Local youth musician attends music camp in LA

15 year old Jordynn Johnsrud, of Goodridge, recently had the opportunity to attend SOCAPA in Los Angeles, California. The School of Creative & Performing Arts Camp was held at Occidental College for a week, where she had to audition for the camp in order to go. “There is a whole bunch of groups: acting, filmmaking, dancers and then musicians,” Jordynn explained. In the musician group, there were only 5 others. One was from Texas, Jordynn, the youngest of them, and the rest from LA.

Over the course of the week, members of the group would learn different aspects of music and spend a lot of time writing and composing. “They had portable pianos,” Jordynn says. “Every afternoon, I took my piano outside and would write.”

She got to show off her writing skills at the end of the week when the group had their final performance. Jordynn wrote a song called “14 Miles” and performed it in front of the audience, including her grandparents, Rhonda and Ryan Haugen. “My grandparents flew with me to LA and stayed in Santa Monica while I was at SOCAPA. They came to watch my performance at the end of the week and flew home with me,” she offered.

Jordynn was at the camp June 19-23. “When I first got there I was pretty shy and nervous about meeting complete strangers, but throughout the week they became some of my best friends!” She expressed, “Meeting new people and becoming friends with them was definitely my favorite part.” That, and seeing some famous sites around the city!

Jordynn’s favorite genre of music is pop, she says, but she enjoys singing all kinds and got to experience a variety of her interests at camp.

“I really just wanted to experience something new,” she says of the camp. Jordynn searched LA music camps and came across this one. Using all of her own money from performances, she paid her own way to California. Pretty impressive for a 15 year old!

When looking into the future, Jordynn says she hopes to make a single. 

Her goals might be easily reached if she keeps on with all of her gigs. This weekend, she heads to Medora to open for the duo, Tigerlily. With a bunch of her family attending the show, she will take the stage this Saturday. She also performs at the Pennington County Fair this Thursday and sings in the bandshell at 1:30, 3:30 and 5:30pm.

The future looks bright for this local teen. You can check out Jordynn’s amazing voice live at the Goodridge Freedom Festival coming up on July 29th, or visit her Facebook page ‘Jordynn Johnsrud Music’ for more upcoming events!