Tanglewood Plans Full 2022 Season; James Taylor Returns for 4th

03:39PM / Thursday, January 20, 2022Print Story | Email Story

LENOX, Mass. — Tanglewood will hold its first full summer season since 2019, including the traditional James Taylor concert on the Fourth of July.

The summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra canceled its entire 2020 season after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and shifted to virtual performances. Last year, there was a truncated season with shortened performances, distancing protocols and limited capacity.

The full-season schedule will run eight weekends of BSO, Boston Pops and Popular Artist concerts, and performances by the Fellows of Tanglewood Music Center. Ozawa Hall and the Linde Center for Music and Learning will both reopen to the public after being closed for two years.

The performance venue is again working with 9 Foundations Inc. to develop safety protocols that will be announced closer to the season, as well as announcements about youth, family and community programs, dining, and hours and locations for the campus shop.

"Each year I look forward to the orchestra's return to Tanglewood with ever greater anticipation, as we join our devoted music community for wonderful concerts in the beautiful setting of the Berkshire hills," said Music Director Andris Nelsons. "The 2022 Tanglewood season is filled with so many wonderful styles of compositoin, performed by the most extraordinary musicians working today, among them our very own Boston Symphony Orchestra. We hope today's announcement will excite music fames everywhere as we look forward to warmer days and a full summer season of inspiring performances at Tanglewood."

Tanglewood has also been host to numerous local graduations that were done virtually or relocated over the past two years. No word yet on whether the venue will again be filled with graduates in June.

It will be filled with music lovers and returning musicians: this season marks eight world and American premierres, 28 works by living composers and 21 artists making their Tanglewood or BSO debuts.

Tickets for Taylor's performance on July 3 go on sale on Jan. 31; the July 4 concert is sold out because of carryover tickets from the concerts canceled in 2020 and 2021. Ticketholders from the canceled concerts can use it this year or get credit or a refund.

In addition to Taylor, Tanglewood will host popular music stars Ringo Starr and his band on June 17; Bonnie Raitt on June 18; The Mavericks on June 27; and Earth, Wind & Fire on Aug. 9. Tanglewood on Parade is schedule for Aug. 2 and John Williams will be celebrated twice: first with the showing and live score of "Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back" ("Star Wars: A New Hope" was performed back in 2019) on July 15 and a 90th Birthday Celebration on Aug. 20 that will feature a selection of his concert music and film scores with guest artists.

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Lee Wants Bioremediation in Housatonic River Vernal Pool Study

05:24AM / Thursday, September 03, 2026

LEE, Mass. — The town has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric to include PCB bioremediation in its vernal pool study on the Housatonic River.

Lee officials are urging the EPA to require GE to add a bioremediation treatment arm to the vernal-pool study or provide the public with a clear explanation for why such testing is being excluded.

"This is exactly the kind of question EPA and GE should be asking before final remedy decisions are locked in," Select Board Chair Bob Jones said in a statement released to the press. "The town is not asking to slow the cleanup. We are asking EPA and GE to make the cleanup smarter, less destructive, and more protective over the long term."

An open house was held in Pittsfield earlier this summer for the Vernal Pool Pilot Study on Reach 5A of the Housatonic River, a five-mile stretch between the river's confluence and Lenox border.

EPA has required GE to conduct a Vernal Pool Pilot Study as part of the Housatonic River Rest of River remediation, comparing excavation and restoration with activated-carbon-based treatments, including a product called SediMite and powdered activated carbon, the town said.

Ten vernal pools will be cleaned of polychlorinated biphenyls in total, five with excavation and five with active carbon, and seven additional vernal pools will be monitored as controls. Construction will be complete around October, but the pools will be left to their natural processes and monitored with surveys and sampling for three years.

The Lee PCB Advisory Committee wrote a letter calling for the 21st-century approach it said could reduce long-term toxicity, avoid unnecessary destruction of sensitive habitats, and improve the effectiveness of the cleanup.

It states that Lee supports the study's purpose and agrees that EPA and GE must understand how cleanup activities affect sensitive vernal-pool ecosystems.

"The current pilot includes 10 treatment pools and seven control pools, while local officials understand that roughly 100 vernal pools may occur in the broader remediation corridor," the Aug. 27 letter reads.

"That makes the pilot study consequential: the methods tested now could shape how many sensitive wetlands are excavated, reconstructed, treated, or left with PCBs managed in place."

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