(Host) Students at a piano camp in Bennington will celebrate the Fourth of July - and their camp's 40^th anniversary - with a unique musical feat.

Forty-two children will perform the Pachelbel Canon in rounds on 31 pianos.

VPR's Susan Keese has more.

(Keese) The sprawling Old Bennington mansion that houses Summer Sonatina International Piano Camp has been compared to a giant music box.

(Thunder)

(Keese) And despite the stormy weather outside ...

(Door opening, kidsounds, piano noodling)

(Keese) ... the 42 young pianists and their teachers, who just arrived this week, are happy to be here.

(Krane) "It's just full of fun and energy."

(Keese) Fourteen-year-old Rebecca Krane of Boston is back for her sixth year. Thirteen-year-old Siena Facciolo is in her fifth:

(Facciolo) "When I tell my friends I'm going to piano camp, they're like, ‘You're such a loser. Why are you going to piano camp?' And I'm like, ‘You get to practice for three hours every day.' And they're like, ‘You mean you have t?' and I'm like, ‘No! No! you get to!'"

(Keese) Facciolo says the sound of music wafting out of every room when campers are practicing is one of her favorite things ever.

(Music mix under, with footsteps on  stairs)

(Keese) And there is a piano in every room. That includes the linen closet, the laundry, and a closet under the stairs, named after Harry Potter.

(Van der Linde) "Here's another bedroom. Tada! Ten bunk beds and a grand piano. What else do you need?"

(Keese) Polly van der Linde directs the camp. It's a job she took over from her mother, Rosamond van der Linde, who founded Summer Sonatina exactly 40 years ago.

(Van der Linde) "My mom is someone who is just full of ideas. She has the most contagious laugh. She always inspired us to do things and it never felt like a chore."

(Keese) Polly van der Linde and her four piano- playing siblings were campers first, then junior faculty.

Van der Linde says it was her mother's idea when the camp was 20 years old to get all the student to play the Pachelbel Canon together- and that it was just like her to add a musical joke: A real cannon to start the round off.

A cannon has also been found for the re-enactment, in the camp's Independence Day concert.

(van der Linde) "And we are going to shoot it off before the start of the piece. We figure it's July 4^th, why not."

(Keese) For this rehearsal, a bell does the job.

(Bell, then silence, then Pachelbel starts with single notes then swells, fading up and down through remainder of spot)

(Keese) We're in a big room with four pianos and double doors looking out over a field bounded by mountains

(van der Linde) "This is where it's going to start and finish. The audience will be sitting outside the French doors here and we'll be piping the music out."

(Keese) The piano sounds will be mixed  together for the concert. But for now, the only way to hear it all is to follow van der Linde as she flies from room to room, signaling pianos to join the round.

(Keese) Faculty and staff conductors stand in every doorway helping to keep the time...

(van der Linde) "We do have total beginners in this ensemble. They will play the base line."

(Keese) Van der Linde isn't worried about the rough spots. This is only the second time rehearsing the piece.

And the students are having so much fun and learning so much about playing music together.

The piano can be a very lonely instrument, she says.  But not at this camp.

For VPR News, I'm Susan Keese.