Classical Beat: Tanglewood Music Festival Concludes Its Classical Season

Tanglewood Music Festival Concludes Its Classical Season 

This week, Tanglewood concludes its magnificently curated, presented and performed 2024 classical music summer festival season with panache by showcasing several performing soloists and a noted Finnish conductor – all making their Tanglewood debut performances. Orchestral masterworks by Brahms, Beethoven, Elgar and Ravel, as well as stellar concerto performances of works by Mozart and Chopin will take center stage in the Shed. These, in addition to several outstanding Ozawa Hall chamber music programs, leading to the traditional Tanglewood Music Festival season- concluding performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 ('Choral') will enthrall listeners. Read below for the details, including the end-of-season Popular Artists appearances in the Shed and in Studio E, Linde Center for Music and Learning..

Four Tanglewood Classical Highlights This Week 

A brilliant violin/piano recital program in Ozawa Hall will feature pianist Alessio Bax and violinist James Ehnes in their Tanglewood debuts performing Mozart (Violin Sonata No. 21 in E minor, K.304); Brahms (Violin Sonata No. 1 in G, Op. 78) and Beethoven (Violin Sonata No. 9 in A, Op. 47 'Kreutzer') (August 21).

The rising star American conductor Ryan Bancroft makes his BSO debut in the Shed, along with the elegantly expressive pianist Bruce Liu in Chopin's enraptured Piano Concerto No. 1, followed by Elgar's deeply moving Enigma Variations (August 23). 

Conductor Karina Canellakis and the BSO accompany violinist James Ehnes in Chausson's sensitively lyrical "Poème" on a program that features the Tanglewood Festival Chorus in the Shed (Brahms: 'Shicksalslied'); they will also perform works by Beethoven and Ravel (August 24).

Ludovic Marlot will conduct BSOs performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 on Sunday, August 25 at 2:30 pm in the Shed.

Full Tanglewood Schedule of Concerts, Events

Wednesday, August 21

8 p.m., Seiji Ozawa Hall

Tanglewood Recital Series

James Ehnes, violin

Alessio Bax, piano

MOZART Sonata No. 21 in E minor, K.304

BRAHMS Sonata No. 1 in G, Op. 78

BEETHOVEN Sonata No. 9 in A, Op. 47, ('Kreutzer')

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Thursday, August 22

1 p.m., Tent Club

TLI Talks and Walks

Anthony Fogg, moderator, with conductor Karina

Canellakis

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Friday, August 23

6 p.m., Seiji Ozawa Hall

Prelude Concert

Koussevitzky and the Choral Connection: exploring

choral works by composers who were commissioned

by the Koussevitzky Foundation

Tanglewood Festival Chorus

James Burton, conductor

TIPPETT "Dance, Clarion Air"

POULENC Salve Regina

STRAVINSKY Ave Maria

BRITTEN "A Hymn to the Virgin"

Helen GRIME Telling

MESSIAEN O Sacrum Convivium

WALTON "Set me as a seal upon thine heart"

WALKER "Stars"

Augusta Read THOMAS "The Rewaking"

HARVEY "Come, Holy Ghost"

8 p.m., Shed

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Ryan Bancroft, conductor

Bruce Liu, piano

CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 1

ELGAR 'Enigma' Variations

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Saturday, August 24

10:30 a.m. Shed

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Open Rehearsal, Sunday program

8 p.m., Shed

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Karina Canellakis, conductor

James Ehnes, violin

Tanglewood Festival Chorus

James Burton, conductor

Karina Canellakis conducts Beethoven, Brahms,

Chausson, and Ravel

BEETHOVEN "The Creatures of Prometheus" overture

BRAHMS "Schicksalslied"

CHAUSSON "Poème," for violin and orchestra

RAVEL Tzigane

RAVEL "Daphnis et Chloé," Suite No. 2

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Sunday, August 25

2:30 p.m., Shed

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Ludovic Morlot, conductor

Ambur Braid, soprano

Jess Dandy, contralto

Elgan Llr Thomas, tenor

Davóne Tines, bass-baritone

Tanglewood Festival Chorus

James Burton, conductor

BRUCKNER Ecce sacerdos magnus

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9 ('Choral')

THREE TANGLEWOOD POPULAR ARTIST PERFORMANCES

Sunday, August 25

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

TLI Presents: The Edmar Castaneda Quartet

Edmar Castaneda, harp

Andrea Tierra, vocalist

Shlomi Cohen, sax

Rodrigo Villalon, drums

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Friday, August 30

7 p.m., Shed

Popular Artist Series

Judy Collins, The Indigo Girls, and Rufus Wainwright

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Saturday, August 31

7 p.m., Shed

Popular Artist Series

DISPATCH with the Boston Pops Orchestra

Keith Lockhart, conductor

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

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.