The Swampscott Festival will launch in September 2027 as a three day chamber music festival celebrating the unjustly neglected music of Mabel Wheeler Daniels, who was born in Swampscott in 1877.
Daniels was one of the most accomplished American composers of her generation. She graduated from Radcliffe in 1900, studied composition in Boston and Munich, and became the only woman composer to have three works performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. When ASCAP marked its 25th anniversary at Carnegie Hall in 1939, her tone poem Deep Forest was the only work by a woman on the program. And yet her music is now very rarely played.
At least one work by Daniels will be heard at every concert, alongside chamber music by her teachers, her contemporaries, her successors, and the wider American and European tradition she belonged to. The venues will be intimate, the standard uncompromising, and the spirit of the festival rooted in Swampscott itself.
Coming first
Friday, November 27, 2026 · Evening
A birthday celebration for Mabel Wheeler Daniels
An informal evening of music and readings at the First Church in Swampscott, marking Mabel's birthday and introducing the festival to the town. Further details to follow.
Mabel deserves her audience back.
Swampscott deserves its festival.
Get in touch
The full website is on its way. In the meantime, if you'd like to hear about concerts, volunteer, or support the festival, please write to danielsebastianbates@gmail.com.
To find out more about the composer herself, visit mabelwheelerdaniels.com.