Archived schedules

March 1, 2016 Article by Dave Read

Jackson Browne has been added to the Tanglewood 2016 season schedule, along with Earth, Wind & Fire, Train, with Andy Grammer, and the B-52s. These concerts augment an already stellar Popular Artists segment of Tanglewood’s 2016 schedule, which runs from June 18 to September 3 at Lenox, in the Berkshires. Jackson Browne, member of both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, returns to the Koussevitzky Shed on Tuesday, June 21, at 7 p.m. Mr. Browne, who first played Tanglewood in 1973, headlined the July 4 2013 concert in his previous appearance here. Tickets for these shows go on sale March 14 24 starting at 10 a.m. through Tanglewood’s website, www.tanglewood.org, by phone: SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200, and at the Symphony Hall Box Office at 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston MA.

Tanglewood adds Earth, Wind & Fire, Train, the B-52s to 2016 schedule

Earth, Wind & Fire open the Tanglewood season with their June 18 concert, a return engagement since their June 2011 Tanglewood debut. Founded in Chicago in 1971, they are the seventh top-selling musical group of all-time and members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Train, popular for such songs as Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me), Calling All Angels, and Hey, Soul Sister, makes their third Tanglewood appearance August 23. Opening for Train is Andy Grammer, who’s first top 10 hit on the Billboard chart was Honey, I’m Good. The B-52s, esteemed by many as The World’s Greatest Party Band for hits such as Love Shack, Rock Lobster, and Roam, will make their Tanglewood debut with the Boston Pops Pops on Friday, September 2, at 8.

See complete 2016 Tanglewood schedule for:

• June,
• July,
• August & September.

2016 Tanglewood tickets

Tickets for the 2016 Tanglewood season, $12-$124, go on sale January 24 starting at 10 a.m. through Tanglewood’s website, www.tanglewood.org, SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200, and at the Symphony Hall Box Office at 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston MA. Tanglewood brochures with complete programs and information on how to order tickets will be available in early February by calling 617-638-9467. For further information, please call the Boston Symphony Orchestra at 617-266-1492 or visit www.tanglewood.org. 2016 Tanglewood schedule – PDF.

Tanglewood grounds map

Here is a dynamic map of the Tanglewood grounds, with photos and information for such points of interest as Aaron Copland Library, Highwood Manor House, The Glass House, and The Lion’s Gate.

How to get to the Berkshires

Follow this link for Berkshires travel information, including public transportation within Berkshire county and Amtrak and Peter Pan bus schedules.

Hotels near Tanglewood

Find hotels near Tanglewood with user reviews, check amenities, nearby attractions, availability and then book your room reservations at these lodging establishments through our partner, International Hotel Solutions (IHS), the leading provider of secure online hotel reservations.

BULLETIN!!! May 27, 2016 The BSO has announced that Seiji Ozawa has canceled his trip to Tanglewood because of ill-health after recent performances with the Berlin Philharmonic and Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland in Paris and further work in Japan.

Seiji Ozawa has been added to the 2016 Tanglewood schedule, which already includes favorites such as Yo Yo Ma, James Taylor, A Prairie Home Companion, with Garrison Keillor, and John Williams’ Film Night. Maestro Ozawa, a recent Kennedy Center honoree and the only Music Directior Laureate in the history of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, will open the July 9 BSO program with Beethoven’s Egmont Overture. View photos from Maestro Ozawa’s farewell press conference at Tanglewood in 2002.

There are very few places that have had such a profound impact on me as Tanglewood, where I studied as a Fellow in 1960, and started my professional work with the BSO in 1970. It is an honor for me to return to this fantastic place and to my beloved Boston Symphony Orchestra, with whom I spent the most significant part of my musical life as a conductor. Words cannot express the joy I feel about returning to Tanglewood this summer. Seiji Ozawa

Seiji Ozawa to work with Tanglewood Music Center fellows

On July 5, Mr. Ozawa will lead the Swiss Academy String Quartet Ensemble and the Tanglewood Music Center in a program to include the slow movement of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 16 in F and the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings. He will work also with the Conducting Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center2016 Tanglewood tickets

Tickets for the 2016 Tanglewood season, $12-$124, go on sale January 24 starting at 10 a.m. through Tanglewood’s website, www.tanglewood.org, SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200, and at the Symphony Hall Box Office at 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston MA. Tanglewood brochures with complete programs and information on how to order tickets will be available in early February by calling 617-638-9467. For further information, please call the Boston Symphony Orchestra at 617-266-1492 or visit www.tanglewood.org. 2016 Tanglewood schedule – PDF.

Tanglewood grounds map

Here is a dynamic map of the Tanglewood grounds, with photos and information for such points of interest as Aaron Copland Library, Highwood Manor House, The Glass House, and The Lion’s Gate.

How to get to the Berkshires

Follow this link for Berkshires travel information, including public transportation within Berkshire county and Amtrak and Peter Pan bus schedules.

Here’s acomprehensive look at what is playing at performing arts venues in the Berkshires during November, 2015. Dark weeks for many local cultural organizations, but busy at others where Thanksgiving and Christmas season performances have become traditions.

Theatre in the Berkshires November 2015

These Berkshires orgnizations will present plays and/or theatre events during November: WAM Theatre @ BSC, Sundance Institute Theatre Program @ MASSMoCA.

Holy Laughter – WAM Theatre @ BSC – October 29 – November 22

Holy Laughter, about an Episcopal priest who finds that the reality of leading a church is radically and hilariously different than what she learned in seminary, will be presented by WAM Theatre October 29–November 22 at Barrington Stage Company’s St. Germain Stage, 36 Linden Street, Pittsfield, MA.
Info. and tickets: wamtheatre.com/.

Sundance Theatre Lab – MASS MoCA – November 24

Sundance Institute Theatre Program’s annual lab at MASS MoCA, 87 Marshall Street, North Adams MA, gathers top-tier dramatic artists and includes a work-in-progress performance.
Info. and tickets: massmoca.org/

Music in the Berkshires November 2015

The Berkshires are known worldwide as the locale of Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Even so, music is very much a year-round activity throughout the Berkshires, where concerts and musical events are presented at an array of venues in towns such as Williamstown, North Adams, Sheffield, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, Lee, and Pittsfield. Concert details and ticket info: The Colonial Theatre; || Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center; || MASS MoCA; || Berkshire Concert Choir.

• The Eagles Band 8th Annual Concert – The Colonial Theatre – Nov. 6, FREE
• Natalie MacMaster – A Celtic Family Celebration – The Colonial Theatre – Nov. 7
• Art Garfunkel – Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center – Nov. 14
• The New Christy Minstrels – The Colonial Theatre – Nov. 14
• On The Stage Series: Robin Spielberg – The Colonial Theatre – Nov. 15
• Moondance: The Ultimate Van Morrison Tribute Concert – The Colonial Theatre – Nov. 19
• And the Kids – The Colonial Theatre – Nov. 20
• Mozart – Berkshire Concert Choir – Zion Lutheran Church, Pittsfield – Nov. 21
• Stephin Merritt – MASS MoCA – Nov. 21
• The Mary Verdi Christmas Show – The Colonial Theatre – Nov. 28

Fine art exhibitions in the Berkshires November 2015

An Eye for Excellence: Twenty Years of Collecting – Clark Art Institute – through April 10, 2016

• 225 South Street
• Williamstown, MA 01267
• 413-458-2303
• web: clarkart.edu

Related events: Looking at Lunchtime Wednesday, November 11, 12:30 pm Curatorial Assistant Genevieve Hulley discusses early photography in the exhibition An Eye for Excellence: Twenty Years of Collecting.

Dinner and the Show Saturday, November 21, 5:30 pm Enjoy a private tour of An Eye for Excellence: Twenty Years of Collecting with Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Jay A. Clarke, followed by a gourmet farm-to-table meal.

Current exhibitions at MASS MoCA, North Adams

• 87 Marshall St.; North Adams, MA 01247
• Phone: 413.MoCA.111
• Web: massmoca.org

Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective will remain on view at MASS MoCA until 2033!. It includes 105 of LeWitt’s large-scale wall drawings, spanning the artist’s career from 1969 to 2007. These occupy nearly an acre of specially built interior walls that have been installed—per LeWitt’s own specifications—over three stories of a historic mill building situated at the heart of MASS MoCA’s campus.

• Barbara Takenaga: Nebraska – On view now – Hunter Center
• SuttonBeresCuller: Big Top Grand Stand – through November 8, 2015
• Ran Hwang: Untethered – On view now
• Walk in My Shoes – On view now
• Francesco Clemente: Encampment – through January 3, 2016
• Artists’ Choice: An Expanded Field of Photography – through April 24, 2016
• Clifford Ross: Landscape Seen & Imagined – through April 17, 2016
• Liz Deschenes: Gallery 4.1.1 – through April 24, 2016
• Jim Shaw: Entertaining Doubts – through January 31, 2016
• Bibliothecaphilia – through March 2016

See also:

• Map for museums and historic sites in the Berkshires;
• map to performing arts venues in the Berkshires

August 4, 2015 Article by Dave Read

BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons will lead the Boston Symphony Orchestra in thirteen extraordinarily wide-ranging programs in the 2015-16 BSO season, highlighted by new programming and recording initiatives around the music of Shostakovich, three weeks of thematic concerts honoring the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, concert performances of Strauss’s Elektra with Christine Goerke in the title role, and new works by Hans Abrahamsen, Sebastian Currier, Giya Kancheli, and George Tsontakis. Subscriptions for the BSO’s 2015-16 season are available now by calling 888-266-7575 or visiting www.bso.org; single tickets, $25-$145, go on sale August 3.

BSO and Deutsche Grammophon announce Dmitri Shostakovich live recording project

In conjunction with the BSO’s 2015-16 season announcement, the BSO and Deutsche Grammophon have announced a multi-year collaboration beginning with a series of live recordings of works by Dmitri Shostakovich. The project—five albums to be released in three installments between summer 2015 and summer 2017—will initially focus on music written by Shostakovich during the most intense period of his difficult relationship with Stalin and the Soviet regime—starting with his fall from favor in the mid-1930s, the composition and highly acclaimed premiere of his Fifth Symphony through Stalin’s death in 1953, and the premiere of the composer’s Tenth Symphony.

BSO’s 134th season opens October 1, 2015 with an all-Russian program

The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 134th season will open on Thursday, October 1, with an all-Russian program featuring the incomparable Evgeny Kissin, who joins Mr. Nelsons and the orchestra for Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, on a program with works by Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff. Andris Nelsons, in his second full season with the orchestra, brings the BSO’s season to a close on April 23 with a program featuring soprano Kristine Opolais in the “Letter Scene” from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. The program opens with Dutilleux’s Métaboles, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth; it will also include music of Rachmaninoff, Ravel, and Debussy.

BSO celebrates Shakespeare on 400th anniversary of his death

To honor the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, Andris Nelsons leads three programs of Shakespeare-inspired music in January and February, to include not only such popular repertoire staples as Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream music, Weber’s Overture to Oberon, music from Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet, and Tchaikovsky’s overture-fantasy of that name, but also such rarities as Strauss’s Macbeth, Dvo?ák’s Othello Overture, and a suite from Shostakovich’s incidental music to Hamlet, as well as Hans Werner Henze’s BSO-commissioned, Midsummer-Night’s-Dream-inspired Symphony No. 8, premiered here in 1993. Also highlighting these weeks will be a series of related events, to encompass lecture, panel discussion, and film presentations.

The Shakespeare celebration also includes a new work by Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen—let me tell you, based on texts from Hamlet, featuring, in her BSO debut, Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan; and the world premiere of American composer George Tsontakis’ Sonnets, a BSO commission written for BSO English horn player Robert Sheena. Other new works under the direction of Mr. Nelsons in 2015-16 include a BSO co-commission (with the Seattle Symphony) of American composer Sebastian Currier’s Divisions for orchestra andthe American premiere of Georgian composer Giya Kancheli’s Dixi for chorus and orchestra, featuring the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

The prestigious list of guest artists and ensembles joining Mr. Nelsons and the BSO for the 2015-16 season includes pianists Yefim Bronfman (Bartók Piano Concerto No. 2), Paul Lewis (Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3), and Nikolai Lugansky (Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini); mezzo-soprano Nadezhda Serdyuk (Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky); violinist Isabelle Faust (Berg Violin Concerto); BSO Concertmaster Malcolm Lowe and Principal Viola Steven Ansell (Mozart Sinfonia Concertante); and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus (choral works of Bach, Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, Kancheli’s Dixi, and Strauss’s Elektra).

Throughout the 2015-16 season, Mr. Nelsons continues to spotlight the orchestra through performances of such major symphonic works as Brahms’s Symphony No. 2, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 3, Debussy’s La Mer, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, Ravel’s La Valse, Shostakovich’s Symphonies Nos. 5, 8, and 9, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1, Winter Daydreams, as well as Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, the work Mr. Nelsons led the first time he ever conducted the BSO, in March 2011, before becoming its music director in fall 2014.

Following the BSO’s 2015-16 season at Symphony Hall, Andris Nelsons will lead the orchestra in a European tour, May 3-12, 2016 to eight cities in Germany, Austria, and Luxembourg. This will be Andris Nelsons’ second tour with the BSO; he leads his first tour as BSO music director in August/September 2015—an eight-city tour to major European capitals, including Berlin, Cologne, London, Milan, and Paris, as well as the Lucerne, Salzburg, and Grafenegg festivals.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra performs October through April in internationally-acclaimed Symphony Hall, which has been consistently ranked as one of the top three concert halls in the world since its opening as the BSO’s home in 1900; information about the BSO can be found at www.bso.org. During the 2015-16 season, the BSO and Andris Nelsons also perform a three-concert series at Carnegie Hall, October 20, 21, and 22; Carnegie Hall release available here. The orchestra’s summer season takes place at Tanglewood—this country’s preeminent summer music festival and the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937—located in the Berkshire Hills between Stockbridge and Lenox, MA; details about the 2015 Tanglewood season available at www.tanglewood.org.

Nov. 13, 2014 Article by Dave Read

The 2015 Tanglewood season, which runs from June 20 through Labor Day weekend, celebrates both the inaugural season of Boston Symphony Orchestra music director Andris Nelsons and the 75th anniversary of the BSO’s summer music academy, the Tanglewood Music center. Highlights on the 2015 Tanglewood schedule are appearances by an exciting list of guest artists, including Yo Yo Ma, Emmanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Bryn Terfel, plus such popular artists as Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, Mark Morris Dance Company, Wynton Marsalis and Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Diana Krall, A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, Huey Lewis and the News.

Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax each take on the new Tanglewood title of 2015 Koussevitzky Artist, honorary titles reflecting both a multidimensional commitment to the 2015 season and more than 30 years of performing and teaching at Tanglewood. On Aug. 9 they will perform a recital together in the Koussevitzky Music Shed, playing the Complete Sonatas for Cello and Piano by Beethoven.

Maestro Andris Nelsons leads six Tanglewood programs, including Mahler’s Symphony no. 8, “Symphony of a thousand,” with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, Tanglewood Festival Chorus, BUTI chorus, American Boy Choir, and eight vocal soloists in honor of the summer music academy’s 75th anniversary season, Aug. 8; four BSO concerts including Mahler’s Symphony no. 6, Aug. 14; selections from Verdi’s opera Otello, featuring Kristine Opolais as soloist, Aug. 15; two Strauss tone poems, works of Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and Barber, and programs featuring Christian Tetzlaff, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Renaud CapuÇon, and Gautier CapuÇon; and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture with the combined forces of the BSO and TMCO, as part of Tanglewood on Parade, Aug. 4.
[bctt tweet=”2015 Tanglewood schedule”]

Additional BSO highlights:

• July 3: all-American opening night with works by Copland and Gershwin;
• July 10: StÉphane DenÈve leads a program featuring organist Cameron Carpenter;
• July 12: special guest appearances by Ludovic Morlot and Pinchas Zukerman;
• July 11, 2015: Act I from Puccini’s Tosca with Bryn Terfel and Sondra Radvanovsky, Bramwell Tovey ditrecting;
• July 17-19, 2015: Mozart and Schumann weekend, with guest artists Christian Zacharias, Sarah Connolly, Baiba Skride, Sir Neville Marriner, and Paul Lewis;
• July 24: Christoph von DohnÁnyi leading all-Beethoven program;
• July 25: Michael Tilson Thomas leading Mahler’s Symphony no. 5;
• July 26: Christoph von DohnÁnyi leading all-Mozart program;
• July 31: Ken-David Masur and Garrick Ohlsson;
• Aug. 9: Charles Dutoit and Joshua Bell;

2015 Tanglewood popular artists and Boston Pops schedule

• June 19 – Sheryl Crow at Tanglewood with the Boston Pops;
• June 20 – Keith Lockhart leads a Stephen Sondheim tribute;
• June 21 – Diana Krall, Wallflower Tour;
• June 27 – A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, Live Broadcast;
• June 28 – Huey Lewis and the News, “While We’re Young” Tour;
• June 30 – Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, Cheek to Cheek;
• July 4 – James Taylor with His All-Star Band;
• July 6 – Boston Pops brass and percussion featured with famed drum & bugle corps Boston Crusaders and Blue Devils;
• Aug. 4 – Tanglewood on Parade;
• Aug. 21 – Boston Pops program with Cirque de la Symphonie;
• Aug. 22 – John Williams and David Newman lead film night.
• Aug. 29 – Idina Menzel, World Tour.

Tanglewood 2015 schedule special events at Ozawa Hall

June 25 & 26: Mark Morris Dance Group;

July 1: Chamber music performances by the Boston Symphony chamber players;

July 2: Apollo’s Fire;

July 8: recital appearance by Leon Fleisher;

July 9: recital appearance by Bryn Terfel;

July 14: recital appearance by Sarah Connolly; 

July 14: Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra;

July 19: recital appearance by Audra McDonald;

July 21: recital appearance by Paul Lewis;

July 22: Emerson String Quartet;

July 30: The Knights, Falla’s Master Peter’s Puppet Show;

Aug. 5: Matthias Goerne singing Schubert’s Winterreise;

Aug. 6: all-Brahms program with Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, and Leonidas Kavakos;

Aug. 12: recital appearance by Christian Tetzlaff;

Tanglewood Music Center 75th anniversary season

Tanglewood Music Center celebrates 75th anniversary season with over 30 commissions of new works. On Aug. 8, Andris Nelsons will lead a performance of Mahler’s Symphony no. 8, which also will be offered as a free live webcast at www.tanglewood.org. There also will be free weekly downloads from the 75-year performance history of the Tanglewood Music Center, a TMC 75 archival exhibit in the Tanglewood visitors center, plus commemorative program books with historical narratives and archival photographs tracing the long and storied history of the Tanglewood Music Center.

Tanglewood tickets and 2015 season brochure

Tanglewood brochures with complete programs and information on how to order tickets will be available in early February by calling 617-638-9467. For further information, please call the Boston Symphony Orchestra at 617-266-1492 or visit www.tanglewood.org.

Tanglewood grounds map

Here is a dynamic map of the Tanglewood grounds, with photos and information for such points of interest as Aaron Copland Library, Highwood Manor House, The Glass House, and The Lion’s Gate.

How to get to the Berkshires

Follow this link for Berkshires travel information, including public transportation within Berkshire county and Amtrak and Peter Pan bus schedules.

Nov. 20, 2015 Article by Dave Read

James Taylor has announced that he will return to Tanglewood for concerts on July 3 & 4, 2016, accompanied by his All-Star Band; tickets become available to the public on January 17 at 10 am EST. The shows are listed on the Tanglewood website as beginning at 8PM, rather than 7PM as previously, according to memory!

Maybe that explains why this announcement came several weeks after the Boston Symphony Orchestra promulgated their 2016 schedule, minus these James Taylor dates, while announcing that Friday and Saturday night concerts shall begin at 8PM henceforward, as opposed to 8:30 as previously? The two Boston-born, Berkshires-steeped juggernauts were negotiating starting times!? While not an annual event, these James Taylor Fourth of July Tanglewood shows are becoming pretty regular – annual since 2012 except for the hiatus year 2013

It has been another good year for Taylor who last month was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama, who presented the National Medal of Arts to him in 2010. He also released a new studio album, Before This World, which dominated national music news for a week or so when it was released in June, and which currently ranks #23 in Rock and #63 in Pop on Amazon’s best seller listing. More local articles: James Taylor at tanglewood and in the Berkshires.