The Otis Music Camp started out as a small singer/songwriter workshop in the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon, Ga., in 2008. What was just a small idea from Karla Redding-Andrews, executive director of the Otis Redding Foundation, and Lisa Love, former director of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, has now become a two-week program that not only covers singing and songwriting, but just about every aspect of the music industry.

“Educating children through music was a dream of my husband’s,” says Zelma Redding, wife of the great soul singer, Otis Redding. “This camp’s emphasis on creativity and inspiration is something I think he would have been proud of and it is the kind of program we will continue to foster through our foundation.”

This year, thanks to support from Knight Foundation, 51 students will play a part in producing a song, and in the process they will learn not just how to read and write music and play instruments, but the ins and outs of the industry, including production, studio recording, performance and the basics of the business. The camp runs June 1-12.

“This is the first year we’ve used the play-money to demonstrate how the music business works,” said Redding-Andrews. Students are divided into teams based on their interests and strengths. As you walk the halls of Mount De Sales Academy – home of this year’s camp – doors are marked by music genres and each room has students working on their songs. Each group has received a budget of play-money and a list of services they will have to pay for to record and produce their song. These expenditures include producers, engineers, backup singers, musicians and other services that the young musicians admit they had never thought of as being a part of making music.

This year camp-goers not only have an opportunity to make their own song, but they have split into five groups with each group writing a jingle for the Otis Redding Foundation. One jingle will be chosen by judges and used in commercials by the foundation. “And they will get their writer’s credit for that,” assured Redding-Andrews.

The camp has put together a team of counselors comprised of music instructors, local musicians and even former camp-goers who have graduated from high school but still come back to lend a hand and be a part of the experience.

Camp counselor and local hip-hop artist Floco Torres – who organized the Knight-funded Lunch Beat Macon program – is guiding a very creative group of young hip-hop artists through the process of making their song. With so many camp-goers this year—the camp has grown significantly from the 10 students it had its first year—the focus is on collaborations instead of individual songs.

“We have a song right now with four hip-hop artists and three singers,” said Torres. “We’ve helped them with songwriting, collaboration, production, performance, and that all leads to the finale performance at the end.”

Torres said it’s as much an opportunity for him to learn and draw inspiration as it is for the students. “I look at what some of the students are doing and I think, ‘Man, I don’t practice enough.’”

With recent cuts across the state of Georgia to arts programs in public schools, Redding-Andrews feels that there is added pressure to keep the camp going and successful. “This program really needs to be a year-round type program, even if it’s just after school or weekends,” she states. “This is what this city needs.”

That same sense of urgency drove Lynne Donehoo to volunteer with the camp this year for her first time. A now-retired administrator at the high school and elementary levels, Donehoo sees the funding cuts in schools as shortsighted. “Some people don’t understand the importance of fine arts,” said Donehoo. “For some students that is the only reason they come to school each day.”

Looking to the future, Redding-Andrews envisions starting the Otis Redding Center for Creative Arts so that the young people of Macon can continue to have a creative outlet. “My talented coaches and our students all gel together,” she said. “If I could employ every one of these counselors tomorrow, I would.”

For now, all the staff of the Otis Music Camp and the students are full of anticipation for the final performances this Friday after their two weeks of hard work.

“Everyone is excited and a little nervous in a good way,” said Torres about the atmosphere around the camp leading up to the finale. “We’re all looking forward to putting on a great show and to show off what these talented songwriters have been working on!”

Roger Riddle is a Macon-based writer and deejay. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @OccupyYouriPod. Photos courtesy of Otis Music Camp.