by Robert F. Swift, PH.D.
The hills around Otter Lake were alive with the sound of music—even before Julie Andrews sang of them. In 1947 the New York State Music Camp opened its first summer season at the Otter Lake Hotel.
That building is now long gone, but a historical plaque marks the location on the roadside of Route 28.
For nine summers hundreds of students and faculty from the United States, Canada, and overseas had private lessons and classes in music theory, harmony, conducting, composition, and arranging.
Thy performed in bands, jazz bands, orchestras, choirs, and small ensembles. They gave concerts at Otter Lake but also at the Boonville Fair, Old Forge, and area resorts. Many performed in worship services in area churches. Weekly programs were taped Thursday afternoons at Otter Lake and then broadcast Sunday evenings on WIBX, Utica.
Dr. Frederic Fay Swift was camp founder and director. He had been Camp Director of the ernest Williams Music Camp in Saugerties. When Williams died unexpectadly in February of 1947, the faculty for his camp that summer had been hired. Dr. Swift felt obligated to honor their contracts. To do so he decided to start a music camp of his own.
He and his family owned a summer cottage on Otter Lake. He knew of the hotel, which had been in operation since the beginning of the century. By the mid 1940’s the number of residents had dwidled to ten or so. A contract was prepared and signed for him to lease the property for the summer, including four lakeside cottages. It was to be the first of nine successful seasons. As a result, “the hills were alive with the sound of music.”
The final Adirondack concert was the evening of Friday, August 26, 1955—sixty years ago. The music camp outgrew Otter Lake. As enrollments increased each year, so did logistical problems. The number of bedrooms and bunk beds was limited. Annually, one day in August, the entire camp had to take a day-trip off campus so that work could be done. An entry from a contemporary journal from 1955 explains, though a bit crudely: “ All the Camp went to climb Bald Mountain today. The Camp cesspools had to be emptied.” In 1956 the music camp moved from the southwestern Adiron-dacks to the foothills of the Catskills, the Hartwick College campus in Oneonta.
Beginning that 1947 season, the NY State Board of Education approved credit toward high school graduation in four courses: music appreciation, music theory, harmony, and conducting—if a student enrolled for the full eight weeks (and passed the course!). Private lessons were offered on all instruments and voice. There was a sports program. There was also a two-week baton-twirling program. Enrollments that first summer totaled 64 students, along with some “day students” who took the bus from Old Forge.
The camp had a resident camp nurse. The camp doctor was Robert Lindsay, M.D. He made occasional “calls” at the camp, but more commonly student were transported to his office on Main Street in Old Forge. Dr. Lindsay was highly regarded.
On occasional Monday evenings the campers were also bused to Old Forge for a movie at the Strand Theatre. One of the faculty owned an old school bus, which he had named “Constipation.” On the road it couldn’t pass a thing.
The faculty in 1947 numbered 15. They included Bessie Stewart Bannigan (piano), Walter Beeler (band), Dr. Frank P. Cavallo (voice), George Clasgens (percussion), George Wald (organ), Betty Whitney (harp), Maurice C. Whitney (choir). Pianos had to be rented and transported to the hotel campus from Utica.
There were many campers over the years that later went on to noteworthy careers in music (pun intended!). A few names would include Thomas A. Brown (percussion, conductor, music camp director), Gerald Elias (violin, and author), Paul Freeman (conductor), Tony Kadleck (trumpet), Mark Kellogg (trombone), Richard Lottridge (bassoon), Fred Mills (trumpet), John Simonelli (horn), Doris Stark (trumpet), Sebastian Vittucci (voice), and Lisa Vroman (voice).
The history of those first nine seasons includes a sad event. A camper drowned one evening in 1952, after disregarding boating regulations. It was the one fatality in the 76 years of the program.
By 1953 the student enrollment had reached 131. By 1955 it was close to 150, plus members of the faculty. That Final Concert on a chilly August evening marked the end of the beginning for this musical gemstone of the lakeside community. Everyone in attendance, on-stage and in the audience realized it.
The final selection performed by the all-camp choir was “God of Our Fathers,” accompanied by piano (4-hands), organ, three trumpets, and percussion.
The final word was “Amen.”
Dr. Swift retired as Camp Director in 1984. He passed in 1989. The camp’s title had been changed to the Hartwick College Summer Music Festival & Institute. It continued operating until 2012.
Some of the early campers have shared memories for this article. Doris Stark Dequinze was solo trumpeter and bugler in 1948. “I got the kids up with reveille and put them to bed with taps. The last day of camp a group waited for me, then picked me up and threw me into the lake, horn and all.”
Dr. Merv Murdock writes, “I graduated from the Town of Webb High School in Old Forge, where I received a scholarship to attend camp. I hitchhiked to and from Otter Lake from Inlet, toting my saxophone.”
Elaine Raudenbush DiBrita writes, “Those were two of the best summers of my life. It was hard to explain to friends at home [in Pennsylvania] how much fun it was to rehearse and perform for eight weeks.”
Longtime Otter Lake resident Clark Wellman remembers [in 1955] hearing (at his camp across the water) vocalists doing their arpeggios and instrumentalists practicing on the point.”
And John Norton, whose cousin “Viv” worked to bring the camp to Otter Lake, writes, “When I was in business in Otter Lake, the most often heard comments from customers would be recollections of attending concerts or sitting in boats or on docks, listening as music wafted across the water.”
There may be a few readers of The Weekly Adirondack who still today have memories of the program.
The poet Shelley wrote, “Music, when soft voices die, Vibrates in the memory.” For those of us who were part of those early years at the Otter Lake music camp, that is indeed true.
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Dr. Robert Swift, the son of the music camp founder, is Professor of Music Emeritus at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. He ans his wife reside in central New Hampshire. They first met at music camp.