65th Sewanee Summer Music Festival to Begin June 18
by Bailey Basham, Messenger Staff Writer
Preparations are underway on the Mountain for the Sewanee Summer Music Center’s biggest season yet.
From June 18 to July 17, the Sewanee Summer Music Festival will host more than 40 performances of symphonic, chamber and vocal music, including six aria showcases, eight symphony orchestra concerts, an operatic concert series and a faculty concert series.
John Kilkenny, executive director of the Center as well as the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra, said the festival will welcome as many as 250 students from around the country and world on June 18 when the festival begins.
“This year, we welcome the largest group of students in the history of the festival, students coming from Canada, Central and South America, Europe,” Kilkenny said.
Kilkenny said record numbers aren’t the only thing this season will offer. The opera program, Made in America, will feature some of America’s great composers, and the string academy, launched originally in 2019 and designed for young string instrumentalists, will make a reappearance.
“We will also be premiering a new work for cello and piano written by Avner Dorman for Natasha Farney, festival faculty. There will also be extensive performances across the domain, as well as at the Assembly and McCrory Hall,” Kilkenny said. “We offer over half of our concerts for free during the summer, and we have ticketed events that bring hundreds, maybe thousands, of people here during the summer.”
Kilkenny added that the festival and its various events also serve as a window for the domain to the larger world.
“Many people know Sewanee because of the festival. Our reach is far greater than even the students we bring to campus. There are thousands that continue to engage with us online. It’s the 65th season of the festival, and this season will be a great way to celebrate the longevity and success of the program,” he said.
The 65th season of the Sewanee Summer Music Festival will run from June 18 to July 17. Tickets and season passes are available at