Ten-year-old Dillon had a dream: to learn to play the guitar. At least that’s what he said in the application video he sent in to be considered for Casa Romantica’s free Music Festival and Academy.
At the annual two-week academy, which took place in July, children ages 8 to 13 studied piano, violin, viola and cello through private studio lessons, performances, musicianship training, parent workshops and innovative classes.
So if Dillon’s dream was to play guitar, why was he selected to be one of the 25 children to participate? After all, more than 70 applied.
“There was just something about him,” says Executive Director Berenika D. Schmitz. “He was so bright and funny. We knew he’d be a great addition.”
Dillon was offered the viola, a stringed instrument slightly larger than a violin but with a lower pitch—not quite the guitar he was hoping for, but he took to it right away, Schmitz recalls.
The boy, initially unfocused, soon began to warm up to the instrument.
He was playing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” on it by the end of the first week and ready by the end of the second week for the solo he would perform at the academy’s finale concert for parents and friends.
“People underestimate what kids can do,” Schmitz says. “If you give children the opportunity, they will work hard. They love being part of something special, something bigger than themselves.”
That’s just one of the reasons, Schmitz says, that Casa Romantica focuses many of its programs on children, including a free children’s gardening program, guest performers geared to children’s interests, and school tours that bring in children from across San Juan Capistrano and surrounding cities. Fundraisers and donations pay for the programs.
“Casa Romantica’s children’s programs fill a real need,” says Greg Stoutenburgh, a Casa Romantica donor and president of Epica Medical Innovations LLC in San Clemente. “Children see that there is more to life than reality TV. … By exposing children to art and culture, you’re opening them up to a whole new world.”
