With the goal of bringing to Rabun County some of the world’s top professionals in classical music, Gene Haywood, in 1999, formed an informal panel with fellow Sky Valley residents Sharon and John Hoppes to make this dream a reality. The Rabun County Music Festival started that year with three concerts. Rabun County Music Festival concerts are performed in the beautiful 600-seat Rearden Theater of the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School.