Tanglewood

The Boston Symphony with Andris Nelsons at the helm performed Alban Berg’s Wozzeck at Carnegie Hall. The composer left an early performance of Georg Buchner’s play on which the opera would be  based, remarking: this must be an opera and I will compose it. The Boston Symphony gave a defining performance of the work.

The Boston Symphony’s archival concert stream of its 1963 American premiere of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, recorded at Tanglewood, will be made available free of charge at bso.org/now, March 10 through April 8. Under the direction of Erich Leinsdorf (BSO Music Director, 1962–69), the historic recording features vocalists Phyllis Curtin, Nicolas di Virgilio, and Tom Krause, as well as Chorus Pro Musica and Columbus Boy Choir.

The Clark Art Institute debuts Soundings: New Music at the Clark, a concert series presented in collaboration with the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas. On Saturday, March 19 at 3 pm, Soundings: Some Favored Nook, the first concert of the series, takes place in the Clark’s Michael Conforti Pavilion

Four instruments shimmering in the lights of Roulette, the iconic Brooklyn venue, might suggest you are at the brass concert. The saxophone in all its glories, principally soprano, tenor, baritone and bass, Is a member of the wind group. It sounds are full, rich, warm and smooth. Together, the Prism group makes one single sound. It can be raucous for fun. Or very dark when the mood requires.

Close Encounters with Music presents the Berkshire debut of Van Cliburn medalist Yekwon Suwoo. The pianist will appear at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington March 20 with acclaimed violinist Daniel Phillips, violist Daniel Panner, and cellist and artistic director Yehuda Hanani. 

Tom Stoppard prefers rock and pop, but he contributes mightily to a musical monologue written with Andre Previn and sung and spoken by Renee Fleming and Uma Thurman with the splendid Emerson Quartet and Simone Dinnerstein.

The author of several biographies, plays and opera librettos, Terry Teachout had an expansive interest in the arts. Few of his generation were more prolific. In an age of decline in arts journalism he was the only major critic who regularly covered regional theatre. We saw him several times each season in the Berkshires.

Gail Samuel, Eunice and Julian Cohen President and CEO of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, today announced the appointment of two new executive leaders Maureen Flores, as Chief Development Officer, and Asadour Santourian, as Vice President, Tanglewood Music Center & Learning. Both appointments are effective January 2022.

Steve Nelson was the foremost producer/promoter of concerts by The Velvet Underground in the period 1967-1970. He managed the legendary rock club The Boston Tea Party and produced shows in western Mass. at his club The Woodrose Ballroom and at the Paramount Theater in Springfield. He also designed several of the posters promoting those shows. He was an Archival Consultant to the Haynes film and provided visual materials for it.

The Boston Pops announces the return of the ever-popular Holiday Pops season at Symphony Hall, December 2 through 24. Under the direction of Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart, the 2021 Holiday Pops season celebrates the reunion of the Pops with its devoted patrons, while the orchestra also welcomes new audience members to experience the sights and sounds of these special concerts with the one-and-only Boston Pops Orchestra.

A native of Newton and Boston University graduate the career of jazz entrepreneur, George Wein, started with the club Storyville in Copley Square. With the Lorrilards as backers he founded the Newport Jazz Festival and later the Newport Folk Festival. He went on to the the world's foremost jazz promoter. He died today at 95 in New York.

rose

On Saturday, September 4, at 4 pm, the renowned Knights Orchestra returns to the Clark as part of its programming to highlight Norwegian culture in celebration of its Nikolai Astrup: Visions of Norway exhibition.

Please join Close Encounters With Music for an End-of-Summer Celebration and Auction. You will enjoy beautiful vistas, a scrumptious lunch, an appearance by the PRISM quartet (saxophones). and an auction of exciting items to bid on,

The final concert of the season on Sunday, September 5, features the all-female Cassatt String Quartet and celebrated pianist Ursula Oppens. Opening the program, Oppens will play selections from Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s intimate cycle of piano pieces, Das Jahr (“The Year”). 

It's the final lap for the summer season at Tanglewood with more great concerts to come.

How theater is presented this summer continues to expand. TheaterWorks in Hartford, West Hartford’s Playhouse on Park and Ridgefield’s Thrown Stone Theater are exploring what are called “site-specific” productions – where the production’s content has a relationship to the site where it is performed.

This 2021 Boston Pops July 4th Spectacular will be a televised, live-streamed concert to take place under the direction of Keith Lockhart from the stage of Tanglewood’s Koussevitzky Music Shed, Sunday, July 4, 8-11 p.m., broadcast live on Bloomberg TV and Radio, as well as locally on WHDH-TV Channel 7.

IN SUPPORT OF REGULATIONS SET BY THE TRI-TOWN HEALTH DEPARTMENT AND THE LENOX AND STOCKBRIDGE HEALTH BOARDS, TANGLEWOOD WILL LIMIT ATTENDANCE CAPACITY TO 9,000—50% OF ITS USUAL CAPACITY OF 18,000; THIS REPRESENTS A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE OVER THE PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED ATTENDANCE CAP OF 25%.

Tanglewood’s Linde Center for Music and Learning received a 2021 Interior Architecture Award from the national American Institute of Architects (AIA) on April 16, 2021. The Linde Center was one of only seven projects nationally to receive this award that "celebrates the most innovative and spectacular interior spaces."

Marking the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s triumphant return to its summer home, BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons—who leads eight orchestra programs this summer—opens the BSO’s Tanglewood season on Saturday, July 10, with an all-Beethoven program, featuring one of the festival’s most preeminent guest artists, Emanuel Ax, performing the Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor, on a program with one of Beethoven’s most iconic works, Symphony No. 5.

Jacob's Pillow launches its 90th season with continuity as well as renovation and a Dance We Must fundraising campaign. It seeks to raise $2 million toward a goal of $22 million.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra is taking a big step toward its future with the appointment of Gail Samuel to succeed Mark Volpe this June, just in time for Tanglewood. 

As the Julian and Eunice Cohen President and CEO of the BSO, Gail Samuel will lead the Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, and Tanglewood, and will oversee a robust, rapidly evolving slate of initiatives intended to expand the reach and relevance of orchestral music in the Boston area and beyond.

In 2015, Michael Conforti retired as director of the Clark Art Institute after some 20 years. The Clark is very different now then what he signed on for. Today, the Clark hosts summer blockbuster shows and is one of the nations foremost research centers. From the beginning, it has had close ties with Williams College where Conforti teaches a graduate course in museum studies. He oversaw the expansion and renovation with architect Tadao Ando. While running the Clark he was on the road and hard to pin down. Now retired, we worked together on an extensive overview of his career, accomplishments, and issues for museums.