Meghan at the Opry

The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Behavior recently hosted its third annual music camp for young adults (ages 16+) with Williams syndrome. It is a weeklong residential camp held on the Vanderbilt campus (in Nashville, TN) in conjunction with the Blair School of Music. Campers celebrate music by participating in a songwriting workshop, recording session, and songwriter's night.

The week's activities culminated on July 3, 2009 with a performance on the historic stage of the Grand Ole Opry during its Friday night live radio broadcast on 650-AM WSM. The group sang "Keep on the Sunny Side of Life". Introduced by country legend Bill Anderson, Meghan and the rest of the performers "rocked the house down", as one Williams camper proudly exclaimed as they left to a standing ovation.

Backstage, the exuberant campers enjoyed a private "after-party" with friends, family, and a couple of surprise drop-ins -- country singers Jim Ed Brown and current Universal South recording artist & rising star, Joe Nichols, whose recent releases Man With a Memory, Size Matters (Someday), and Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off have soared to the top of the country music charts.

Meghan cutting up with Joe Nichols backstage at the Opry -- June 29, 2007

I attended several summer camps in 2009, including returning to The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Williams Syndrome in Nashville, Tennessee and attending the Whispering Trails Camp for Williams Syndrome Association in Grand Rapids, Michigan. At the Whispering Trails Camp, I trained to become a camp counselor to help out in the future.

For more information, about the Williams syndrome Music Camp or the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, please visit http://kc.vanderbilt.edu/kennedy/community/williamscamp.html.

This web site has been optimized for best viewing using Internet Explorer with a display setting of 1024x768.

For questions about this web site, please send an e-mail to Gary Rubin, Webmaster at williamssyndrome@insightbb.com.