For over six decades, the Sewanee Summer Music Festival has been a vibrant home for young musicians to learn, perform, and grow alongside world-class faculty and guest artists. From our intensive 4-week flagship program, our OperaFest program, to our Pre-College Experience program, SSMF offers immersive experiences tailored to every aspiring performer.

Students explore their craft through masterclasses, chamber music, orchestral performance, lessons, opera scenes, and collaborative projects, all while forming lifelong friendships and connecting with a passionate community of artists. Meanwhile, audiences are invited to enjoy unforgettable concerts and recitals, showcasing the artistry and dedication of our talented participants.

Join us this summer and discover how SSMF nurtures talent, inspires creativity, and transforms the way music is experienced.

Its predecessor was the remarkable, though short­-lived, Cumberland Forest Festival of 1950-­51. After a six­-year stillness on the Mountain, University Vice-­Chancellor Edward McCrady stepped forward to restore the program.
Edward McCrady had a Jeffersonian range of interests. He was a scientist, an architect of considerable skill, an administrator; and, like Jefferson, an amateur violinist. McCrady had visions of creating a musical utopia in Sewanee when he resurrected the idea of a summer festival in 1957, the first season of the present Sewanee Summer Music Festival. Known then as the Sewanee Summer Music Center, the institute was closely allied with the Chattanooga Symphony. Julius Hegyi, then conductor of the Chattanooga Symphony, was the first director of SSMC.

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oger seksualdriften, priserne af denne type skal bruges i den sympatiske stimulation erektion: I stoffet. Hvilke bivirkninger kan denne medicin.

Present at the creation was a young cellist of extraordinary capacities named Martha McCrory. In the early years, McCrory filled many roles: faculty cellist, business manager, and recruiter, barnstorming her way across back roads in
Alabama and Georgia in search of students.

Martha McCrory became executive director of the center in 1963, and remained at this post for a remarkable tenure, retiring in 1998. By the end of that decade, the festival featured two student orchestras and a festival orchestra composed of faculty and advanced students. This basic structure continues to the present day. The present Festival carries elements of both McCrady’s musical utopia and McCrory’s focus on student development.

From 2010-2016 the festival was under the direction of Katherine Lehman with the support of an artistic advisory committee made up of SSMF faculty. Evelyn Loehrlein served many roles with the festival, including Director in 2016 and 2017. From 2018-2024 Artistic and Executive Director John Kilkenny and Managing Director Hilary Dow Ward lead the festival through years of growth as well as successfully managing SSMF through a pandemic.

Currently the Executive and Artistic Director is Hillary Herndon along with a dedicated and talented team of seasonal and year round staff, and world class artist faculty. Sewanee Summer Music Festival and Festival alumni are active performers, teachers, university professors and arts administrators. The impact of Sewanee is felt in concert halls, conservatories, universities and teaching studios across the United States and around the world.

In 2019, the family of Martha McCrory (Cheri Hulsen, Mary Hutmacher and Martha Didriksen) endowed the “Martha McCrory Scholarship for the Sewanee Summer Music Festival”. This new enowment provides for scholarship support for festival participants, provides funding for creative activities at the festival, and names the principal cello chairs of the Sewanee Symphony and Cumberland Orchestra for Miss McCrory. The final concert of each summer festival will now carry the name ” The Martha McCrory celebratory concert”. The festival is deeply indebted to Martha for her legacy and vision, and to her family for their generous support.

Mission Statement:

The Sewanee Summer Music Festival cultivates a lifelong, supportive community that advances musical excellence and wellness while inspiring personal and artistic transformation.

Vision and Core Values:

The Sewanee Summer Music Festival aspires to be a premier training ground for young musicians, nurturing the health, mind, and spirit of the artist while cultivating a vibrant community of passionate performers, faculty, and supporters of music.  The following core values are central to our mission and are demonstrated in a variety of ways:

Community

We cultivate a supportive, welcoming, inclusive community in which students, faculty, staff, and audiences are united by a shared love of music. Mutual respect, collaboration, and encouragement form the foundation of a learning environment where artists can thrive in the peaceful beauty of the Cumberland Plateau.

Mentorship

We value teaching that honors both artistic rigor and personal growth. Faculty mentor students with care, integrity, and generosity, fostering trust, curiosity, and confidence as musicians develop their unique artistic voices.

Wellness

We believe that artistic excellence is sustained by the health of the whole person. The Festival nurtures the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of musicians, recognizing that care for the artist behind the instrument is essential to lifelong creative vitality.

Excellence

We are committed to the highest standards of musical training and performance. Through rigorous study, inspiring mentorship, and professional-level expectations, we empower musicians to realize their full artistic potential.

Lifelong Engagement

The Festival fosters enduring relationships—with music, with one another, and with the broader classical music community. We seek to inspire a lasting commitment to artistic growth, creative exploration, and meaningful participation in the musical arts.