Shenandoah Valley Music Festival

Music Festival Rooted in Valley History

The Shenandoah Valley Music Festival has been bringing great music to the Valley since 1963. It all began as an outgrowth of the American Symphony Orchestra League’s conductors’ workshops at Orkney Springs Hotel, now the Festival’s concert venue and home to Shrine Mont Retreat and Conference Center.

In the early 1960s, Helen M. Thompson, the league’s executive secretary, and Col. Robert Benchoff, headmaster of Massanutten Military Academy in Woodstock, Va., noticed the absence of live symphonic music in Shenandoah County.  The duo, along with a committee of local music lovers who shared their mission, worked together to present SVMF’s first concert — The Symphony League Philharmonic Orchestra — at Massanutten Military Academy in 1963.

SVMF grew over time, with concerts taking place in Woodstock and Orkney Springs. In 1976, SVMF moved to the outdoor pavilion to the Orkney Springs Hotel. The hotel property was purchased by Shrine Mont in 1979 and SVMF has continued to use the pavilion for its concerts each summer. 

Before the 1980s, SVMF was purely symphonic. Then it began adding big band, and eventually, other genres of music, including Americana/roots, pop/rock, country, folk and bluegrass, were added to the concert lineup.

Today the festival presents concerts over four weekends from mid-July through Labor Day weekend, featuring many famous, award-winning artists from across the spectrum. With concerts featuring artists, such as The Temptations, Mary Chapin Carpenter, the Beach Boys, Ricky Skaggs, KANSAS, Travis Tritt, Kris Kristofferson, Bruce Hornsby, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and LeAnn Rimes, SVMF has created a strong tradition of providing a “wow” experience for concert-goers just a short-drive away from the nation’s capital.

SVMF has also supported music education locally throughout the years. Most recently it has been sponsoring hands-on, instructional workshops in partnership with the Shannon Music Heritage Fund and the Shenandoah Community Foundation. The workshops are led by artists who perform at SVMF and are accomplished players with expertise one or more acoustic, stringed-instruments.

As one of the longest-running outdoor concert series in Virginia, SVMF’s rich history is a testament to the public’s love of great music that it continues to bring to the Valley each summer and to the magic of its special setting in the beautiful village of Orkney Springs. One visit and you’ll want to come back, time and time again, to become part of that history