MUSIC COMPOSITION SUMMER CAMP PROGRAM ON LONG ISLAND

An Outdoor Music Composition Summer Camp Experience

At Usdan, young artists in grades 4-12 from beginner to advanced are given the tools and knowledge they need to compose original music. Students spend their days developing and refining either a new composition project, or a project they have already begun, in open-air studios and creative spaces around Usdan’s 140-acre wooded campus.

Across a 4-week session, students collaborate with professional musicians and composers to bring their original compositions to life. In previous summers, Composition students worked alongside musicians from The Knights and International Contemporary Ensemble, who then performed the students’ original pieces.

In 2025, Usdan will offer five unique Composition classes — Classical Music, Musical Theater, Songwriting, Found Sound, and Intro to DJ Basics and the History of Hip-Hop. At the conclusion of each class, students can look forward to either performing their composition for a live audience and/or taking home a professional recording of their work.

Classes are small and faculty spend ample time working one-on-one with each student, allowing the class to include students ranging from first-time composers to award-winners with experience composing for large orchestral ensembles.

SUMMER CAMP BUSING FOR Long Island, NYC, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens Kids

For over fifty years, Usdan has offered an enriching arts, music, theater, creative writing and dance summer camp experience to children all over the region, from Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn in New York City, to Port Washington and Huntington, and all over Nassau and Suffolk counties. Usdan offers busing to and from camp from convenient central pickup locations. For more information on busing, please visit our Transportation page. 

2025 Composition Classes

Composition: Classical Music

Available for 4-week A and 4-week B
Grades 6–12

Composition: Found Sound

Available for 4-week A
Grades 4–12

Composition: Intro to DJ Basics and the History of Hip-Hop

Available for 4-week A
Grades 7–12

Composition: Musical Theater

Available for 4-week B
Grades 4–12

Composition: Songwriting

Available for 4-week A and 4-week B
Grades 6–12