From the Desk of Trey Devey: Our Centennial Overture
Dear friends,
A violin’s first note drifts across the lake. Light filters through the pines onto the rehearsal hall. Somewhere, a dancer stretches, a painter lifts a brush, a writer pauses to listen. Tonight, these moments ripple together, and with them, we step into Interlochen’s next century.
Today, March 7, 2026, we officially begin our centennial. One hundred years of gathering young artists, nurturing imagination, and believing—again and again—that creativity has the power to connect us. This is the moment we name together: not just the start of a celebration, but the opening of Interlochen’s second century, and an invitation to all who have ever been part of this place to join in its story.
As alumni, parents, faculty, staff, donors, volunteers, partners, and friends, you carry your own version of this place—and it is with that shared sense of belonging that we step forward together.
As we approach our 100th anniversary, we have been grounding our work in a simple but powerful way of thinking about time: yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Our yesterday begins with imagination. Nearly a century ago, arts educator Joseph Maddy asked a bold question: What if young people could come together through the arts to create something extraordinary? Rooted among the pines, Interlochen became a gathering place. A place where young artists found a common language. Where individual determination met collective purpose. Where creativity was understood not as a luxury, but as a force that helps us understand one another and the world we share.
That belief has carried Interlochen across generations, disciplines, and decades.
Which brings us to today.
Interlochen is alive with young artists asking hard questions, collaborating across disciplines, and discovering what is possible when imagination is shared. One expression of that vitality is Imagine US, a multidisciplinary performance shaped around student voices and mentorship with extraordinary professional artists, many of them Interlochen alumni.
It reflects the way Interlochen has always worked: students learning by doing, creativity flowing across forms, generations lifting one another forward. In the days ahead, this work will travel to stages across the country, carrying Interlochen’s spirit outward—one performance, one audience at a time.
And then there is tomorrow.
Our centennial is not a single night or season. It is a multi-year celebration—and a commitment—that will unfold both on our campus and far beyond it. In the years ahead, we look forward to welcoming alumni back, gathering across generations, and marking milestones—from a special centennial collage, to a milestone “Les Préludes” that honors our history, to new multidisciplinary tours that bring student work into the world.
As we look toward Interlochen’s second century, we are thinking carefully about responsibility as well as possibility. How do we expand access to transformative arts education? How do we ensure that talent—not circumstance—determines who gets to be here? And how do we prepare young artists not only to excel creatively, but to lead with empathy, curiosity, and imagination?
Our centennial is not simply a celebration of what Interlochen has been. It is a commitment to what it must continue to become.
Nearly 100 years ago, Interlochen began as “just an idea.” It continues because generations have believed in young artists and in one another. As we begin this centennial, I am deeply grateful to each of you for being part of Interlochen’s yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
I hope you will join us along the way. You can explore upcoming centennial moments and learn more at interlochen.org/centennial.
With gratitude,
Trey Devey
President, Interlochen Center for the Arts
