2015 TANGLEWOOD SEASON ANNOUNCEMENT

November 13, 2014

2015 TANGLEWOOD SEASON ANNOUNCEMENT
2015 TANGLEWOOD PRESS RELEASE, PART II:
DETAILS OF TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER 75TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON, DESCRIBED HERE SEPARATELY FROM DETAILS OF THE 2015 TANGLEWOOD SEASON OVERVIEW, WHICH ARE INCLUDED
IN THE 2015 TANGLEWOOD PRESS RELEASE, PART I,
AVAILABLE HERE

BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CELEBRATES 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER—BSO’S ACCLAIMED SUMMER MUSIC ACADEMY AFFILIATED WITH SOME OF THE WORLD’S MOST RENOWNED MUSICIANS OF THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES

TMC 75TH ANNIVERSARY, JUNE 25 TO AUGUST 16, FEATURES SPECIAL PROGRAMMING THROUGHOUT THE 2015 TANGLEWOOD SEASON, INCLUDING MORE THAN 30 NEWLY COMMISSIONED WORKS BY COMPOSERS WITH CLOSE TIES TO THE TMC—CONTINUING THE TMC’S 75-YEAR COMMITMENT TO THE CREATION AND PERFORMANCE OF NEW MUSIC

BSO MUSIC DIRECTOR ANDRIS NELSONS LEADS MAHLER’S SYMPHONY NO. 8, “SYMPHONY OF A THOUSAND,” WITH THE TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER ORCHESTRA, TANGLEWOOD FESTIVAL CHORUS, AMERICAN BOYCHOIR, BUTI CHORUS, AND EIGHT ACCLAIMED SOLOISTS ON AUGUST 8; PERFORMANCE TO BE MADE AVAILABLE TO A WORLDWIDE AUDIENCE BY WEBCAST AT WWW.TANGLEWOOD.ORG

2015 FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC, JULY 20-27, FEATURES 15 COMMISSIONS; PROGRAMS CURATED BY OLIVER KNUSSEN, JOHN HARBISON, AND MICHAEL GANDOLFI; A TRIBUTE CONCERT TO GUNTHER SCHULLER; AND TWO TMCO PROGRAMS: A FESTIVAL-OPENING PROGRAM FEATURING FOUR NEW ORCHESTRAL WORKS, AND A FESTIVAL-CLOSING PROGRAM, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS, FEATURING MUSIC OF LEONARD BERNSTEIN, AARON COPLAND,
LUKAS FOSS, AND CHARLES IVES

TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER ORCHESTRA APPEARS IN EIGHT CONCERTS THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER IN FOUR WORLD PREMIERES AND MUSIC OF BERNSTEIN, BRAHMS, BRITTEN, COPLAND, DEBUSSY, FOSS, HINDEMITH, IVES, MAHLER, MOZART, AND TCHAIKOVSKY, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF ANDRIS NELSONS, STEFAN ASBURY, ASHER FISCH, LUDOVIC MORLOT, AND MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS

FREE WEEKLY DOWNLOADS OF PERFORMANCES FROM THE TMC’S TREASURE TROVE OF RECORDINGS TO BE MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH WWW.TANGLEWOOD.ORG

COMMEMORATIVE PROGRAM BOOKS AND A SPECIAL ARCHIVAL EXHIBIT AT TANGLEWOOD‘S VISITORS CENTER TO OFFER A DETAILED GLIMPSE INTO THE STORIED HISTORY OF THE TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER

TICKETS FOR TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER CONCERTS GO ON SALE JANUARY 25 AT 888-266-1200 AND WWW.TANGLEWOOD.ORG

FOR FULL SEASON DETAILS ABOUT THE 2015 TANGLEWOOD SEASON, INCLUDING DOWNLOADABLE PHOTOS AND VIDEO, PROGRAM LISTINGS, AND ARTIST PHOTOS AND BIOGRAPHIES, CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE 2015 TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER
PROGRAM LISTING

The Tanglewood Music Center, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s acclaimed summer academy for advanced musical study, marks its 75th anniversary season in summer 2015, with special events and programming spotlighting the TMC’s past accomplishments and celebrating its standing as one of this country’s preeminent places for the creation of new music and opportunities for collaborative music-making in the areas of recital, chamber music, vocal, and orchestra performance.  The Tanglewood Music Center is the only summer musicacademy that operates under the auspices of a major symphony orchestra, with the membership of that orchestra, along with other prominent musicians, playing a key teaching role in preparing its Fellows for afuturelife in music and establishing the academy among the top programs of its kind in the world.  Many of the most renowned classical music figures of the 20th and 21st centuries—including Claudio Abbado, Emanuel Ax, Luciano Berio, Leonard Bernstein, William Bolcom, Stephanie Blythe, Sarah Caldwell, Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss, Osvaldo Golijov, John Harbison, Lorin Maazel, Yo-Yo Ma, Wynton Marsalis, Zubin Mehta, Sherrill Milnes, Ludovic Morlot, Seiji Ozawa, Leontyne Price, Ned Rorem, Gunther Schuller, Peter Serkin, Bright Sheng, Sanford Sylvan, August Read Thomas, DawnUpshaw, and John Williams—have passed through the TMC’s programs as Fellows or teacher/faculty since the academy’s founding in 1940.

The TMC’s 75th anniversary celebration, June 25-August 16, will be rich and multifaceted, highlighted by more than 30 newly commissioned works; the annual Festival of Contemporary Music, July 20-27, featuring 15 of those world premiere performances; and a Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra performance of Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 8, under the direction of BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons. The celebration will also feature two media projects designed to bring the TMC’s anniversary celebration to audiences far and wide:  a free webcast of the Mahler 8 performance, with supplemental video about the TMC anniversary, and free weekly 75th anniversary music downloads, featuring some of the best of the TMC’s 75-year performance history, both to be made available at www.tanglewood.org during summer 2015.  The Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra—the TMC’s most prestigious performing ensemble—will perform in eight concerts throughout the summer, including programs featuring four world premieres and works of Bernstein, Brahms, Britten, Copland, Debussy, Foss, Hindemith, Ives, Mahler, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky, under the direction of Andris Nelsons, Asher Fisch, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Stefan Asbury. Visitors to Tanglewood this summer will have a chance to learn more about the TMC and take in details of its history and mission through commemorative program books and an archival exhibit at Tanglewood’s Visitors Center.

Since its founding in 1940 by Serge Koussevitzky (BSO Music Director 1924-49), the Tanglewood Music Center has had a wide-ranging influence around the globe, with prominent alumni including, along with those mentioned above, Christoph von Dohnányi, Charles Dutoit, Oliver Knussen, Cheryl Studer, Shirley Verrett, and David Zinman, among others. According to the most recent available estimates, 20 percent of the members of American symphony orchestras, and 30 percent of all first-chair players, studied at the Tanglewood Music Center. With more than 10,000 Fellows passing through the TMC’s programs since its founding in 1940 and approximately 1,500 faculty members representing the very best of the classical music world over the last 75 years, the TMC will also pay tribute in the 75th anniversary year to many of the artists, mentors, and Fellows who have made the TMC the extraordinary academy it is today.

The Tanglewood Music Center’s performance and educational activities take place at Tanglewood, this country’s leading summer music festival and the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, located in Lenox, MA; the 2015 Tanglewood season, June 19-Labor Day weekend, features performances by the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops orchestras, ensembles of the Tanglewood Music Center, and internationally renowned guest artists from the worlds of Classical, Jazz, American Songbook, Broadway, Pop Rock, Dance, and Film. Details of the 2015 Tanglewood season, June 19 through Labor Day Weekend, are available here.

OVERVIEW OF THE TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER’S 75TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
New Commissions
The TMC 75th anniversary season will feature more than 30 newly commissioned works distributed among virtually every TMC concert throughout the season, emphasizing the academy’s continuing focus on the creation and performance of new music and featuring composers with close ties to the TMC.  Highlights include several new pieces for orchestra by Andreia-Pinto Correia, Detlev Glanert, and Robert Zuidam.   New works for smaller ensembles include a dramatic cantata by Betsy Jolas, chamber works by Bright Sheng, Augusta Read Thomas, and Charles Wuorinen; string quartets by Oscar Bettison, Colin Matthews, and Marc Neikrug; and vocal works by Steven Mackey, Ned Rorem, Sean Shepherd, André Previn, Alan Smith, and Yehudi Wyner.  Also featured is a new work choreographed by Mark Morris for the Mark Morris Dance Group to Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 1.  All of the 75th anniversary commissions will be performed during the 2015 season, with the exception of a major work by George Benjamin for orchestra, women’s chorus, and countertenor solo scheduled for premiere by the TMC in summer 2016.

2015 Festival of Contemporary Music, July 20-27
One of the most prestigious activities of the Tanglewood Music Center, the Festival of Contemporary Music, July 20-27, will feature 15 of the TMC 75th anniversary commissions.  Several of these will be presented on programs curated by current and former TMC composition faculty and FCM directors,  including composers Oliver Knussen, John Harbison, and Michael Gandolfi. A fourth concert will be a tribute to Gunther Schuller, whose tenure at the TMC began in 1963 and included a ten-year stint as Artistic Director, 1975-84.  The Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, which usually participates in only one FCM program, will be featured in two complete FCM concerts in 2015. To open the festival the TMCO performs four new orchestral works, including a piano concerto composed by Robert Zuidam for Emanuel Ax.  For the FCM’s finale, Michael Tilson Thomas leads a program of music by three composers central to the TMC’s history:  Aaron Copland, whom Serge Koussevitzky chose to lead the Tanglewood Music Center; Leonard Bernstein, who played an influential role with both the BSO and the TMC over six decades following his participation as a Conducting Fellow in the first TMC class in 1940; and Lukas Foss, who also was a Fellow in the first TMC class, and who served as a faculty member on numerous occasions. Concluding the program is music of the iconic American composer Charles Ives.  Complete program details about the Festival programs will be available at a later date.

Andris Nelsons leads Mahler’s Symphony No. 8
BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons takes part in the TMC 75th anniversary by leading a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No 8, “Symphony of a Thousand,” on August 8.  One of the largest-scaled works in the classical concert repertoire—as its descriptive title suggests—Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 will showcase the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, joined by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, American Boychoir, BUTI Chorus and a cast of internationally acclaimed soloists, including sopranos Erin Wall and Christine Goerke, mezzo-sopranos Lioba Braun and Jane Henschel, tenor Klaus Florian Vogt, and baritone Matthias Goerne. A special video of this performance of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, along with features about the TMC 75th anniversary, will be made available to the public through a live webcast at www.tanglewood.org., bringing the TMC’s celebration to music lovers across the nation and around the world.

Free Weekly Music Downloads
Throughout the summer, the TMC will offer free weekly 75th anniversary downloads at www.tanglewood.org featuring some of the most treasured recordings from its archives.  These weekly releases will focus on great orchestra programs led by former BSO music directors including Serge Koussevitzky, Erich Leinsdorf, James Levine, and Seiji Ozawa, as well as current BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons and Leonard Bernstein. This special series of downloads will also feature some of the most memorable and significant TMC new music, chamber music, and vocal performances.  These free weekly TMC downloads are part of a larger effort to digitize the TMC’s complete library of recorded works, ensuring that this impressive historic collection is preserved and made available for current and future generations of musicologists and music lovers alike.

Commemorative Program Books and an Archival Exhibit on the Tanglewood Grounds
Visitors to Tanglewood this summer will have a chance to learn more about the TMC and take in details of its history and mission through commemorative program books and an archival exhibit at Tanglewood’s Visitors Center at the Tappan House on the Tanglewood grounds.

OTHER ACTIVITIES OF THE TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER IN SUMMER 2015
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra Concerts to be Featured in Eight Programs
In addition to the two Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra concerts that are scheduled to open and close the 2015 Festival of Contemporary Music, and the Mahler 8 program under the direction of BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons, the TMCO will be featured in five additional programs.  On July 5, TMC Conducting Program Coordinator Stefan Asbury will lead the orchestra in a program including Brahms’s Variations on a Theme of Haydn and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5.  On July 12, Ludovic Morlot leads the TMCO in a program to include Hindemith’s Konzertmusik for strings and brass and Debussy’s Images.  On August 2, the TMCO and TMC vocalists will perform opera excerpts from Mozart’s Idomeneo and Britten’s Albert Herring; the conductor for this program will be announced at a later date. TMCO Conducting Fellows will also lead works in each concert.

In addition, the TMCO will share the stage with the Boston Symphony and the Boston Pops orchestras for Tanglewood on Parade on August 4, with Andris Nelsons leading the combined forces of the TMCO and BSO in Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. Further details of the program—which will also feature conductors Keith Lockhart and Stéphane Denève—will be announced at a later date.  For the first time ever, the TMCO shares the BSO’s season-ending concert, under the direction of Asher Fisch.  The TMCO opens the program with Copland’s Symphonic Ode and the BSO performs the traditional Beethoven Symphony No. 9 to end their portion of the 2015 Tanglewood season on August 16; to view the full Tanglewood concert schedule, which runs through Labor Day weekend, please visit www.tanglewood.org.

Opening the season on June 20, Tanglewood Music Center Vocal Fellows will perform with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops, as well as Broadway stars, in “Sondheim on Sondheim” In Concert.  In addition, the fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center will also be featured in vocal recitals and chamber music concerts throughout the summer.  Further details will be announced at a later date.

In a first for the Tanglewood Festival, Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax will each take on the newly created title of Koussevitzky Artist—an honorary title reflecting the BSO’s deep appreciation for their generous performance and teaching commitment to the 2015 Tanglewood season, and for each of their extraordinary 30-plus-year involvement with the BSO at Tanglewood and at Symphony Hall in Boston.

TMC and New Media
The Mahler 8 webcast and the 75th anniversary weekly downloads planned for summer 2015, are reflective of a  greater focus on sharing the Tanglewood Music Center’s activities with audiences and students beyond the confines of the Tanglewood campus through new media outlets.  Several of these programs are featured on the BSO’s website, bso.org (also accessed through tanglewood.org), the largest and most-visited orchestral website in the country, receiving approximately 7 million visitors annually.

In summer/fall 2014 the Tanglewood Music Center was featured in “New Tanglewood Tales: Backstage with Rising Artists,” a behind-the-scenes documentary chronicling the lives of six young musicians during their summer as TMC Fellows; the seven-episode series received more than 425,000 views since first appearing in July 2014. In summer 2013, the TMC’s recording of the U.S premiere performance of George Benjamin’s opera—Written On Skin—received a webcast premiere on New York’s Q2 Music (q2music.org)—WQXR’s online music station devoted to new music; the performance was archived for on-demand listening for six months following the webcast.

In 2012, as part of the celebration of Tanglewood’s 75th anniversary season, the BSO released two streaming master classes—one led by BSO concertmaster Malcolm Lowe, and another led by BSO principal trumpet Thomas Rolfs and second trumpet Benjamin Wright—providing viewers an inside look into the dynamic teaching process between BSO musicians and the Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center. These classes, shot in documentary-like style in order not to disturb the teaching process, offered viewers a glimpse into what makes the TMC unique among summer music academies, and gave music students around the country and across the globe an opportunity to observe high-level instruction. Also as part of Tanglewood’s 75th anniversary in 2012, several Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra performances were featured during the release of 75 free digital streams (one for each day of the summer), designed to offer music lovers worldwide a glimpse into the storied performance history of the famed music festival founded in 1937, and its acclaimed music academy; the project resulted in more than 420,000 streams and downloads.  The TMC’s most recent traditional media project featured the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, sharing the stage with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops orchestras, for a performance with musical luminaries Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, Anne-Sophie Mutter, and Andris Nelsons for the Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Celebration, taped for broadcast on PBS’s “Great Performances,” and telecast nationally and released on Blu-ray and DVD.

OVERVIEW OF THE TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER
Founded in 1940 by Serge Koussevitzky (BSO music director, 1924-49), the Tanglewood Music Center is a world-renowned summer institute created to further the tradition of classical music and to be an American center for advanced music training for young professional instrumentalists, singers, composers, and conductors who have completed the majority of their formal training.  Considered the top academy of its kind in the country and around the world, the TMC is the only music academy that operates under the auspices of a major symphony orchestra, with the membership of that orchestra playing a key teaching role in preparing Fellows for a future life in music.  More than half the members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra teach at the TMC each summer; in addition to BSO member participation, the full-time faculty is made up of highly accomplished musicians and further enriched by preeminent guest artists and conductors who work with the TMC in conjunction with their appearances at Tanglewood with the BSO or in other major performance capacities in the festival’s concert schedule.   Admission to the TMC is highly competitive, with approximately 1,500 musicians competing for about 130 positions. Those accepted into the program receive fellowships that cover tuition, room, and board.

TMC’s Impact on the Field of Classical Music
Since its founding, the TMC has had a profound impact on the field of music and the quality of musicianship in the United States, with many TMC alumni considered among the most recognized and influential composers, conductors, and soloists in the of their time. Over the past 74 years, more than 10,000 musicians have passed through the varied programs of the prestigious music academy.  According to the most recent available estimates, 20 percent of the members of American symphony orchestras, and 30 percent of all first-chair players, studied at the Tanglewood Music Center. Prominent alumni of the TMC include BSO Music Director Laureate Seiji Ozawa, Claudio Abbado, Luciano Berio, Leonard  Bernstein, William Bolcom, Phyllis Curtin, David Del Tredici, Christoph von Dohnányi, Charles Dutoit, Jacob Druckman, Lukas Foss, Michael Gandolfi, John Harbison, Oliver Knussen, Lorin Maazel, Wynton Marsalis, Zubin Mehta, Sherrill Milnes, Ludovic Morlot, Osvaldo Golijov, Leontyne Price, Ned Rorem, Bright Sheng, Cheryl Studer, Sanford Sylvan, Augusta Read Thomas, Michael Tilson Thomas, Dawn Upshaw,  Shirley Verrett, and David Zinman.

TMC Faculty Features Leading Musicians of the Times
From its first season in 1940, Serge Koussevitzky set a precedent of bringing the leading musicians of the time to teach at the Tanglewood Music Center, with Aaron Copland as the first Director of the School, and Gregor Piatagorsky, Boris Goldovsky, and Paul Hindemith among the prestigious faculty in the early years of the academy, and Leonard Bernstein, Lukas Foss, and Sarah Caldwell among its first students.  Since that time, the list of musicians who have served on the TMC faculty or in a significant teaching capacity has included such luminaries of the classical music field as Emanuel Ax, Luciano Berio, Stephanie Blythe, Phyllis Curtin, Jacob Druckman, Lukas Foss, Michael Gandolfi, Osvaldo Golijov, John Harbison, Oliver Knussen, Yo-Yo Ma, Peter Serkin, Gunther Schuller, and Dawn Upshaw, among others.  Many of the world’s most prestigious conductors, including Claudio Abbado, Leonard Bernstein, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Charles Dutoit, Erich Leinsdorf, James Levine, Charles Munch, Andris Nelsons, Seiji Ozawa, and William Steinberg, have led TMC Orchestra concerts and worked with TMC conducting Fellows.

In addition to high-profile orchestral performances, the Tanglewood Music Center Fellows participate in opera, chamber music and vocal recital programs, and master classes and coaching sessions led by some of the preeminent artists of our time. The Tanglewood Music Center (originally called the Berkshire Music Center) also offers programs for orchestral librarians, audio engineers, piano technicians, and publications professionals.

TICKET INFORMATION
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra concerts in the Koussevitzky Music Shed are priced from $20-$97. Prices for TMC Orchestra concerts in Seiji Ozawa Hall are priced from $12-$55. All other TMC Orchestra performances in Seiji Ozawa Hall are priced at $12 per ticket, general admission.

Tickets for the 2015 Tanglewood season go on sale to the general public on Sunday, January 25. Tickets are available through Tanglewood’s website, www.Tanglewood.org, through SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200, and at the Symphony Hall Box Office at 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA. Regular season ticket prices range from $10-$124. Tickets for Saturday Morning Rehearsals range from $13-$32. All ticket prices include a $2 Tanglewood grounds maintenance fee.

Tickets will also be available for purchase in person at the Tanglewood Box Office at Tanglewood’s Main Gate on West Street in Lenox, MA, as of Wednesday, June 17, at 10 a.m. American Express, Visa, MasterCard, Diners Club, Discover, and cash are all accepted at the Tanglewood Box Office. For further information and box office hours, please call the Boston Symphony Orchestra at 617-266-1492 or visit www.tanglewood.org.

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