An artist rendering of the exterior of the new campus.
LENOX, Mass. — Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, is planning to build a $30 million complex to enhance its offerings.
The orchestra announced the investment on Tuesday night. The four-building complex is being designed to support the performance and rehearsal activities of the Tanglewood Music Center and will be the focus point of the new Tanglewood Learning Institute.
The complex is expected to open in summer 2019 and is being designed by William Rawn Associates of Boston, which designed the Seiji Ozawa Hall. It will be the largest building project at the site since the 1994 construction of Ozawa Hall.
An official ground-breaking ceremony for the new building project is set to take place late this coming summer.
"As stewards of one of the world's most beloved summer music festivals and one of the top summer music academies for young musicians embarking on professional careers, all of us at the BSO feel a tremendous obligation to continue advancing Tanglewood's highest performance and education aspirations," said Mark Volpe, BSO's managing director. "We also welcome our role as caretakers of Tanglewood's exquisite beauty — an inspiration for the millions of concertgoers who have played an essential role in sustaining the festival since its founding in 1937."
The then Berkshire Symphonic Festival featuring the BSO moved in 1937 to the 210-acre Tanglewood estate of the late William Aspinwall Tappan, whose descendants donated to the property to the BSO. The Shed was built a year later and dedicated to conductor Serge Koussevitzky in 1988.
Tanglewood Learning Institute is a new initiative coupled with the project to provide state-of-the-art space for rehearsal and concert activities with seating up to 200, multimedia education and lectures with seating of up to 300, and social and dining events. The buildings include a 150-seat cafe and two smaller studios for rehearsal and other activities. It will be climate controlled to accommodate use in the off season.
Also included in the project is renovations to the Ozawa Hall Bernstein campus, including the reconfiguration of the entranceway gate and improved restroom and food service amenities. Boston Symphony Orchestra also plans a new horticultural plan for the now 524 acres that make up the property.
The project has been designed to reflect the Tanglewood experience of beauty and intensity of music-making infused by the surrounding Berkshire landscape and informality of gatherings on the festival's iconic expansive lawn, according to the architects. Located along the top of the Highwood ridge, overlooking the Ozawa Lawn and more distant views of the Berkshire Hills, this ensemble of four buildings gathers around a 100-foot tall red oak, with a sinuous covered walkway connecting each building and framing views and paths through the landscape.
The building project is part of a multiyear fundraising effort to support Tanglewood. The effort will include a special endowment for Boston Symphony Orchestra concert activities and other programming.
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Ghost Tour at Ventfort Hall
LENOX, Mass. — Join Robert Oakes, author of "Ghosts of the Berkshires," who will lead participants through the rooms and halls of Ventfort Hall sharing tales of its alleged hauntings.
The tour will take place at 8 pm on Saturday March 16.
Admission is $30 and minimum age to attend is age 12. Reservations are strongly recommended as tickets are limited. Walk-ins accommodated as space allows. For reservations visit https://gildedage.org/pages/calendar or call at 413-637-3206. All tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable. Payment is required to make a reservation for an event.
This is not an active investigation.
Robert Oakes is an author, teacher, storyteller, and singer/songwriter originally from northern New Jersey and currently residing in the Berkshires.. Since 2010 Robert has led the ghost tours at Edith Wharton's The Mount in Lenox, and has represented the museum and its ghosts on Syfy's Ghost Hunters, Jeff Belanger's New England Legends series on PBS, and The Apple Seed show on BYUradio.
In 2020, Robert's debut book, "Ghosts of the Berkshires," was published by Arcadia Publishing and is on sale now in our gift shop. Robert's latest book, "Ghosts of Northwestern New Jersey," was released in September 2022.
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