History of Hartwick College Summer Music Festival

62 Years of Musical Excellence

The Hartwick College Summer Music Festival was founded in 1947 as the New York State Music Camp by Dr. Frederic Fay Swift, then a professor of music at Hartwick College. The original location of the camp was at Otter Lake in the Adirondacks (see below).  Our current logo captures the spirit of our Adirondack beginnings. 

In 1956 the camp moved to the Hartwick College campus where, except for 1968 and 1969 during years of large scale construction projects on campus, it has remained. In 1985 the New York State Music Camp was renamed the Hartwick College Summer Music Festival & Institute. 

Festival alumni may be found in professional orchestras, stage bands, radio and television shows; teaching in schools and colleges; and serving as composers and arrangers. But a career in the music is not the goal of everyone attending the festival. Hundreds of Festival alumni are in other professions, each finding music a continuing source of satisfaction and enjoyment. 

In its 62 year history, the Festival has known only five full time directors, and all but one have been faculty of Hartwick College, thus ensuring strong ties between the academic mission of the college and the aims of the Festival.  

At HCSMF students experience an atmosphere where collaboration is encouraged and fostered, where interesting and highly skilled artists are brought together for an intense month of music making, and where a one-of-a- kind experience for curious, talented, and enthusiastic students of music is created each summer on Hartwick's Oyaron Hill.