Hidden Valley Music Seminars was founded to offer training opportunities of excellence in music and the arts. Focused primarily on young artists, Hidden Valley also offers classes to adults and fosters selected community arts activities. It operates major programs in chamber music, orchestral and choral music, opera, and dance.
Now in its 62nd year, Hidden Valley Music Seminars offers outstanding educational experiences in music, dance and opera. Presenting more than 100 classes and performances annually on its beautiful Carmel Valley campus, Hidden Valley creates an array of opportunities for Monterey County residents to engage with the arts in an intimate, inclusive, and welcoming environment.
Hidden Valley continues to develop programs that address pressing needs in the larger arts community, such as the Festival of Winds and the Emerging Composers Intensive, which attract participants worldwide. These innovations keep Hidden Valley vitally connected to the future of the arts while maintaining essential technical foundations and teaching traditions honed over six decades of experience.
Newly renovated with a state-of-the-art lighting system, Hidden Valley’s 300-seat theatre is also an important community venue for Youth Music Monterey County and for meetings, concerts, and events supporting dozens of local artists and regional non-profits each year.
Hidden Valley Music Seminars provides value in three major areas: 1) Education for aspiring students of the arts; 2) Professional development for mid-career artists; and 3) Arts access and exposure for local audiences.
Many of its education programs (Master Classes, Emerging Composers Intensive, Northern California Flute Camp, Festival of Winds, Road Scholar) serve students from all 50 states, while its Dance Center serves primarily Monterey County residents with classes for pre-school children through adults.
Hidden Valley’s Masters Festival, Festival of Winds, Emerging Composers Intensive, String Orchestra and Opera Ensemble provide high-level arts exposure to local audiences in the intimate setting of its 300-seat theater. In addition to its own roster of public performances, Hidden Valley also hosts the educational, cultural and community events of dozens of area organizations. On average, over 7,000 Monterey County residents interact with Hidden Valley as students, audience members, or event attendees each year.
There is a certain point where a student needs to be put into a high-pressure learning situation where they feel safe to make mistakes and learn from them while also seeing what a professional does - that we, too, make mistakes and recover from them, what we choose to discuss and focus on in rehearsal, and how we treat each other. Nowhere else will students get to spend so much time working with the faculty in this manner.
- Harrison Miller, Baltimore, MD (Principal Bassoon, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra)
