For the past six years, the Rushmore Music Festival, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, has welcomed talented young music students both locally and from around the country, immersing them in an intensive, enriching environment with the highest standards of musical excellence. Through daily guidance and one-on-one mentorship with our internationally acclaimed Faculty Artists, each summer, 18-20 students explore a deeper level of solo study and chamber music, as well as learn to build audience engagement skills, all in the heart of the Black Hills of South Dakota. For three weeks, the Rushmore Music Festival functions as a residential camp as well as presents numerous faculty and student concerts in local concert halls, churches, senior living centers, daycare facilities, and downtown. 

About the Performers

Taste the Black Hills!
What's better than watching a virtual concert from the comfort of your home? Enjoying it alongside delicious, hand-picked goodies all made right here in the Black Hills! 
We are partnering with local businesses to create a "Best of Black Hills" box, which we will be shipping out to our audience members one week prior to the event**. The box will include a bottle of white wine from Firehouse Winery (yes, grapes grow in our climate!), along with some buffalo snacks from Wild Idea Buffalo, hand-made truffles from Chubby Chipmunk's, freshly roasted coffee beans from Essence of Coffee, honey from Black Hills Honey, and more! 
** Please note that due to the Winery's alcohol shipping permits, we are only able to ship to the following states: FL, MO, NY, CA, Washington DC, TX, AK, IL, WI, KS, CO, WY, ND, MI, IA, MT, WA, OR, and AZ.

The Festival's most recent season, July-August 2020, has been unprecedented for us due to the Covid-19 pandemic. After hundreds of conversations with community members, our students' families, our Director of Student Life, and our Faculty Artists, we decided to proceed with an in-person program with an abundance of caution. With many additional safety implementations: from mailing PPE to our out-of-state students and faculty, to hiring a private chef to avoid contact with non-Festival individuals, daily health screenings, limited class sizes, outdoor performances, and more, we are proud to say that we succeeded in keeping our 28 students, faculty, and staff safe and healthy this summer. 

While the world shut down, we instilled hope and perseverance in our Festival students and faculty. Our students, who had been cooped up for months in their homes in social isolation, were able to deepen their relationship with music while forging lifelong friendships. Our faculty, who lost all of their performances for over six months, were given the chance to rediscover and share their passion for music-making with our students and audiences. Finally, our audiences and patrons who similarly had the curtains close on them were able to enjoy live, Classical Music through our in-person and virtual performances in Meier Hall, as well as our outdoor community pop-up concerts. Tonight's event is to help ensure that we can do this again next year and continue to have the Rushmore Music Festival play a transcendent role in our students' futures.

The Rushmore Music Festival was founded in 2015 by violist Brett Walfish and violinist Katie Smirnova, who decided to call Rapid City their home just over three years ago. Driven by their passion and dedication to pass on their own extensive Classical Music training to the next generation, all of their administrative work is done entirely on a volunteer basis. Annual fundraisers such as this one allow students as young as 9 years old to attend this unique program regardless of their family's financial circumstances and discover their own unique musical potential. Thanks to our donors' and friends' support and generosity, we are proud to have awarded over $45,000 in scholarships to deserving, talented students in the last two years alone!

Please enjoy some highlights from our 2020 concert season!