image description — The Mark Morris Dance Group is joined by Tanglewood Center Music Fellows and The New Fromm Players in a celebration of the highly influential experimental composer Lou Harrison's (1917-2003) 100th birthday at Tanglewood.

Classical Beat: Tanglewood, Taconic Music and 'Ragtime' at Barrington Stage

By Stephen DanknerSpecial to iBerkshires
01:46PM / Wednesday, June 28, 2017Print Story | Email Story

James Taylor returns to Tanglewood for the Fourth of July holiday.

For many music lovers, Tanglewood in Lenox virtually defines music in the Berkshires. It is the largest summer presenter, with the most comprehensive schedule of performances across the full spectrum of musical styles and genres. Before getting into imminent opening events, bookmark the Boston Symphony's website for the full summer concert schedule, season highlights, tickets and general information.

During the opening week's events, from Wednesday, June 28, through Tuesday, July 4, Tanglewood celebrates the opening of their 77th Music Festival with a generous sampling of popular, classical and new music/dance concerts that are sure to attract audiences. Here's a preview of these exhilarating and varied musical offerings:

• Wednesday and Thursday, June 28 and 29, 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: The Mark Morris Dance Group is joined by Tanglewood Center Music Fellows and The New Fromm Players in a celebration of the highly influential experimental composer Lou Harrison's (1917-2003) 100th birthday. In an interview with Morris about his involvement with Harrison's music, he stated: "Lou was a friend, and his music has been a decades-long inspiration to me as a choreographer. I've made up dances to many of his scores and there exist many more that are varied, extravagant, and irresistible. Lou said, 'Music is a Song and a Dance.' Not only do I agree, but also he was absolutely right. I gratefully and humbly celebrate his centenary." Morris's choreography to four of Harrison's classic chamber music works will be breathtaking to see and hear.

• Friday, June 30, 7 p.m. in the Shed: The "Popular Artists Series" features classic rock singer/songwriters Boz Scaggs and Michael McDonald performing.

• Saturday, July 1, 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: Tanglewood's annual String Quartet Marathon, the highly anticipated showcase for young, journeyman ensembles will take center stage, performing excerpts from the classical canon, as well as some offbeat new, and unusual repertoire. This highlight of the summer festival season is always a thrilling, not-to-be-missed event.

• Sunday, July 2, 10 a.m. in Ozawa Hall: "Brass Extravaganza" is a trio of stellar performers: conductor Stefan Asbury, trumpeter/conductor Hakan Hardenberger and BSO Maestro/trumpeter (!) Andris Nelsons will join the BSO brass faculty and Tanglewood Music Center (TMC) brass Fellows in a program of brilliant brass chamber music.

• Sunday, July 2, 2:30 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: The String Quartet Marathon continues.

• Sunday, July 2, 7 p.m. in the Shed: A performer in Tanglewood's “Popular Artists Series,” singer/songwriter Natalie Merchant will sing songs from across her full career, backed by her own band in addition to a string quartet.

• Monday, July 3, and Tuesday, July 4, 8 p.m. in the Shed: A Festival highlight, James Taylor and his All-Star Band returns to Tanglewood.

Upcoming at Tanglewood

The Boston Symphony (BSO) returns to Tanglewood, its summer home, next week with performances of two spectacular Mahler Symphonies: No. 2 ("Resurrection") on July 7 and No. 4 on July 9. The BSO's charismatic Maestro/Music Director Andris Nelsons will lead these programs. Be sure to reserve your tickets, as these concerts will be highlights of the summer.

Tickets for all Tanglewood events can be purchased online at tanglewood.org, via SymphonyCharge, 888-266-1200 and at the Tanglewood box office located at the main gate, on West Street in Lenox.

For tickets, call 888 266-1200, or go to the website. Music lovers can follow Tanglewood via its new social media accounts on Facebook, on Twitter @TanglewoodMA, and on Instagram @TanglewoodMusicFestival. The Boston Symphony is on Facebook, on Twitter @bostonsymphony, and on Instagram @bostonsymphony. The Boston Pops is on Facebook, on Twitter@thebostonpops, and on Instagram @thebostonpops.

Taconic Music

The innovative Manchester, Vt.-based music festival presents two exciting concerts this week:

• Saturday, July 1, 4 p.m. "NextGen" Concert: Chamber Music Initiative: Beethoven: String Quartet No.7 in F major Op. 59, No. 1 (“Rasumovsky"); Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 5 in E flat major Op. 44, No. 3; Ravel: String Quartet in F major; Dohnányi: Piano Quintet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 1.

Performers include Joohyun Lee, Jingting Liu, Heather Munch and Cami Sylvia, violins, Zoe Loversky and Gavon Peck, violas, Yeil Park and Mark Serkin, cellos and Dan Sato, piano

• Sunday, July 2, 4 p.m.: Beethoven: Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano in B-flat Major, Op. 11; Vladigerov: Chant for Violin and Piano, Op. 21; Still: Suite for Violin and Piano; Schumann: Quintet for Piano and String Quartet in E flat Major, Op. 44.

Performers include Joana Genova and Austin Hartman, violins; Ariel Rudiakov, viola, Nathaniel Parke, cello and Molly Morkoski, piano. Special guests: Elizabeth Wright, piano and Todd Palmer, clarinet.

Both performances will be at The Riley Center for the Arts at Burr and Burton Academy, 57 Seminary Ave., Manchester, Vt. Prices for adults are $25 and for students and children are $10. For complete information and programming, visit Taconic Music online or call 802-362-7162.

'Ragtime' at Barrington Stage Company

'Ragtime' plays at Barrington Stage Company through July 15.

Barrington Stage Company has created a brilliantly conceived, acted, sung and directed production of this hit Tony Award-winning (13 nominations, two wins for book and score) musical. Panoramic in scope, the re-imagining of novelist E.L. Doctorow's original 1975 novel to the realm of musical theater is dazzling in its execution.

New York and environs around 1900 (New Rochelle, Harlem, Ellis Island, 5th Avenue/Manhattan) are the locales for both actual historical figures (J.P. Morgan, Harry Houdini, Booker T. Washington, Stanford White, Emma Goldman, Henry Ford et al) to interact with fictional persons and events, creating a fascinating “what if” dramatic narrative. E.L. Doctorow's postmodern classic novel, the source of both the 1981 film and the 1998 Broadway musical, presents audiences with a re-mapped, parallel universe history of a turbulent era that is still, today, working out issues of race bigotry, class, art, the “one-percent” mega-rich and more.

"Ragtime" is marvelously entertaining and powerful; it's also a thinking-person's story, set to beautiful and jaunty music (there are plenty of catchy tunes – the music is omnipresent; it could almost be considered an opera) that will captivate and enthrall you. You'll be dancing in your seat.

Ragtime at Barrington Stage Company runs through July 15 on the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage, 30 Union St., Pittsfield, Mass. For tickets, call the Mainstage Box Office at 413-236-8888 or go online.

Tags: classical music, Tanglewood,

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The Classical Beat: Look For a Profusion of Events at Tanglewood From Fall and Into Next Spring

by Stephen DanknerSpecial to iBerkshires
03:15PM / Wednesday, August 26, 2026

LENOX, Mass. — Come late August, classical aficionados are grateful for the cornucopia of extraordinarily sonorous riches the Boston Symphony has bestowed upon audiences within the incomparably bucolic setting that is Tanglewood. It's been, as ever, a magical summer of glorious music making.

But wait – it's not over; for a cool, refreshing stylistic change of pace, with a tincture of Jazz, Broadway, Dance, Classical, Pops and Local Community events to buoy the spirits, be sure to check out the complete schedule of upcoming events at the storied Tanglewood Learning Institute, beginning in September. Read below for the complete TLI listings.

Tanglewood Learning Institute Announces Fall/Winter/Spring Season, Presenting Over 50 Events September 2026 through May 2027

TLI's most expansive season to date brings classical, jazz, Broadway, and dance talent to Tanglewood's Linde Center. Tickets now on sale.

The Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI) has announced the 2026–'27 fall/winter/spring season, the most expansive yet, with over 50 events at the Linde Center for Music and Learning on Tanglewood's campus and in the Berkshires community. Marking the third year of year-round TLI programming, the upcoming season offers a wide-ranging performance lineup of exciting classical, jazz, Broadway, and dance talent as well as the TLI Cinematics film series, new TLI Focal Point photography classes, and community engagement events.

The season begins in late September with TLI Jazz: Mark G. Meadows & The Movement (Sept. 18) and TLI Presents: Beijing Guitar Duo (Sept. 25). Berkshire-based artists appear throughout the season, including a dedicated weekend of TLI Close to Home performances (Oct. 30–Nov. 1). BSO musicians curate and perform five TLI Chamber Concerts (Oct. 18, Nov. 8, Feb. 28, April 11, and April 25). Last year's inaugural Berkshire Bach Portals series, a collaboration with Berkshire Bach Society, continues with four programs about the impact of Bach's music across artistic disciplines (Nov. 7, Jan. 30, March 20, and May 15). As currently planned, the TLI fall/winter/spring season concludes May 23 with a performance by Grammy-winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth. TLI events continue during the 2027 Tanglewood summer season.

Single tickets and choose-your-own subscriptions for the upcoming TLI season go on sale Wednesday, August 12 at 10 a.m.

TLI Presents

A wide-ranging lineup of soloists and ensembles will visit the Linde Center for TLI Presents programs, beginning with the Tanglewood debut of the Beijing Guitar Duo (Meng Su and Yameng Wang) in a program that shows the expressive range of classical guitar and includes works by Telemann, Giuliani, and Chinese American composer Tan Dun (Sept. 25, 7 p.m.). Award-winning Moldovan accordionist Radu Ratoi follows with a varied recital that reveals the remarkable expressive range of his instrument with pieces by Rameau, Bach, Philip Glass, Gubaidulina, Tchaikovsky, and others (Oct. 23, 7 p.m.).

Broadway comes to the Linde Center by way of two-time Tony-nominated singer and actress Christine Andreas ("My Fair Lady," "Oklahoma!," "The Light in the Piazza"), who brings classic and contemporary selections from the American songbook in her show S'Wonderful with Grammy-nominated composer and pianist Martin Silvestri. In a new format for TLI, this event will feature cabaret-style table seating with bites and beverages available for purchase (Nov. 13, 7 p.m.). Later that weekend, the Grammy-winning and four-time nominated wind quintet Imani Winds, renowned for blending classical masterworks with newly commissioned works and diverse musical influences, performs an adventurous chamber music program (Nov. 15, 3 p.m.)

Founded by retired Boston Ballet principal dancer John Lam, who led TLI 101: Dance at the Linde Center in July, Lam Dance Works returns to Tanglewood for an intimate evening where dance, live music, and the human voice illuminate memory, identity, and our shared humanity. The program features works by internationally acclaimed choreographers Peggy Baker, Jorma Elo, and Yury Yanowsky, with Artistic Director Lam offering audience insights before each work and a post-performance conversation with the artists. (Nov. 21, 7 p.m.).

Newly installed as a Berkshire tradition, BSO Holiday Brass returns to the Linde Center for four presentations, including a morning performance geared towards families (Dec. 18–20).

Colombian cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia, Silver Medalist and "Audience Favorite" at the 2019 XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition, presents a recital that pairs music by Bach and George Crumb with several of his own compositions (Feb. 26, 7 p.m.). Concert pianists Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung, each in-demand soloists in their own right, offer an afternoon concert featuring repertoire for four hands, including works by Bach, Mendelssohn, Debussy, Poulenc, and Piazzolla (March 7, 3 p.m.).

Actor and singer Jarrod Spector, most recently seen on Broadway as King George III in "Hamilton," shares his musical journey in "Jukebox Life," a cabaret-style evening of Broadway, rock n' roll, and crooner classics that traces his career from winning "Star Search" at age six to the bright lights of Broadway (April 9, 7 p.m.).

In a highlight of the season, pianist and composer Conrad Tao and choreographer and dancer Caleb Teicher give two performances of their collaborative and original program Counterpoint. The stylistically diverse music of "Counterpoint" includes the Aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Art Tatum’s brilliantly virtuosic stride piano, Arnold Schoenberg’s ironic/modernistic take on the Viennese waltz, a delicate miniature from Tao and Teicher’s More Forever, and threading it all together, Gershwin’s perennially beloved "Rhapsody in Blue." Tao and Teicher’s earlier work," More Forever," is a Bessie Award-winning, New York Times critic’s pick which was lauded for "constantly extending the sonic aspects of dance" (April 17, 7 p.m., and April 18, 3 p.m.).

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