Bayside Musician to Host Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Local Youths in January

A jazz guitarist from Bayside who recently played on a BET awards program will offer a rock ‘n’ roll camp for local youths starting in the new year.

Michelle Marie, who also leads a guitar ensemble at Flushing’s St. Andrew Avellino, holds an annual eight-week camp for local students, ages 10 to 17 years, at Bayside’s Knights of Columbus chapter, located at 35-30 Bell Blvd.

The camp, which is primarily aimed at students who are interested in performance, begins on Jan. 7.

“It was originally going to start next week, but I’m pushing it to January because Christmas is so busy with parents and kids,” Marie said of the camp. “I want to get the word out there.”

The camp’s attendees will get lessons on how to play guitar, bass or drums and, at the end of the program, will take part in a concert.

Marie said students taking part in last year’s concert played tunes by Chuck Berry, Led Zeppelin, Rihanna and Metallica.

The camp will accept no more than 10 students and costs $550 for the entire eight weeks.

Marie first started the camp in 2007 at Queens College, but moved it to the Knights of Columbus in Bayside last summer.

She also offers a six-week summer rock camp at the same site.

Students taking part in the upcoming camp must first audition and the group will meet every Tuesday and Wednesday from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

“It works as an after school program,” she said. “A lot of kids often go for lessons and then go home, but there they’ll get to play with a band. It will give them more enthusiasm to practice.”

Marie said she wished she would have been able to attend such a camp when she was learning to play during her youth.

“I was a self-taught musician, so I was always playing by myself in my room with records,” she said. “What I lost out on was playing with other kids my age in a band.”

She said that many of the students in the camp are interested in playing music professionally and that one of her recent pupils auditioned for Astoria’s Frank Sinatra School of the Arts.

Marie currently has a self-titled album of jazz instrumentals available on iTunes on which she plays guitar and keyboards.

Recently, she played in the house band on BET’s Black Girls Rock show, which awards musicians who empower and mentor girls of color.

Marie has played for the show for the past four years. Black Girls Rock has previously honored Alicia Keys and Patti LaBelle.

“The great thing about it is that it rewards people in music who are doing outreach to youth,” she said of the show, which aired two weeks ago.

Black Girls Rock was founded by Beverly Bond, whom Marie has cited as an inspiration.

“Beverly was a mentor for me,” she said. “She started in an apartment with three other girls and now has programs all over the world. I look up to her a lot.”

For information on the Bayside rock camp, visit the program’s website. And for more information on Marie, click here.