Tanglewood's New Learning Institute Is A Bold New Chapter
For many music lovers, Tanglewood, on the Lenox/Stockbridge border, 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 the exciting, imminent opening events, bookmark the Boston Symphony’s website, tanglewood.org, to easily access the full summer concert schedule, season highlights, tickets and general information.
The exciting news from the Boston Symphony is the opening at the Tanglewood campus of the Linde Center for Music and Learning and the new programs of the constituent Tanglewood Learning Institute. This bold initiative by the BSO represents a dramatic new chapter in the life of Tanglewood and a major investment in the festival's future. The first fundamental expansion in programming since Tanglewood was founded in 1937 and the Tanglewood Music Center launched in 1940, the offerings of the Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI) —more than 140 activities — reflect a wider cultural perspective toward learning and participatory activities that complement the concert experience. These innovative TLI programs have been designed to encourage thought-provoking conversations as they explore ways to better understand the world through the lens of music and begin to break down the traditional boundaries between performer and audience.
The Tanglewood Learning Institute will provide a wide-ranging spectrum of dynamic, engaging and challenging cross-cultural programs and activities while also supporting the Tanglewood Music Center — the BSO's acclaimed young master performer music education arm. With a whole new unprecedented layer of activities for dedicated, music-loving patrons curious to get closer to the BSO’s world of music and even venture beyond it, TLI programming — which has played a foundational role in the design of the Linde Center — will offer visitors a sense of discovery and participation on a scale never before offered at Tanglewood.
These new activities of the Tanglewood Learning Institute will take their place alongside the festival's traditional schedule of major performances by the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, as well as informed by the Popular Artist series in the Koussevitzky Music Shed, and chamber music, large ensemble and recital programs in Ozawa Hall
The four new multi-use buildings of the Linde Center also reflect a major paradigm shift for Tanglewood. Starting this fall, they will play an essential role in establishing Tanglewood for the first time as a year-round facility, offering TLI programming and event rental and concert use by the BSO, the Tanglewood Music Center, as well as by the Berkshire community and beyond. Spanning all aspects of the organization — including the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, and Tanglewood — the Tanglewood Learning Institute also plans to offer programs in Boston, as well as a series of online distance-learning programs, to be unveiled next year.
The Linde Center's ensemble of four buildings, with its architecturally bold, serpentine-covered walkway connecting and framing views and paths through the landscape, includes the state-of-the-art Studio E (70 by 50 feet) performance and rehearsal space that can seat as many as 270 patrons, the Gordon Family Studio (40 by 35 feet) and Volpe Family Studio (32 by 24 feet), and Cindy’s Café with 150 seats (plus room on the patio for approximately 50 more patrons) – the whole designed as a convenient and centrally-located hub and meeting place for visitors, TMC Fellows and faculty, BSO players, and TLI participants. Tanglewood's first year-round venue with both heating and air conditioning, the Linde Center embodies a strong commitment to state-of-the-art environmental stewardship, while also providing needed rehearsal space for the Tanglewood Music Center and Tanglewood Festival Chorus, among other BSO-related rehearsal and concert activities.
Discover more about the incredibly full and rich summer's schedule of events and educational/participatory opportunities at the Tanglewood Learning Institute by visiting its dedicated website.
Tickets for all Tanglewood events can be purchased online, by phone at 888-266-1200 or 617-266-1200, and at the Tanglewood box office located at the main gate, on West Street in Lenox.
Next week and throughout July and August The Classical Beat will preview TLI events at the Linde Center, including the gala opening celebrations, facilities tours, presentations and musical events, which will occur June 26-29.
Taconic Music
Taconic Music Summer Festival concerts begin Sunday, June 23, at 4 p.m. at the Riley Center for the Arts at Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester Village, Vt. Artistic directors violinist Joana Genova, and violist Ariel Rudiakov will join cellist Thomas Landschoot and pianist Jon Klibonoff in a performance of Gabriel Fauré's sweeping Piano Quartet in C Minor. The first half of the concert features several short works: Darius Milhaud's cheerful and jazzy "Suite for Violin, Clarinet and Piano," performed by Joana Genova and special guest artists Paul Green and Elizabeth Wright, followed by Lukas Foss' spirited "Capriccio for Cello and Piano," with Thomas Landschoot and Jon Klibonoff. Paul Green and Elizabeth Wright will return to close the first half of the concert with Leonard Bernstein’s vigorously youthful Sonata for Clarinet and Piano.
On Saturday morning, June 22, from 10:30 a.m. noon, Taconic Music schedules its first of four open dress rehearsals at the Riley Center; this is an opportunity to observe the intense interaction among the musicians as they put the finishing interpretive touches on the program.
Admission to Taconic Music Festival concerts is $20 in advance or $25 at the door for adults, $10 for students and children. Open dress rehearsals are $10 at the door, and season passes are also available. To purchase tickets and for more information about Taconic Music's concerts and year-round programs, go online or call 802-362-7162.
Boston Early Music Festival
The Grammy Award–winning BEMF Chamber Opera returns with an encore performance of its November 2016 production, inspired by the splendor of 18th-century Versailles, on Friday, June 21, at 8 p.m. at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, 14 Castle St., Great Barrington.
King Louis XIV transformed his father's pastoral hunting lodge at Versailles into a lavish palace that served as the seat of government and culture in France. Enjoy a musical feast from the height of the Sun King's reign with two chamber operas — Gustav Charpentier's "Les Plaisirs de Versailles" and Lalande's "Les Fontaines de Versailles" — both extolling the splendor and majesty of the palace and its gardens, alongside divertissements from Lully's "Atys" — called the "King’s Opera" for the favor it enjoyed with King Louis XIV. The refined elegance and expressive drama is brought to life by the all-star BEMF vocal and chamber ensembles in a magnificent production featuring gorgeous costumes, Baroque dance and sumptuous staging. Tickets on are sale from $25 to $85; call 413-528-0100.
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