University of Wisconsin-Madison Precollege Summer Music Clinic Senior Session

Everyone has classes in the morning and afternoon. Commuters arrive between 7 and 7:30 a.m., eat lunch on campus and leave between 4:20 and 4:30 p.m., while residential students stay on for afternoon and evening activities and concerts and sleep in a campus residence hall.

The week has a clear shape. Sunday is check-in, with staggered arrival times and camp starting for everyone at 4 p.m., and you find out which ensemble you're in that evening. Saturday is the performance and presentation day, finishing at 3 p.m.

Outside class there are community activities such as sports, games, arts and crafts and campus tours, daily performances by local professionals and faculty, and a student recital you can ask to audition for when you arrive.

No. Any student finishing grades 9 to 12 in spring 2027 can register, including students who have just completed high school, and SMC asks for no extra forms or documents. Some classes cap enrollment, so SMC encourages registering early.

Auditions come after you arrive. For ensembles and technique classes you choose, at check-in, between a 3- to 5-minute placement audition (a short solo or excerpt, an excerpt SMC gives you, sight-reading and scales) and a placement conversation about your experience, skill level and goals.

The Violin and Saxophone Institutes are the exception. They add master classes and private lessons to the regular program, and you apply by choosing the institute option when you register and emailing a recorded audition by 1 April 2027. Violinists send one movement of a concerto and a three-octave scale with arpeggio, ideally with piano accompaniment and with fingers and bow in view, and every applicant gets audition feedback with the decision. Badger Precollege doesn't list separate saxophone requirements, so saxophonists should ask SMC.

International students must be 15 to 18 and need a B-1 or B-2 visitor visa. Badger Precollege suggests a TOEFL score of 80 or IELTS 6.5, or a phone or video interview if you have no score, and recommends applying by early April to leave 8 to 10 weeks for the visa.

Classes are led by music educators and working musicians from Madison, the rest of Wisconsin and across the US, with specialists teaching each instrument and voice part. The 2027 staff list hasn't been posted, but the 2026 Senior Session faculty included Eleanor Bartsch and Dawn Wohn on the Violin Institute, Josh Baker on saxophone, multi-platinum producer Pacal 'DJ Pain 1' Bayley teaching DJing and score creation, Arun Luthra on jazz theory and Indian music in jazz, and Julia Baumanis of Rutgers University leading a session on allyship.

Groups stay fairly small. Many 2026 electives were capped at 18 students and the piano classes at 12, while large ensembles such as band, choir and orchestra are split into several groups after placement.

With the $75 registration fee, a week costs $1,350 if you live on campus and $950 if you commute. The Violin or Saxophone Institute and the international rate are $1,500 each, so $1,575 with the fee. The residential price covers your room and all meals, and commuters get lunch every day. Badger Precollege doesn't say whether the institute price includes housing, so ask before you book. International students also pay for flights and a US visa.

The full program fee is due by 1 June 2027. Cancel more than a month before the 27 June start and you get it all back apart from the $75, which is never refunded. From one month to two weeks before, Badger Precollege keeps 10% of the program fee, and in the last two weeks it keeps 20%. For Summer Music Clinic that share is of the fee due, so you owe it even if you haven't paid yet. Once camp starts there's no refund, including for illness.

Need-based scholarships, full or partial, are limited. Full awards go mainly to Wisconsin students, out-of-state students can get up to 50% of tuition, and there's no aid for international students. You register first, then send either the school-signed Badger Precollege Scholarship Form if you qualify for free or reduced-price school meals in Wisconsin, or the first page of your latest 1040 tax return. Everything is due by 1 April 2027, and awards are made in April.

It can if you're finishing your junior year at a Wisconsin high school, are a permanent Wisconsin resident and plan to major or double major in music at UW–Madison or UW–Milwaukee. Ten waivers are awarded each year through auditions held during the Senior Session, with a preliminary round on 27 June 2027 and a final on the evening of 30 June, and results arrive by email after the session.

The application is separate and due by 11:59 p.m. on 1 June 2027. It asks for your high school transcript, two recommendation letters (one from a music teacher or music professional) and a statement of purpose of up to 500 words, and you also need to be registered for the session by 15 May 2027. Except in jazz, you bring your own accompanist, which SMC suggests arranging several months ahead.

The award is narrower than the organizer's 'tuition-free' wording suggests. It covers resident tuition for up to eight consecutive semesters but not room, board or segregated fees, and you have to stay full time, keep a 3.0 GPA and remain a music major. Winners and alternates must also attend the Senior Session again the summer after graduating, paying for it themselves unless they get a scholarship.

Residential students are looked after by counselors, usually college students or young educators, several of whom were SMC campers themselves. Across its residential programs Badger Precollege assigns each Residential Assistant about 12 to 14 students and has them live in the same section of the residence hall. Adults working with minors have a criminal background check every two years and training in CPR, first aid, mandated reporting and youth mental health first aid, and UW–Madison policy bans one-on-one contact between an adult and a minor. Badger Precollege's safety commitment sets out the rules.

Health care, including medication, goes through University Health Services Camp Health, and families fill in a CampDoc health form in April or May. A student who catches a communicable disease such as COVID-19 is normally withdrawn, and a parent must collect a residential student within 24 hours or a commuter within 2 hours. Commuters sign in and out every weekday with a designated adult, who may be asked for ID. Phones aren't allowed in classes, rehearsals or performances, and SMC suggests leaving them at home.