Students experience a summer of music and learning at Tanglewood Institute

By Elsbet WaynePrint Story | Email Story
Each year, music students travel to Lenox to experience the Tanglewood Institute
Tanglewood’s most junior and perhaps most active collaborative is the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, established some 36 years ago by then Music Director Erich Leinsdorf with Boston University to provide young, advanced musicians with an unprecedented access to the Tanglewood Festival. The program by now encompasses all phases of instrumental, vocal and piano music. The best way of finding out about the BUTI program is to go to the students and interview selected members of the program. While lunchtime on the day of Tanglewood on Parade was not exactly an ideal moment, Assistant Administrative Director of BUTI, College of Fine Arts, Adrien Rocher, was extremely helpful in sending a sampling of students before or after lunch and we were able to piece together some interesting facts. Tanglewood draws these 15 - 19 years old high school students from near and far. Of the young people who drifted in and out of the office at Windsor Mountain School where many of them are housed and fed, several were from New York City, two came from California,… one each from Massachusetts, Connecticut, North Carolina, Florida and Leipzig, Germany. The BUTI program is open to high school students from grades 10 to freshmen in college and the enthusiasm about being at Tanglewood is universal. Once here they are offered a six weeks course of rigorous training and ensemble performance in all phases of instrumental, vocal and piano music and musicianship, preceded by a 2 weeks session of workshops and private lessons. If accepted a student may select one or all of these activities, it is a matter of financial ability. Intensive instruction and ensemble work - orchestra and chamber music for instrumentalists, chorus and small ensembles for vocalists and pianists - fill the days and there is little time for recreation. A typical day for orchestra students may look like this: breakfast at 8 a.m., rehearsals from 9 - noon, lunch, 1:30 - 3 p.m. chamber music, 3 - 5 p.m. individual practice, after dinner sectional rehearsals from 6:30 - 8 and the day concludes with BSO concerts at Tanglewood at 8:30 p.m. Lucky the students who live at Windsor Mountain, just up the road, to have the opportunity to walk the short mile between billet and Tanglewood, if time permits. Three harpists came to the interview. Clarissa, age 16, from Escondido, CA, has played her instrument for 9 years and owns 3 harps. She came to the Berkshires on the suggestion of her harp teacher and for her it is a test to see if she could be away from her family for these weeks in preparation toward college next year. She brought two friends who have each played for 8 years, Cameron, 16, from Florida and Maura, who is only 15 who is a neighbor, from New Hartford. She applied on the strength of a poster in her school. They were a bit shy to be interviewed, but the cookies on the table lured them. The girls each adore their teachers, Ann Hobson Pilot of the BSO, and Frances love the daily concerts, have made great friends and, as an afterthought, even like the food - sometimes. It is always a pleasure to welcome a student from another land to the Institute. This summer pianist Maria-Clara Thiele has come to Tanglewood on the recommendation of her teacher, a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Maria lives in Leipzig, Germany, long the scene of action of famed conductor Kurt Mazur. She is here to perfect her pianism under teachers Maria Clodes Jaguaribe and Duncan Cummins. She is a very mature 18 year old and explained that there are many opportunities for pianists besides solo work, four-hand playing, accompanying vocalists and instrumentalists and chamber ensemble playing. She is happy to be here, enriched by the experience, but also looking forward to be home again with her family. After all, there is a big ocean between them at present. In the woodwind department we met Teddy, a 16 year old clarinetists from the West Coast. He has played the reed for 8 years and piano for ll years. He will be a H.S. junior and simultaneously attend the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Two 18 year old bassoonists dropped in to share some experiences. Leah, from New York, was steered to Tanglewood by fellow students and adults. She likes the seriousness with which work is being accomplished here, while Thomes, from Winston-Salem is bent on being a musician, even if it nets him no more than food on the table. He came to Tanglewood to play great music and loves the orchestra as does percussionist Austin, a senior from New York. After drumming for six years his teachers recommended Tanglewood. He is studying with Jonathan Bisesi of the Boston University faculty. And finally we met 17 year old Austin, a young composer from Wellesley, Massachusetts, who found he had “an empty summer and had never experienced anything like this before so...why not?” We admired his sensitivity toward the beautiful Berkshire surroundings which he was free to admire. Some of his work will be played each weak during a reading session. All students appreciate the wonderful concerts by the Boston Symphony, the work with their teachers, especially David Hoose, director of orchestral activities, and the easy communication with the entire faculty and staff. They each hope to climb the next rung on the Tanglewood ladder to become members of the Tanglewood Music Center.
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Lanesborough Fifth-Graders Win Snowplow Name Contest

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — One of the snowplows for Highway District 1 has a new name: "The Blizzard Boss."
 
The name comes from teacher Gina Wagner's fifth-grade class at Lanesborough Elementary School. 
 
The state Department of Transportation announced the winners of the fourth annual "Name A Snowplow" contest on Monday. 
 
The department received entries from public elementary and middle school classrooms across the commonwealth to name the 12 MassDOT snowplows that will be in service during the 2025/2026 winter season. 
 
The purpose of the contest is to celebrate the snow and ice season and to recognize the hard work and dedication shown by public works employees and contractors during winter operations. 
 
"Thank you to all of the students who participated. Your creativity allows us to highlight to all, the importance of the work performed by our workforce," said  interim MassDOT Secretary Phil Eng.  
 
"Our workforce takes pride as they clear snow and ice, keeping our roads safe during adverse weather events for all that need to travel. ?To our contest winners and participants, know that you have added some fun to the serious take of operating plows. ?I'm proud of the skill and dedication from our crews and thank the public of the shared responsibility to slow down, give plows space and put safety first every time there is a winter weather event."
 
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