Join us at the
Ossipee
Valley
String
Camp
Scholarship Updates: We have awarded all scholarships for the 2025 season. Our scholarship attendees account for 25% of all seats at camp.
Would you like to come to String Camp but are hesitant because of the cost? Apply now to come for free or a deeply discounted rate! Do this by simply sending us an email answering the five application questions below. You can also jump to our FAQ here.
Application Questions (revised 2025)
1. Demographic information: Name, age, town/state
2. Instrument(s) you could play as your primary focus instrument for camp
3. Have you previously received a camp scholarship (if so how many years have you attended)
4. Describe your musical background/level of interest in your instrument throughout the year (lessons/jams/practice etc) in one paragraph
5. Describe your level of financial assistance requested (full, partial, etc), and whether you would be able to volunteer during the festival as a way to help lower the total cost of the camp ticket.
FAQ
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The cost of a camp ticket is $625. This covers the cost of all meals, four classes per day, evening jams and activities, morning yoga, and a four day pass to the music festival, plus one non-electric/water campsite for the week (RV hookups are extra and are never included). This campsite covers you and anyone staying with you in your tent/rig, and any children you are chaperoning. If the scholarship is for a child, it covers the campsite for their chaperone/parents.
A scholarship can cover everything, just the camp itself and not the festival (it is possible to also volunteer for the festival portion), everything except for meals, or just a flat dollar amount such as $300. In your application you should detail what specifically you need to afford the camp.
Email us at info@ossipeevalley.com In your application please answer the five questions (listed at the top of this webpage). We will contact you if we have followup questions.
You are more likely to be selected if you play an instrument that has the fewest students (bass, vocals only, ukulele), however it is not guaranteed. Unfortunately we are less likely to give you a scholarship if we have an overwhelming amount of applicants and you have been selected for a scholarship in the past. If you are applying for another scholarship, please detail how the first scholarship changed your musical trajectory and how this year will help you further your goals.
March 15th
There are no current teaching opportunities at the camp. We announce our instructors each spring.
Students are required to be able to hold and tune their instrument with a tuner, know the names of the strings, and know scales and first position chords, playing slowly, in the scales (for fiddle and other non fretted instruments) and shapes (for fretted instruments) of G, C, D, A, E, major and minor (and to understand, generally the concept of what a key is, what major and minor means, and what chords are). Generally, six months of learning once a week will get you to this point on any instrument.
“
I really enjoy coming to string camp; learning all the new songs, meeting new friends in a musical world, not to mention those edible treasures from the Farmers Belly. I cannot put into words how delicious those meals are!
Elisie O'Neil - Scholarship Recipient, 2021, 2022
“
At String Camp a whole new world opened up to me that I was unaware of; a wonderful gathering of kind, like-minded people who wanted to get better at what they do. For someone relatively new to songwriting this was pure heaven and the extra spark I needed to keep those creative flames burning..
Carl Beverly - Scholarship Recipient, 2021, 2022
“
Ossipee Valley String Camp has been one of the highlights of my life! Being around musicians of all different ages and vibes has been transformative. It always pushes me to pick my instrument back up.
Emily Belair - Scholarship Recipient, 2022
By the numbers...
In 2023, North Atlantic Arts awarded over $12,000 of scholarships, representing 22% of our total camp attendance. 3/4 of those scholarships were full-rides, and all were needs based, representing students from ages 13-70, from four states, with 1/2 of attendees being from rural areas of Maine and New Hampshire.
The North Atlantic Arts Alliance is a 501c3 organization based in rural south-western Maine. The Alliance works with private donors and charitable grant giving organizations to fund a robust scholarship program for all ages to ensure equal access to camp.
This program provides FREE access through 'scholarships' and also can provide partial discount scholarships as well, and can even provide transportation, assistance for special needs students, and provides a youth coordinator at camp (daytime only-overnight must have chaperone), for students who are attending camp as day students from the local area.
If you or your organization would like to support this program, please get in touch.
Photography provided by Johanna Sorrell and Jay Strausser Visuals
