The Classical Beat: Tanglewood, Sevenars Attain Their Peak This Week

George Gershwin composing "Porgy and Bess."

During this week of the Tanglewood Festival, the spotlight will focus on a wide range of extraordinary soloists and conductors. As a sample, we can look forward with eager expectation to the following:

• Maestro Andris Nelsons conducting the BSO in programs with stellar soloists violinist Leonidas Kavakos, and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet.  
• Esteemed Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki leading concerts with the BSO and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, and participating in a TLI In Conversation event. 
• TLI In Conversation with American composer Carlos Simon.
• A unique Shed recital with Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma performing an all-Beethoven program

Looking a bit further ahead, these last two months of magnificent music making are but a prelude to the late summer/early fall array of area classical offerings on the horizon. Two notable examples are South Mountain Concerts in Pittsfield in September and into October, and the Berkshire Opera Festival, which will be presenting Puccini’s grand opera, "La Bohéme." I’ll highlight both these outstanding organizations’ offerings in my Classical Beat column next week. For now, here are the particulars for the next several days at Tanglewood and at the Sevenars Music Festival.

Tanglewood Shed Concerts

• Friday, August 18, 8 p.m.: Maestro Andris Nelsons and the BSO are joined by pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet for two of his signature pieces—Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 5, ("Egyptian") and Gershwin’s beloved Piano Concerto in F (both of which Thibaudet will reprise with the BSO on its upcoming European tour)—on a program that opens with Carlos Simon’s BSO commissioned "Four Black American Dances."
• Saturday, August 19, 8 p.m.: For the final BSO concert of the season, Maestro Nelsons leads an all-Russian program: Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with soloist Leonidas Kavakos, and Prokofiev’s popular Symphony No. 5.  
• Sunday, August 20, 2:30 p.m.: Maestra Susanna Mälkki leads the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in the traditional annual performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, featuring the vocal soloists soprano Amanda Majeski, mezzo soprano J’Nai Bridges, tenor Stephen Costello, and bass Jongmin Park, along with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus—which without intermission is preceded by "Five Spirituals" excerpted from British composer Michael Tippett’s "A Child of Our Time," conducted by James Burton. 

Ozawa Hall concerts

• Friday, August 18, 6 p.m.: Members of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, James Burton, conductor, perform a Prelude Concert, joined by J’Nai Bridges and Stephen Costello (mezzo-soprano and tenor soloist in the August 20 performance of Beethoven’s "Ninth"). On the program are Roxanna Panufnik’s "Love Endureth," Thompson’s "The Peaceable Kingdom," and "Five Spirituals," excerpted from Tippett’s  cantata "A Child of Our Time."
• Saturday, August 19, 5 p.m.: In this TLI Spotlight Series event, versatile artist Carrie Mae Weems and cellist Yo-Yo Ma join forces to share their perspectives on the role of artists and their civic responsibilities.
• Sunday, August 20, 10 a.m.: Tanglewood Music Center Chamber Music presents Beethoven’s Septet in E-flat, Op. 20; Olli Mustonen’s "Nonetto II": and Beethoven’s masterwork String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131.  
• Sunday, August 20, 8 p.m.: TLI Presents the Gerald Clayton Trio, headed by the acclaimed pianist/composer, performing at Tanglewood for the first time.  
• Tuesday, August 22, 8 p.m.: Tony Award winner Kelli O’Hara, joined by pianist Dan Lipton, displays her musical versatility in an evening of Broadway classics and personal stories.  

TLC and TLI Activities in Studio E of the Linde Center 

• Wednesday, August 16, 1:30 p.m.: TLI Open Violin Workshop with American violinist Tai Murray and TMC Fellows (a joint presentation of TLI and TMC) 
• Thursday, August 17, 1 p.m.: A TLI In Conversation with composer and Georgia native Carlos Simon, whose BSO-commissioned work, "Four Black American Dances," will be performed on the August 18 BSO program and on the BSO’s upcoming European tour.
• Saturday, August 19, 6 p.m.: A Prelude Concert by TMC musicians, featuring chamber works by Thomas Adès ("Les Baricades mistérieuse"), Prokofiev (Quintet in G minor, Op. 39), and Brahms (String Quintet in G Major, Op. 111). 

For tickets for all Tanglewood/BSO concerts (lawn and Shed seating) and for special events call (617) 266-1200. TDD/TTY: (617) 638-9289. Online: tanglewood.org

Sevenars Music Festival

• Sunday, August 20, 4:00 p.m.:  Sevenars Music Festival's 7th concert presents a solo piano recital by Sevenars Director, the esteemed pianist Rorianne Schrade, offered in celebratory tribute to the great Russian composer/pianist/conductor Sergei Rachmaninoff, in homage of his landmark 150th birthday year.

Composer/pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff

As a Steinway Artist and winner of over a score of prizes (from Concert Artists Guild International Competition, Washington International Competition, the Kosciuszko National Chopin Competition, the Liederkranz Foundation, the National Arts Club, Artists International, N.Y. Chopin Foundation Council, The Marcia Polayes Competition, and many others), Rorianne Schrade has been likened to "a whirlwind unleashed" (Gannett Westchester Newspapers).

The program will consist of works by Rachmaninoff: Sonata No. 2 and selections from his songs, "Etudes-Tableaux." "Moments-Musicaux," and also of transcriptions by the composer of music by Bach, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Mussorgsky, and Fritz Kreisler. The program will conclude with the rarely-heard virtuoso transcription by Vladimir Leyetchkiss of the "Waltz" movement from Rachmaninoff's two-piano "Suite," Op. 17. 

Upcoming: There is an additional concert on Sept 9th this year (Saturday at 2:00) in tribute to Bob Sparkman, who has played a jazz program at Sevenars for about 20 years.

For Sevenars tickets, and general contact information, call: (413) 238-5854 (please leave a message for return call). On the Web: www.sevenars.org. Email: Sevenars@aol.com. Admission is by donation at the door (suggested $20). Refreshments are included. Sevenars Concerts is located at the Academy in South Worthington, MA., located at 15 Ireland Street, just off Route 112.

Sheffield Craftsman Offering Workshops on Windsor Chairs

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
10:30AM / Sunday, March 29, 2026

Andrew Jack uses hand tools in his wood working shop. 

SHEFFIELD, Mass. — A new workshop is bringing woodworking classes and handmade items.

Andrew Jack specializes in Windsor chairs and has been making them for almost 20 years.

He recently opened a workshop at 292 South Main St. as a space for people to see his work and learn how to do it.

"This is sort of the next, or latest iteration of a business that I've kind of been limping along for a little while," he said. "I make Windsor chairs from scratch, and this is an effort to have a little bit more of a public-facing space, where people can see the chairs, talk about options, talking about commissions.

"I also am using it as a space to teach workshops, which for the last 10 years or so I've been trying to do out of my own personal workshop at home."

Jack graduated in 2008 from State University of New York at Purchase, and later met woodworker Curtis Buchanan, who inspired him.

"Right after I finished there, I was feeling a little lost. I wasn't sure how to make the next steps and afford a workspace. And the machine tooling that I was used to using in school." he said, "Right after I graduated, I crossed paths with a guy named Curtis Buchanan, and he was demonstrating making really refined Windsor chairs with not much more than some some flea market tools, and I saw that as a great, low overhead way to keep working with wood."

Jack moved into his workshop last month with help from his wife. He is renting the space from the owners of Magic Flute, who he says have been wonderful to work with.

"My wife actually noticed the 'for rent' sign out by the road, and she made the initial call to just see if we get some more information," he said. "It wasn't on my radar, because it felt like kind of a big leap, and sometimes that's how it's been in my life, where I just need other people to believe in me more than I do to, you know, really pull the trigger."

Jack does commissions and while most of his work is Windsor chairs, he also builds desks and tables, and does spoon carving. 

Windsor chairs are different because of the way their backs are attached into the seat instead of being a continuous leg and back frame.

"A lot of the designs that I make are on the traditional side, but I do some contemporary stuff as well. And so usually the legs are turned on a lathe and they have sort of a fancy baluster look to them, or they could be much more simple," he said. "But the solid seat that separates the undercarriage from the backrest and the arms and stuff is sort of one of the defining characteristics of a Windsor."

He hopes to help people learn the craft and says it's rewarding to see the finished product. In the future, he also hopes to host other instructors and add more designs for the workshop.

"The prime impact for the workshops is to give close instruction to people that are interested in working wood with hand tools or developing a new skill. Or seeing what's possible with proper guidance," Jack said. "Chairs are often considered some of the more difficult or complex woodworking endeavors, and maybe less so Windsor chairs, but there is a lot that goes into them, and being able to kind of demystify that, or guide people through the process is quite rewarding."

People can sign up for classes on his website; some classes are over a couple and others a couple of weekends.

"I offer a three-day class for, a much, much more simple, like perch, kind of stool, where most of the parts are kind of pre-made, and students can focus on the joinery that goes into it and the carving of the seat, again, all with hand tools. And then students will leave with their own chair," he said.

"The longer classes run similarly, although there's quite a bit more labor that goes into those. So I provide all the turned parts, legs and stretchers and posts and things, but students will do all the joinery and all the seat carving the assembly. And they'll split and shave and shape their own spindles, and any of the bent parts that go into the chair."

His gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday 10 a.m to 2 p.m., and Monday and Tuesday by appointment.