| Music Festival Name: | Shenandoah Valley Music Festival |
| Years Active: | Since 1963 |
Shenandoah Valley Music Festival is the longest running music festival in Virginia. It presents a concert series each summer that takes place mid-July through Labor Day weekend at Shrine Mont in Orkney Springs, Virginia.[1] The Festival started in 1963 as a way of bringing symphonic music to the rural Shenandoah Valley.[2] Symphonic music is still included in the series; other genres including bluegrass, country, folk, pop-rock, roots, and Americana are also presented.[3] Past artists have included Bruce Hornsby, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Home Free, The Temptations, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kenny G, LeAnn Rimes, Ricky Skaggs, Kris Kristofferson, Pure Prairie League, Poco, and The Beach Boys.[4]
The Shenandoah Valley Music Festival is a nonprofit organization.[5]
Concerts take place in the pavilion of Shrine Mont, formerly the Orkney Springs Hotel, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places[6] and is now owned by the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.
The Shenandoah Valley Music Festival has held its concert series each summer since 1963. Despite the Coronavirus epidemic in 2020, the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival still took place with strict public safety measures.
In the early 1960s Helen M. Thompson, executive secretary of the American Symphony Orchestra League, and Col. Robert Benchoff, Headmaster of the Massanutten Military Academy, sought to bring symphonic music to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Under the artistic direction of conductor Dr. Richard Lert, they hosted the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival's first concert, held in the gymnasium of the Massanutten Military Academy in 1963.[7] [8] The Festival then moved to the outdoor pavilion of Shrine Mont by 1976. The Festival remained purely symphonic until the early 1980s but has since branched into hosting a multitude of genres including rock, country, bluegrass, folk, Americana, and pop.[9] From 1979-2015 the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra performed multiple concerts each festival season. In 2016, the Festival partnered with the Piedmont Symphony Orchestra, based in Warrenton.
1963: The Shenandoah Valley Music Festival Committee was formed.
August 11, 1963: A chamber music concert was presented on the front lawn of the Orkney Springs Hotel (attendance 200).
August 16, 1963: The premier public performance in the Shenandoah Valley by the Symphony League Philharmonic Orchestra was presented at Massanutten Military Academy in Woodstock, Va. by the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival Committee and the ASOL.
1966: The Shenandoah Valley Music Festival Committee and the ASOL helped to establish the first string program in the Shenandoah County Public Schools from a federal youth education grant. Fifteen students participated in the first workshop.
1970: A Festival chorus, which was later permanently established as the Shenandoah Valley Choral Society, was formed to perform Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Festival Orchestra.
1975: Musicianship awards — later to be known as the Katharine Benchoff Awards — were established to recognize outstanding band, chorus and orchestra students in Shenandoah Valley high schools.
1976: All Shenandoah Valley Music Festival summer concerts were moved to the Outdoor Pavilion on the grounds of the Orkney Springs Hotel.
1978: Dr. Richard Lert retired and the ASOL Orchestral Workshops at Orkney Springs were dissolved. More than 2,100 people attend one of the final concerts.
1979: The Fairfax Symphony Orchestra played at the Festival for the first time.
1981: The Festival Arts & Crafts Shows were added.
1984: The Festival format was expanded to include big band music, and later jazz, folk and other types of music in addition to symphonic.
1985: The Katharine Benchoff Performance Awards were established to recognize outstanding skill and accomplishments by Shenandoah Valley high school students.
1987: The Festival’s MusicMakers Family Programs were established to reinstate children’s programming and educational activities. The first annual Benefit Ball was held as part of the Festival’s 25th Anniversary season.
1988: The Festival began an annual Community Messiah Sing.
1991 and 1992: The Festival was named one of the Top 20 July events by the Southeastern Tourism Society.
1992: The Shenandoah Valley Music Festival Guild is formed to raise money for the Festival.
1994: Attendance for the Festival’s Symphony Weekends topped 5,000. A College Concerto Competition was established. The Festival receives the Shenandoah Bowl, the SVTA’s highest award for contributions to the Valley’s tourism industry.
1995: The first Christmas Brunch was held.
1997: www.musicfest.org is created. James Carville and Mary Matalin narrated Aaron Copeland’s “Lincoln Portrait” with the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra.
1998: Third record year for total attendance. Tom Paxton headlined the Folk Festival.
1999: The first Festival of Latino Music is presented. Janis Ian is the first Grammy Award winner to perform at the Festival.
2001: The Festival begins selling tickets online. Emmy award winner Tom Chapin performs.
2002: A new program, SVMF’s ArtReach, is launched. This program was designed to give children and their parents the opportunity to interact with performing arts professionals.
2004 and 2005: Tony award winner, Don Pippin guest conducts the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra.
2007: First bluegrass concert at the Festival. Festival presents 10 evening concerts.
2008: Second largest Festival crowd ever. More than 1,800 people see Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder.
2009: Béla Fleck, Travis Tritt among the Festival’s summer performers. Orkney Springs pavilion transformed into movie house for “Charlie Chaplin at the Symphony.”
2010: Grammy award winners Ronnie Milsap, Mary Chapin Carpenter and the Temptations perform.
2011: Béla Fleck and the original Flecktones make SVMF part of their first full tour in more than 20 years.
2012: The Seldom Scene perform.
2013: The 50th Anniversary of the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival. American Icon Kris Kristofferson performed this season, which also included Dave Mason, the first Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame member to perform at the Festival.
2014: The Oak Ridge Boys played. Other big names of the season were Rhonda Vincent and Rosanne Cash.
2016: SVMF enters into a new partnership with the Piedmont Symphony Orchestra. The PSO performs two concerts during the season and co-sponsors a summer strings camp in Shenandoah County Public Schools with the SVMF. The Festival also drew more than 1,300 patrons to see Bruce Hornsby and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and more than 1,000 people came out to see LeAnn Rimes.
2017: This concert season featured the Wayback Weekend Celebration July 21 and 22, featuring Arlo Guthrie and a 50th anniversary celebration of the Summer of Love with the Piedmont Symphony Orchestra and its rock band, performing all the songs made famous by the Beatles and others associated the historic 1967 gathering of hippies in San Francisco. Also performing to a crowd of more than 1,500 on Sept. 2 was 13-time Grammy Award winner Emmylou Harris.
2018: SVMF started using a video screen on stage. The Festival also implemented ticket scanning from patrons’ cell phones. Artists who drew the largest audiences were The Temptations, Kenny G, and Mary Chapin Carpenter.
2019: SVMF extended its “day of concert” online ticket sales from noon up until the start of the concert. Other highlights of the 2019 summer season include The Beach Boys concert on July 26 which drew nearly 1,900 people. This season also featured an Evening with Judy Collins, plus the return of the Oak Ridge Boys for a third season and the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, after a three year hiatus from SVMF. The FSO performed “The Planets” for a special 50th celebration of the first crewed Moon landing. The event featured video of space imagery produced by NASA, specifically for “The Planets,” and stargazing with telescopes provided by the Shenandoah Astronomical Society. After the close of the concert season, SVMF moved out of the offices it had called home for 45 years, at 102 N. Main St. in Woodstock, and relocated just a block away to 238 N. Main St.
2020: Festival went on despite COVID-19 pandemic. Audience was wearing masks and social distancing measures were in effect.