The Classical Beat: A Profusion of Music at Tanglewood and Sevenars

The Bob Sparkman Quartet concludes Sevenars' 57th festival season.

LENOX, Mass. — Come mid-August, classical aficionados are grateful for the cornucopia of extraordinary musical riches the Boston Symphony bestows to rapt audiences within the incomparably bucolic setting that is Tanglewood.

During this busy, penultimate week of the Tanglewood Festival's classical programming, the spotlight will focus on a wide range of audience-favorite orchestral music and solo concertized works by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Sibelius, Liszt and Bartók, where the range of musical expression and stylistic and national diversity is spread far and wide.

For a huge, 180-degree contrast, be sure to check out the cool, refreshing change of pace, with a tincture of jazz to buoy the spirits at the storied Sevenars Festival, in South Worthington.

Tanglewood

• Wednesday, Aug. 13, 8:00 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: The groundbreaking string quartet Brooklyn Rider makes its Ozawa Hall debut with a deft blend of traditional and new repertoire. The quartet is composed of founding violinist Colin Jacobsen, violinist Johnny Gandelsman, violist Nicholas Cords, and cellist Michael Nicolas. Contemporary works by Reena Esmail and Jacobsen combine with Philip Glass's "Third Quartet, "based on music written for the 1985 biopic of the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma closes the concert by joining the Quartet for a performance of Schubert's sublime String Quintet in C Major, which has a part for a second cello.

• Thursday Aug. 14, 8:00 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: Currently celebrating its 45th anniversary, the British vocal ensemble "The Sixteen" makes its Tanglewood debut, joined by founding director and conductor Harry Christophers. The program, entitled "A Deer's Cry," features sacred music by William Byrd, ThomasTallis, and Arvo Pa?rt, includes the Estonian composer's mesmerizing "Nunc dimittis" This performance is in conjunction with the vocal ensemble's weeklong residency with the Tanglewood Music Center, in which members of the group also present a Prelude Concert with music by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and J.S. Bach on Aug. 16.

• Friday, Aug. 15, 8:00 p.m. in the Shed: Audience-favorite maestro Dima Slobodeniouk returns to Tanglewood to conduct three programs over the course of four days, beginning with Caroline Shaw's "Entr'acte," for string orchestra, Tchaikovsky's "Variations on a Rococo Theme" for cello and orchestra, with soloist Jean-Guihen Queyras, and concluding with Beethoven's Symphony No. 4.

• Saturday, Aug. 16, 8:00 p.m. in the Shed: BSO Assistant Conductor Anna Handler makes her Tanglewood and BSO debuts conducting three major works from the stolid classical tradition: Brahms' ‘Tragic' Overture, Schumann's Symphony No. 4, and Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with GRAMMY-winning German-American supremely lyrical violinist Augustin Hadelich.

• Sunday, Aug. 17 2:30 p.m. in the Shed: Maestro Slobodeniouk leads the BSO on a program that also features two works by Sibelius (Valse triste and Symphony No. 3), Liszt (Piano Concerto No. 2, featuring superstar pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet) and "Threnody," an homage to the Finnish Sibelius by the American composer William Grant Still.

• Monday, Aug. 18, 8:00 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: For his final program, Maestro Slobodeniouk will conduct the TMC Orchestra alongside two TMC Conducting Fellows in works inspired by dance: John Adams' "The Chairman Dances: Foxtrot for Orchestra," and Bela Barto?k's "Dance Suite." The concert concludes with Tchaikovsky's tumultuous Symphony No. 4.

Sevenars Music Festival

• Sunday, Aug. 17, 4:00 p.m.: For its season finale, Sevenars is delighted once again to present its traditional festival-concluding favorite, the Bob Sparkman Quartet.

Now in its third season at Sevenars, the sensational Sparky Quartet, formed in tribute to late master clarinetist Bob Sparkman, has long roots at Sevenars starting from Bob's collaborations with treasured pianist and composer Clifton J. "Jerry" Noble,  Jr  With wonderfully versatile bassist Kara Noble, their jazz trio wizardry became a tradition as a Sevenars finale - no season could end without them! In 2023, after Bob left this world, they brought on board the inimitable Chris Devine on violin and flute and the extraordinary  Jon Van Eps on percussion and became officially the Sparky Quartet. Together they make magic! Clifton J. "Jerry" Noble, Jr. is admired as composer and pianist throughout the United States and internationally, both as a classical artist and in jazz improvisation. Kara Noble brings her miraculous gifts on guitar, vocals, and just about everything else. Chris Devine, brilliant violinist/flutist plays in a multitude of styles and instruments (and whose bio includes collaborating with Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple), and rounding off the quartet is John Van Eps, multifaceted marimba virtuoso/composer, and producer

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, Mass., located at 15 Ireland Street, just off Route 112.

­­­­­­­­­­­­_______________

Postscript: As this is the celebratory year of the French composer Maurice Ravel's 150^th birth (1875-1937,) here's my take on explaining his brilliant though eclectic style, in the form of a recipe. The main ingredients are Debussy-an Impressionism, with a dash of Russian exoticism by way of Mussorgsky; then add to the mix a generous amount of Prokofiev's piquant harmonies and child-like playfulness. For good measure, blend in a soupçon of Fauré's neo-classicism and a sprinkling of Gershwin's jazz-inspired  "blue" notes and syncopated Charleston rhythms…and voilà…Ravel! But, morphology aside, I don't mean to imply that Ravel, despite these influences, was not sui generis. We are, each of us, influenced by others. It is always the case that a creative genius is unique, and the resultant art, then, is necessarily original. Maurice Ravel was a Basque-born bon vivant who lived in the world and was of the world. The most humane of composers, his remarkable talent elevated him to a higher and wider plane of creative existence, from which he bountifully bestowed his astonishingly gorgeous music to us. Merci beaucoup, maître Ravel!

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.