The Northern Virginia Music Center at Reston was established in 1967, and held its first summer camp for young musicians that same year. Initially, its founders aspired to develop the summer camp into a full-faculty, national summer music training program that would eventually become a year-round high school for the performing arts. Although it never developed into a high school, the Center did manage to draw 150 talented student enrollees who came not only from the Greater Washington area, but also from 30 states and a half dozen foreign countries. From 1969-1972, the Music Center faculty and students held regular concerts in Northern Virginia. In 1972, students and faculty traveled to Lausanne, Switzerland, to participate in a series of concerts. By the mid-1970s, the Music Center encountered budget problems, and many board members, including the president, Paul S. Frick, resigned and the Center gradually dissolved. The collection contains some materials from 1978 since some students and faculty from the Center later became associated with the Northern Virginia Youth Symphony Association.