Local High School Student Headed for Prestigious Music Camp

Marla Bradford just wants to sing.

The 17-year-old Castro Valley High School student has been belting out tunes for as long as she can remember and now, thanks to the Grammy Foundation, she might be on her way to doing so professionally.

Bradford has been accepted to the seventh annual Grammy Camp in New York—a week-long residential summer camp that teaches students the ins and outs of the music business and the creative process of songwriting.

Always humming but didn't think much of it

From a very young age, Bradford said she remembers being a performer.

During elementary school, she was more of a dancer—creating dance routines with her friends that they would perform as everyone crowded around to watch.

She continued dancing and was always humming a tune, but it wasn’t until middle school that Bradford said she started taking singing seriously.

Making up songs without noticing at first

“I noticed I started making up songs,” she said. “I had been singing … forever, but I noticed I made up some good songs. And I realized not everyone has this talent, so I should take advantage of it.”

Bradford joined the school choir and hired a vocal coach so she could improve her singing.

And about three years ago she started teaching herself to play piano. Bradford said she practices piano every day, but her singing is better than her piano playing at this point.

Singing as a way to express and remember emotions

“For me [singing] is just a way to express emotions and feelings,” she said. “When I’m singing, I put myself into the position I was when I wrote it, and I only write about what I know. If it’s a happy song, then I remember when I was happy, writing the song.”

Bradford began to take writing original songs more seriously and so, when she saw an advertisement for the Grammy Camp while watching the BET Channel, she decided to give it a try.

“I found out they had auditions,” she said. “I wasn’t sure if I should do it. I had done auditions like this before and I didn’t get in, but something told me to do it.”

Auditioned as singer/songwriter 

There were three fields that Bradford could apply for: Music Business & Production, Singer/Songwriter and Performance.

She thought she fit the singer/songwriter category best, so she sent in two videos of herself performing songs she had written.

Click on the videos at right to hear Bradford sing.

Composing a teenage love song

Her first song, called “The One,” is about finding a true love—seemingly.

“’The One’ [is] about finding someone that is the one,” said Bradford. “It’s about an experience I went through and about finding someone you thought was the one—kind of a teenage love song.”

Her other submission was a bilingual Spanish/English song called “Everything About You” that she said is about “[loving] everything about the person—that they are perfect in my eyes.”

Awaiting good news from New York

After the songs and a short video essay were submitted in April, it was just a waiting game. The suspense came to an end in the beginning of May when Bradford received word that she had been accepted into the New York camp.

“I was really excited,” said Bradford. “I’m looking forward to it. I think it can only help me.”

Past years' coaches include Sara Bereilles, Maroon 5

The Grammy Camp is known for its star-studded “help.”

Although the 2011 lineup isn’t finalized, past guest artists who have participated in Grammy Camp include recording artist Jesse McCartney, singer/songwriter Sara Bareilles, producer Warryn Campbell, recording artist Brandi Carlile, Jesse Carmichael and Adam Levine of Grammy-winning Maroon 5, and four-time Grammy-winning film composer Hans Zimmer, among others.

111 teenagers selected nationwide

Bradford is one of only 111 high school students from across the country to be selected for this year’s Grammy Camp, and she is in the inaugural class to be held in New York. Past camps have been in Los Angeles only.

On Aug. 2, Bradford will head to Brooklyn to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but she doesn’t plan on this being the last best thing to ever happen to her.

“I’m hoping to go as far as music will take me,” said Bradford. “I’d like to go on tour, share my music with the world, not just friends and family. I hope … to get the farthest I can with my craft.”

'Set trends, be a leader, don't fall for hype'

And Bradford has advice for anyone else who wants to be in the music business or follow another dream.

“Stay true to yourself. If you want to be a musician you have to be a leader. Set trends and be a leader," she said. "Don’t fall for the hype. Don’t give in, don’t give up. If it’s what you were meant to do it will happen—just never give up, ever.”

For more information or to apply for Grammy Camp 2012, visit www.grammyintheschools.com.