Tanglewood, Sevenars Offer Thrilling Music and Performances

THE CLASSICAL BEAT

By

STEPHEN DANKNER

TANGLEWOOD, SEVENARS OFFER THRILLING MUSIC AND PERFORMERS

With the second week of August, Tanglewood continues its high energy 2024 classical programming with four powerhouse concerts in the Shed. These include performances by the Boston Symphony; the outstanding visiting guest artists the National Children's Symphony of Venezuela, led by the superlative, world-renowned maestro Gustavo Dudamel; the thrillingly Romantic and virtuosic Third Piano Concerto of Rachmaninoff, composed in 1909, and on the same program the transcendent "Le Sacre du printemps," composed by Igor Stravinsky in 1912-‘13 and premiered in Paris. Gratefully, there will be more from the Russian master: the phenomenal virtuoso violinist Leila Josefowicz will perform Stravinsky's energetic, neoclassical Violin Concerto, composed in 1931 and premiered in the U.S. by Serge Koussevitsky and the Boston Symphony in January, 1932.

Read below for all the details covering these outstanding programs and performing artists - the four Shed highlights, as well as the complete offerings in each magnificent Tanglewood venue during the six-day period from Wednesday, August 7 through Monday, August 12.

• Thursday, August 8, 8:00 p.m. in the Shed: Gustavo Dudamel conducts the National Children's Symphony of Venezuela in their Tanglewood debut. The major work on their program will be the Fifth Symphony of Dmitry Shostakovich. Composed in 1937, it is a masterwork of 20^th century symphonism.

• Friday, August 9, 8:00 p.m. in the Shed: Maestro Alan Gilbert will lead the BSO with pianist Kirill Gerstein performing Rachmaninoff's rhapsodic Piano Concerto No. 3; the concert will conclude with Stravinsky's electrifying "The Rite of Spring."

• Saturday, August 10, 8:00 p.m. in the Shed: The stellar violinist Leila Josefowicz will have her much-anticipated Tanglewood debut with the BSO in the Shed with a performance of Stravinsky's Violin Concerto, under the baton of conductor Dalia Stasevska. The program also includes the innovative, three-movement Fifth Symphony of Jean Sibelius, composed in the years 1914-'15.

• Sunday, August 11, 2:30 p.m. in the Shed: Soprano Elena Villalón and conductor James Gaffigan will perform two Mozart arias from the operas "Idomeneo" and "The Marriage of Figaro." The concert concludes with Gustav Mahler's miraculously evocative Symphony No. 4, composed in 1892, which includes the song, sung by Ms. Villalón, "Das himmlische Leben" ("The Heavenly Life"), set to a text from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn." 

Tanglewood programs and related events throughout the week

Wednesday, August 7

1:30 p.m., Studio E, Linde Center for Music and Learning

TLI Open Workshops: Kirill Gerstein, piano

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Thursday, August 8

1 p.m., Tent Club

TLI Talks and Walks

Anthony Fogg, moderator, with pianist Kirill Gerstein

1:30 p.m., Studio E, Linde Center for Music and Learning

TLI Open Workshops: Jeremy Denk, piano

8pm, Shed

National Children's Symphony of Venezuela

Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

John ADAMS Short Ride in a Fast Machine

ESTÉVEZ Mediodía en el Llano

GINASTERA Dances from Estancia

SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 5

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Friday, August 9

2:30 p.m., Studio E, Linde Center for Music and Learning

TLI Presents: "Decolonizing American Music in Eight Difficult Steps" with George Lewis

4 p.m., Studio E, Linde Center for Music and Learning

TLI Presents: "This Is America," Part 1, with Johnny Gandelsman, violin

Violinist and producer Johnny Gandelsman developed This is America in 2020, out of a time of rupture and disconnection. Thinking about ways that one person could make a small difference, he brought together commissioning partners across eleven states and territories to commission 22 new works. He invited the composers, all US-based, to reflect on the time we're all living in. Since that initial burst of creativity, "This is America" has been performed throughout North America and grown to encompass 28 compositions for solo violin.

6 p.m., Seiji Ozawa Hall

Prelude Concert

Tatiana Dimitriades & Catherine French, violins

Edward Gazouleas & Steven Laraia, violas

Christine Lee, cello

Fanny MENDELSSOHN-HENSEL String Quartet in E-flat

Felix MENDELSSOHN String Quartet in A, Op. 18

8 p.m., Shed

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Alan Gilbert, conductor

Kirill Gerstein, piano

RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 3

STRAVINSKY The Rite of Spring

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Saturday, August 10

10:30 a.m., Shed

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Open Rehearsal, Sunday program

1:30 p.m., Seiji Ozawa Hall

Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Chorus

2 p.m., Studio E, Linde Center for Music and Learning

TLI Presents: Palaver Strings§ with Nicholas Phan, tenor and Farayi Malek, jazz and contemporary

vocalist, perform "A Change Is Gonna Come" Featuring Grammy award-winning tenor Nicholas Phan and jazz & contemporary vocalist Farayi Malek this program explores our country's rich legacy of protest songs. Repertoire includes traditional songs of protest and music inspired by social movements and historical events, including Akenya Seymour's "Fear the Lamb," and a new commission by Errollyn Wallen. Spanning genres, eras, and movements, A Change Is Gonna Come provokes conversation, confronts our past and present, and celebrates the act of protest as one of our most precious rights.

5 p.m., Seiji Ozawa Hall

TLI Spotlight Series: Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Mr.

Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for

African & African American Research at Harvard University. Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Professor Gates has published numerous books and produced and hosted an array of documentary films. Finding Your Roots, his groundbreaking genealogy and genetics series, is in its tenth season on PBS, and his most recent history series, Gospel, premiered on PBS in February 2024. His latest book is "The Black Box: Writing the Race" (Penguin Random House, 2024). Harvey Young, is the Moderator

6 p.m., Studio E, Linde Center for Music and Learning

TMC Fellows

Prelude Concert

DEBUSSY Sonata for flute, viola, and harp

Jessie MONTGOMERY Concerto Grosso (BSO co-

commission, East Coast premiere)

RAVEL Piano Trio

8 p.m., Shed

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Dalia Stasevska, conductor+

Leila Josefowicz, violin§

SIBELIUS (arr. STRAVINSKY) Canzonetta

STRAVINSKY Violin Concerto

SIBELIUS Symphony No. 5

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Sunday, August 11

10 a.m., Seiji Ozawa Hall

TMC Chamber Music

George LEWIS Le témoignage des lumières

Lingbo MA In a Maze, In a Daze

IVES Piano Trio

Nicky SOHN Time's Dialogue

BRAHMS Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25

2:30 p.m., Shed

Boston Symphony Orchestra, James Gaffigan, conductor

Elena Villalón, soprano

Anna CLYNE Sound and Fury

MOZART "Padre, germani, addio!" from Idomeneo

MOZART "Deh vieni, non tardar" from The Marriage

of Figaro

MAHLER Symphony No. 4

5 p.m., Studio E, Linde Center for Music and Learning

TLI Presents: "This Is America," Part 2, with Johnny

Gandelsman, violin

7 p.m., Seiji Ozawa Hall

TLI Presents: Jeremy Denk, piano, performs

The Battle of Manassas by ‘Blind Tom' WIGGINS

and Ives's Concord Sonata ‡

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Monday, August 12

8 p.m., Seiji Ozawa Hall

Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra

TMC Conducting and Vocal Fellows

Program of opera excerpts

ALL-MOZART PROGRAM with selections from

The Marriage of Figaro

Don Giovanni

Die Zauberflöte

For tickets to all Tanglewood events, call (888) 266-1200, or go online at tanglewood.org.

CHAMBER MUSIC AT SEVENARS

• Sunday, August 11 at 4:00 p.m.: Sevenars is thrilled to welcome oboist Joel Bard,  pianist Sayuri Miyamoto and violinist/violist Jun-Ching Lin in a breathtaking program of solos, duos, and trios. Award-winning pianist Sayuri Miyamoto with her husband, the brilliant oboist/conductor Joel Bard often perform as a duo. They will perform a program consisting of both familiar and less well-known solo, duo, and trio repertoire by Mozart, Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, Ottorino Respighi, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Charles Martin Loeffler, and Leopold Wallner.

Founded in 1968, Sevenars Concerts, Inc., is celebrating its 56^th season of six summer concerts, held at the Academy, a building designated "an acoustic gem in an idyllic setting," located in the  historic village of South Worthington,15 Ireland Street, off MA Route 112.

Concerts are presented on consecutive Sundays at 4:00 p.m. until August 18. Phone: (413) 238-5854 (please leave a message for a return call). Online: www.sevenars.org. Email: Sevenars@aol.com. Admission is by donation at the door (suggested $20). Refreshments will be available.

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.