Young Redding musician heads to American Idol camp

The 14-year-old Joel Barlow High School freshman will be shipping off this summer to “Idol Camp,” an American Idol performing arts camp.

Jilian will be one of 700 people between the ages of 12 and 15 from across the country to attend the camp in its inaugural year.

For 10 days, she and her fellow campers will choose from classes in singing, dancing, acting, songwriting, audition and performance techniques, personal style, video production and set design.

Instruction is given by “respected professionals,” with a series of special master classes featuring guest artists such as “favorite former American Idol contestants, recording artists, and other top industry professionals,” according to the camp’s Web site.

Ace Young, Bucky Covington, Kimberley Locke, Vonzell Solomon, Jon Peter Lewis and Carmen Rasmusen are all former contestants confirmed to be teaching classes this summer.

“The phenomenon of American Idol has awakened interest in the performing arts for many people,” said Camp Director Donna Milani Luther on the camp’s Web site. “Our vision in developing the curriculum for Idol Camp was to create an opportunity for young people newly discovering the arts to find their potential and to develop their particular brand of expertise.”

Only applicants “displaying a desire for personal growth and passion for the arts” were selected for the camp.

Jilian was one of only 16 adolescents from the Tri-State area who was selected to come to the camp this summer, her mother Jo Ann said.

An accomplished singer and musician who plays piano, drums and saxophone, Jilian already has an extensive music resume.

At age nine, she joined the Fairfield County Children’s Choir. When she was in seventh grade, she auditioned and was selected to join the Chamber Choir, which traveled to Hawaii for the Pacific Rim Children’s Chorus Finals.

She has traveled to choral festivals in Canada, England and Ireland and has performed at Carnegie Hall.

She has won scholarships to other music camps and has been selected to sing the National Anthem at a number of sporting events including a Bridgeport Bluefish minor league baseball game.

At Joel Barlow High School, Jilian is in the Chamber Choir, the X-Period a capella group and plays percussion in the school band.

As a pianist, she is enrolled in the National Fraternity of Student Musicians and the National Guild Audition.

She started an all-girls rock band called The Wildflowers that played shows at the Georgetown Saloon and the Mark Twain Library, and is currently the female lead of an otherwise all boys rock group out of Ridgefield.

The saxophone — which Jilian only started playing this past winter — is her favorite instrument, she said.

Her father Chuck, a professional drummer, said Jilian has “perfect pitch,” which is the rare ability to sing or recognize the pitch of a tone by ear.

“It’s really both a gift and a curse,” Mr. Saber said. “You should see her face when someone is singing out of key. It’s torture to her. You can see her mentally trying to bend the note.”

Jilian said she is excited to be going to Idol Camp this summer.

“I’m really looking forward to it and I’m counting down the days until I leave,” she said.

In the application for the camp, Jilian was asked to write a letter asking her hero out to dinner. She chose pop singer Christina Aguilera, whom she considers “an inspiration.”

“Christina has an amazing voice and great hits and such a large vocal range,” Jilian said. “I went to one of her concerts when I was seven or eight years old and was just inspired.”

Jilian said she has been an avid American Idol fan since Season Two, listing Carrie Underwood and Constantine Ruelles as her favorite former contestants.

When asked what she thinks it would be like to stand up on the American Idol stage and perform in front of a national audience, Jilian said the most nerve-wrecking part of the experience would be having to perform in front of the notoriously harsh judge Simon Cowell.

“I wouldn’t mind Randy (Jackson) or Paula (Abdul), but I would be nervous about getting up in front of Simon,” she said.

According to a disclaimer on the Idol Camp Web site, campers will not be placed on the 22-time Emmy nominated show, nor will they get any advantage in the American Idol auditions. Despite this, Jilian said she is looking forward to turning 17 when she will be old enough to audition for the show.

“She’s got a lot of guts,” said Jo Ann Saber. “She gets all these solos that require improvisation and she has the guts to make up the words on the spot... This is really her passion.”