Boston Symphony Orchestra Launches first-ever reality web series, “New Tanglewood Tales: Backstage With Rising Artists” spotlighting the lives of six Tanglewood Music Center Fellows, WWW.TANGLEWOOD.ORG/MEDIACENTER

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For Immediate Release:
June 18, 2014

BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA LAUNCHES FIRST-EVER REALITY WEB SERIES, “NEW TANGLEWOOD TALES: BACKSTAGE WITH RISING ARTISTS,”
SPOTLIGHTING THE LIVES OF SIX TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER FELLOWS DURING THEIR SUMMER AT THE BSO’S FAMED SUMMER MUSIC ACADEMY FOR YOUNG PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS

CONDUCTOR KARINA CANELLAKIS, PERCUSSIONIST JEFFREY DEROCHE,
BARITONE CONOR MCDONALD, CELLIST CLARE ELIZABETH MONFREDO,
FLUTIST MASHA POPOVA, AND VIOLIST JACOB SHACK TO BE FEATURED IN EIGHT-WEEK WEB SERIES, JULY-AUGUST, DESIGNED TO CAPTURE THE LIFE STORIES BEHIND THEIR EXTRAORDINARY ACHIEVEMENTS AND THEIR AMBITIONS TO TAKE ON THE MUSIC WORLD

WEB SERIES WILL BE AVAILABLE AT WWW.TANGLEWOOD.ORG/MEDIACENTER AND WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/BOSTONSYMPHONY  

The Boston Symphony Orchestra will launch a new, summer-long reality web series, “New Tanglewood Tales: Backstage with Rising Artists,” spotlighting the professional and personal lives of six Fellows from the 2014 class of the Tanglewood Music Center, the BSO’s prestigious summer music academy that takes place at Tanglewood, one of the world’s most preeminent summer music festivals, located in the beautiful Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts. Designed to give viewers a behind the scenes view of six extraordinary young musicians—their hopes and dreams, struggles and challenges, drive and perseverance—this new web series will capture the real-life stories that have inspired these musicians to pursue their ambitions in the intensely competitive world of classical music. “New Tanglewood Tales” is an eight-week web series, available weekly July-August, at www.tanglewood.org/mediacenter and www.youtube.com/bostonsymphony.
 
Tanglewood Music Center Fellows featured in “New Tanglewood Tales: Backstage with Rising Artists” are Karina Canellakis (conductor); Jeffrey DeRoche (percussion); Conor McDonald (baritone); Clare Elizabeth Monfredo (cello); Masha Popova (flute); and Jacob Shack (viola). This behind-the-scenes documentary will chronicle the lives of these TMC Fellows as they leave their homes for Tanglewood; meet and interact with their colleagues in the Tanglewood Music Center; participate in orchestral, vocal, and chamber music concerts on the stages of Ozawa Hall and Shed; prepare music for the Festival of Contemporary Music; and attend and participate in master classes with BSO members, TMC faculty, and visiting artists, including some of the most prominent performing artists of our time.   “New Tanglewood Tales” will also include footage of the Fellows at work with some of the world’s most prestigious conductors, including BSO Music Director Designate Andris Nelsons,who will lead Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in excerpts from Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier on July 12, as part of a gala program that will also feature the Boston Symphony Orchestra performing works by Rachmaninoff and Ravel. In addition to these many and varied musical activities, this new web series will also offer viewers a glimpse at the personal lives of these Fellows as they navigate the world between being a student and a professional musician.

“New Tanglewood Tales: Backstage with Rising Artists” features Susan Dangel, as producer and director; Dick Bartlett as editor; and Russ Fisher as videographer and sound engineer.

The Tanglewood Music Center Fellowship Program is the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer academy for advanced musical study. The TMC offers an intensive schedule of study and performance for emerging professional instrumentalists, singers, conductors, and composers who have completed most of their formal training in music. The Tanglewood Music Center, which started as the Berkshire Music Center in 1940, will celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2015.

HISTORY OF THE TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER
Since its start as the Berkshire Music Center in 1940, the Tanglewood Music Center has been closely tied to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, its players, and its music directors. Serge Koussevitzky, who headed the BSO from 1924 to 1949, founded the school with the aim of creating a premier music academy where young instrumentalists, vocalists, conductors, and composers could sharpen their skills under the tutelage of Boston Symphony Orchestra musicians and other world-class artists, with the resources of a great symphony at their disposal. To this end, he also enlisted some of the day’s most important composer-teachers as faculty members, a tradition distinguished by the presence of such longtime TMC faculty as Aaron Copland and Paul Hindemith. Koussevitzky helped develop that dream until 1950, a year after his retirement as BSO music director. Charles Munch, his successor in that position, took over the TMC from 1951 through 1962, working with Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland to shape the school’s programs. In 1963, new BSO Music Director Erich Leinsdorf took over the school’s reins, returning to Koussevitzky’s hands-on leadership approach while restoring a renewed emphasis on contemporary music. In 1970, three years before his appointment as BSO Music Director, Seiji Ozawa became head of the BSO’s programs at Tanglewood, while Gunther Schuller was appointed to lead the TMC and Leonard Bernstein became general advisor. Leon Fleisher served as Artistic Director of the TMC from 1985 to 1997. In November 1997, Ellen Highstein became director of the TMC, a position she holds today.

In addition to Mr. Ozawa, prominent alumni of the TMC include Claudio Abbado, Luciano Berio, Leonard Bernstein, William Bolcom, Phyllis Curtin, David Del Tredici, Christoph von Dohnányi, Jacob Druckman, Lukas Foss, Michael Gandolfi, Osvaldo Golijov, John Harbison, Oliver Knussen, Lorin Maazel, Wynton Marsalis, Zubin Mehta, Sherrill Milnes, Leontyne Price, Ned Rorem, Bright Sheng, Cheryl Studer, Sanford Sylvan, Augusta Read Thomas, Michael Tilson Thomas, Dawn Upshaw, the late Shirley Verrett, and David Zinman.

BIOS
Karina Canellakis, Conducting
Recently appointed Assistant Conductor of the Dallas Symphony, Karina Canellakis made her Carnegie Hall conducting debut in Zankel Hall, won the 2013 Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship (founded by Marin Alsop), and frequently appears as guest conductor of New York’s groundbreaking International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). She will make her subscription debuts with the Toledo Symphony, Colorado Symphony, and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra this coming season. She holds a bachelor’s degree in violin from the Curtis Institute of Music and a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from The Juilliard School. As a violinist, Ms. Canellakis appears as soloist and chamber musician across the United States. For several years she played on a regular basis in both the Berlin Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony. She has also been guest concertmaster of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in Norway, and spent many summers at the Marlboro Music Festival.

Jeffrey DeRoche, Percussion
Jeffrey DeRoche currently resides in Cleveland, where he plays frequently with orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, and the Toledo Symphony. Additionally, he has been a member of the Canton Symphony Orchestra since 2010. He was recently awarded a percussion position in the U.S. Navy Band in Washington, D.C., which he will begin in fall 2014. Originally from the Chicago area, he completed his bachelor’s  and master’s degrees in percussion performance at DePaul University. He then continued his studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music, pursuing a Professional Studies Diploma. His hobbies include golfing and finding good deep dish pizza.

Conor McDonald, Baritone
Baritone Conor McDonald is a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he was seen as an ensemble member in Speak Low: A Kurt Weill Cabaret, Jesus (St. John Passion), Papageno (The Magic Flute), and Malatesta (Don Pasquale). With Cincinnati Opera’s Opera Fusion: New Works, McDonald appeared in workshops of Champion (Howie) and Fellow Travelers (Tommy McIntyre). As a Young Artist at the Castleton Festival, McDonald was heard as Le fauteuil (L’enfant et les sortilèges) and Carl-Magnus (A Little Night Music). McDonald earned a BA in art history and a BM in vocal performance from Northwestern University, where he sang Papageno (The Magic Flute), George Jones (Street Scene), and Sid (Albert Herring). As a 2013 Tanglewood Music Center Vocal Fellow, McDonald performed songs of Ravel, Britten, Butterworth, and Dessau in recital, and was an ensemble member in Mark Morris’s new production of Curlew River.

Clare Elizabeth Monfredo, Cello
Cellist Clare Monfredo hails from Seal Harbor, Maine, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music under the tutelage of Norman Fischer. An avid chamber musician, Clare has worked in depth with members of the American, Cleveland, Concord, St. Lawrence, and Tokyo string quartets as well as Brian Connelly, Peter Frankl, and Claude Frank. Clare’s festival experience includes the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme, the Banff Centre, Music Academy of the West, the St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, and the Norfolk Chamber Music festival. A graduate of Yale University with a BA in English Literature, Clare is also currently a Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Arts Award Scholar.

Masha Popova, Flute
Masha Popova will be joining the New World Symphony as their new flute Fellow in the fall. During the 2013-14 season, Masha performed as principal flute of the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, as well as second flute/piccolo in the Sarasota Opera Orchestra. Masha was the first prize-winner in the woodwind/brass division at the Young Texas Artist Competition in 2011. She was also the Albert M. Greenfield concerto competition senior division winner, and as a result, performed as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2010. In most recent summers, Masha has attended Pacific Music Festival (Japan), National Repertory Orchestra, and Spoleto Music Festival USA. Masha Popova received her bachelor of music from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Jeffrey Khaner, and her master of music from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where she studied with Leone Buyse.

Jacob Shack, Viola
Violist Jacob Shack is a 22-year-old senior at Harvard University. He currently studies viola with Martha Strongin Katz and has previously studied with James Dunham, Masao Kawasaki, Catharine Carroll, BSO violist Michael Zaretsky, and Elisabeth Christensen. Jacob is currently principal violist in the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and an active chamber musician. He was selected to participate in Jaime Laredo’s New York String Orchestra Seminar at Carnegie Hall in both 2010 and 2012, and has been recognized in numerous competitions, including the Stulberg International String Competition, and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. In addition, he has participated in numerous solo and chamber music master classes, under the tutelage of Kim Kashkashian, Sylvia Rosenberg, and others. He has received numerous awards and scholarships from Harvard University, as well as his alma mater, Phillips Academy. Jacob is planning to continue his studies in fall 2014 at The Juilliard School, as a student of Misha Amory and Heidi Castleman.

Susan Dangel, Producer and Director
Susan Dangel is an award-winning television and film producer with over 30 years of experience in music and cultural programming. Her production repertoire includes: EVENING AT POPS, A Centennial Toast to Symphony Hall, Sharon Isbin: Troubadour;  Ann Hobson Pilot: A Harpist’s Legacy, A Christmas Celtic Sojourn, A Birthday Tribute to Julia Child, ZOOM,  and many other programs for PBS. Susan also produces annual film night concerts for John Williams with the Boston Symphony and many of the nation’s leading orchestras.

Dick Bartlett, Editor
Dick Bartlett has been a Director and editor of PBS national programs for 45 years. He is the recipient of a national Emmy for his work on The Elegant Universe with Brian Greene, a three-part series for NOVA. He has also edited many programs for American Playhouse, American Masters, American Experience and EVENING AT POPS.

Russ Fisher, Video and Sound
Russ Fisher is a multi-award winning news & entertainment documentarian and photo journalist.  For 25 years, his varied production experiences allows him to travel the globe covering news events, cultural affairs and entertainment stories for CBS 60 MINUTES, 48 HOURS, CHARLIE ROSE, PBS, HBO  and countless other news and entertainment outlets.  He is also a contributing field photographer, location manager, and location audio mixer for JEOPARDY! and WHEEL OF FORTUNE.   

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF TANGLEWOOD, THE BSO’S SUMMER HOME SINCE 1937
One of the most popular and acclaimed music festivals in the world, Tanglewood—the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home since 1937—is located in the beautiful Berkshire Hills between Lenox and Stockbridge, MA. With an average annual attendance of more than 300,000 visitors each season, Tanglewood has a $60 million impact on the Berkshire economy each summer. Tanglewood presents orchestra concerts by the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, and visiting ensembles, featuring many of the greatest classical musicians of our time; recital and chamber music concerts in the intimate setting of Ozawa Hall; programs highlighting the young musicians of the Tanglewood Music Center; and performances by some of today’s leading popular artists. New this year—$20 tickets for attendees under 40—will be available for BSO and Boston Pops performances in the Shed. Tanglewood is family-friendly, with free lawn tickets available for children and young people age 17 and under, a 50% discount on Friday-evening lawn tickets for college and graduate students, and a variety of special programs for children, including Kids’ Corner, Watch and Play, and the annual Family Concert, this year to take place on August 24. Tanglewood is also the home of the Tanglewood Music Center, the BSO’s preeminent summer music academy for the advanced training of young professional musicians, and Days in the Arts, a multi-cultural arts-immersion program that gives 400 fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-graders from communities across Massachusetts the opportunity to explore the arts throughout each week-long session of the summer. These are just two of the BSO’s many educational and outreach activities, for which more information is available at www.bso.org—the largest and most visited orchestral website in the country, receiving about 7 million visitors annually and generating over $95 million in revenue since its launch in 1996. The Boston Symphony Orchestra is online at www.bso.org. Music lovers can follow the BSO on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bostonsymphony or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bostonsymphony.

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