Smith Family Young Performers Program

The Smith Family Young Performers Program includes rehearsals, coachings, master classes, and performances on the festival’s main stage. Participants take part in public master classes that are streamed live, multiple professionally produced student performances that are also streamed live, educational lectures with leading artists and musicologists, and interactive instrument-specific sessions that focus on technique and performance skills. The program day also includes a morning meeting, ensemble rehearsals, café conversations, free time for individual practice, a Prelude Performance, and an evening Encounter lecture or concert, along with group activities such as ping-pong and scavenger hunts.

• Ages: 13–18 years old
• Schedule: Jul 17–Aug 08, 2026, with a daily schedule that runs from morning departure from the dorm through an evening concert or lecture and return to the dorm
• Price: Application Fee: $70 before December 22; $130 from December 23–January 5. Placement Deposit: $250 refundable deposit due at the time of acceptance, refunded after completion of the first program day. Tuition: Full tuition fellowship for all accepted Smith Family Young Performers. Housing Fee: $3,900 for housing and meals from July 16 through breakfast on August 9.

The program is designed for enthusiastic and dedicated string players and pianists ages thirteen to nineteen and focuses on an intense exploration of advanced chamber music repertoire, with an expectation that students fully embrace rehearsals, coachings, master classes, and main stage performances. The example daily schedule includes breakfast, a morning meeting, three daytime sessions for ensemble rehearsal or coaching, a master class or café conversation, an interactive instrumental session, free time or individual practice, a Prelude Performance, dinner, and a mandatory Encounter lecture or concert, followed by return to the dorm and an 11:00 PM curfew. Because students are expected to attend almost all evening concerts and lectures over the three-week festival, the schedule is described as very rigorous and intensive, and participants are expected to manage themselves with a high level of independence and self-sufficiency.

The program is led by Institute Directors Dmitri Atapine (Co-Director) and Hyeyeon Park (Co-Director), with Young Performers Faculty including Jessica Lee (weeks 1 and 2), Keith Robinson, Danbi Um (week 3), and Chelsea Wang. All accepted Smith Family Young Performers receive a full tuition fellowship supported through the Ann S. Bowers Young Artist Fund, and housing support is available for students who wish to stay in dormitory rooms that are double or triple occupancy, grouped by age and gender, with students chaperoned by Music@Menlo residential life staff. Housing consideration is made for students who live at least forty miles from Atherton, California.

Unique features include free admission to all Music@Menlo main stage events, public master classes streamed live, and multiple student performances that are professionally produced and streamed live. The program includes development of public speaking and communication skills as part of its activities. Music@Menlo operates under the fiscal responsibility of Menlo School, a California not-for-profit public benefit corporation.

Live auditions are strongly recommended, and a Zoom audition is scheduled if a Young Performer applicant lives more than 200 miles from a live audition site, with an accompanist provided at live auditions for this program. All applicants are notified of their status by March 1, 2026, and invited applicants are typically given twenty-four hours to accept or decline admission. One testimonial from Ariel Horowitz (International Program ’25) states that “Music@Menlo has changed my perspective on music-making in a profound way. It has pushed and inspired me to grow in the areas I most struggled with.”

Last updated April 1, 2026.