’s Summer Music Experience and to register your student, please click here.
Questions about the program or audition process? Email smaprogramming@staxmusicacademy.org.
