Tickets for the 2015 Tanglewood season, priced from $10 to $124, go on sale Sunday, January 25, at 10 a.m. at 888-266-1200 and www.tanglewood.org

NEWLY ANNOUNCED ADDITIONS TO THE 2015 TANGLEWOOD SCHEDULE APPEAR IN GREEN

2015 TANGLEWOOD SEASON OFFERS AUDIENCES A WIDE SPECTRUM OF PROGRAMS WITH THE
 BOSTON SYMPHONY AND THE BOSTON POPS ORCHESTRAS, ANDRIS NELSONS, KEITH LOCKHART, JOHN WILLIAMS, AND INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED GUEST ARTISTS FROM THE WORLDS OF CLASSICAL, JAZZ, THE AMERICAN SONGBOOK, BROADWAY, POP ROCK, DANCE,
AND FILM, AS WELL AS PROGRAMS SPOTLIGHTING SPECIAL ANNIVERSARIES,
THEMATIC PROGRAMMING, AND THEATRICAL PRESENTATIONS;
FULL 2015 TANGLEWOOD SEASON CONCERT LISTING IS AVAILABLE HERE

2015 TANGLEWOOD SEASON, JUNE 20-LABOR DAY WEEKEND, CELEBRATES TWO HISTORIC OCCASIONS: THE INAUGURAL SEASON OF BSO MUSIC DIRECTOR ANDRIS NELSONS AND THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER—THE BSO’S PRESTIGIOUS SUMMER MUSIC ACADEMY

NEW ADDITIONS TO 2015 TANGLEWOOD SCHEDULE
BOSTON SYMPHONY ANNOUNCES ITS OPENING NIGHT PROGRAM FRIDAY, JULY 3:  AN ALL-AMERICAN PROGRAM FEATURING PIANIST KIRILL GERSTEIN IN GERSHWIN’S PIANO CONCERTO IN F, COPLAND’S LINCOLN PORTRAIT, WITH SPECIAL GUEST JESSYE NORMAN NARRATING, AND WORKS BY JOHN HARBISON AND DUKE ELLINGTON, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF CONDUCTOR JACQUES LACOMBE

BOSTON POPS ANNOUNCES PROGRAM FEATURING BERNADETTE PETERS, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF KEITH LOCKHART ON JULY 5

UPDATES TO THE ORIGINALLY ANNOUNCED 2015 TANGLEWOOD POPULAR ARTISTS INCLUDE SHERYL CROW (6/19); THE PIANO GUYS (8/28); AND IDINA MENZEL (8/29); AS WELL AS  JAMES TAYLOR AND HIS ALL-STAR BAND  PERFORMING ON JULY 4; WHO JOIN PREVIOUSLY
ANNOUNCED DIANA KRALL (6/21); HUEY LEWIS AND THE NEWS (6/28); AND
TONY BENNETT AND LADY GAGA (6/30)

ADDITIONAL BOSTON POPS PROGRAMS:  KEITH LOCKHART TO LEAD STEPHEN SONDHEIM TRIBUTE (6/20); AND CIRQUE DE LA SYMPHONIE (8/21); JOHN WILLIAMS AND DAVID NEWMAN TO LEAD THE EVER-POPULAR FILM NIGHT (8/22); BOSTON POPS BRASS AND PERCUSSION FEATURED ALONG WITH FAMED DRUM & BUGLE CORPS BOSTON CRUSADERS AND BLUE DEVILS (7/6)

ADDITIONAL HIGHLIGHTS:  TANGLEWOOD WINE & FOOD CLASSIC (8/6-9); FAMILY CONCERT (7/4, AT 11 A.M.); AND ONE DAY UNIVERSITY, THE ACCLAIMED ADULT EDUCATION SERIES (8/23)
COMMONWEALTH WORLDWIDE CHAUFFEURED TRANSPORTATION IS PROUD TO BE CELEBRATING ITS TWELFTH YEAR AS THE OFFICIAL CHAUFFEURED TRANSPORTATION PROVIDER OF THE BSO

Tickets for the 2015 Tanglewood season, priced from $10 to $124, go on sale Sunday, January 25, at 10 a.m. at 888-266-1200 and www.tanglewood.org, where visitors can also find full details of the 2015 Tanglewood concert schedule (James Taylor July 4 tickets go on sale on Saturday, January 24).  Tanglewood—this country’s preeminent summer music festival and the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra—is located in the Berkshire Hills between Stockbridge and Lenox, MA.

The 2015 Tanglewood season, June 19-Labor Day Weekend, boasts an abundance of musical riches with concerts by the incomparable Boston Symphony and Boston Pops orchestras, the Tanglewood Music Center, and internationally acclaimed guest artists from the worlds of classical, jazz, the American Songbook, Broadway, pop rock, dance, and film, as well as performances spotlighting special anniversaries, thematic programming, and theatrical presentations.

New additions to the 2015 Tanglewood schedule include details about the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s first concert of the season on Friday, July 3:  an all-American concert featuring pianist Kirill Gerstein in Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F; Copland’s Lincoln Portrait with special guest Jessye Norman narrating, John Harbison’s Remembering Gatsby (Foxtrot for Orchestra), and Duke Ellington’s Harlem, under the direction of conductor Jacques Lacombe. Also new to the 2015 Tanglewood lineup:  Bernadette Peters joins Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops for performance on July 5.

Updates to the originally announced (11/13) 2015 Tanglewood Popular Artists series, include American singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow (6/19); Tony Award winner Idina Menzel (8/29); and internet sensation The Piano Guys (8/28); as well as the incomparable James Taylor, who returns to Tanglewood with his All-Star Band for a performance on Saturday, July 4, followed by a spectacular fireworks display over the Stockbridge Bowl in celebration of Independence Day. These artists join the previously announced Popular Artist lineup including Huey Lewis and the News (6/28), Diana Krall (6/21), and the legendary Tony Bennett and megastar songstress Lady Gaga, who will perform music from their acclaimed new album, Cheek to Cheek, 6/30.

Unique to the 2015 Tanglewood season will be the celebration of two milestones: the inaugural season of BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons and the 75th anniversary of the Tanglewood Music Center, the BSO’s prestigious summer music academy. 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

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2015 TANGLEWOOD SEASON
ANDRIS NELSONS FEATURED IN SIX PROGRAMS IN HIS FIRST SEASON AS BSO MUSIC DIRECTOR
For his first of six BSO concerts during the 2015 Tanglewood season, Mr. Nelsons leads Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, violinist Renaud Capuçon, and cellist Gautier Capuçon, on a program with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 on August 1. On August 2, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and BSO principal viola Steven Ansell join Mr. Nelsons and the BSO for a performance of Strauss’s Don Quixote, on a program with works by Haydn and Australian composer Brett Dean. Mr. Nelsons will lead the combined forces of the Boston Symphony and Tanglewood Music Center orchestras in Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, as part of Tanglewood on Parade, one of the festival’s most popular annual traditions (8/4).

On August 8, Mr. Nelsons will join in the Tanglewood Music Center’s 75th anniversary festivities by leading Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 8, featuring the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, supplemented by TMC alumni, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, BUTI Chorus, American Boy Choir, and a cast of internationally acclaimed soloists.  On August 14, Mr. Nelsons leads the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with soloist Christian Tetzlaff on a program with Mahler’s Symphony No. 6. For his final program of the 2015 Tanglewood season on August 15, Mr. Nelsons will be joined by soprano Kristine Opolais for music from Act IV of Verdi’s Otello and Act III of Boito’s Mefistofele; the program will also feature the BSO in music of Puccini and Barber, as well as Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben.

The Boston Pops will present four programs: a Stephen Sondheim tribute (6/20) and Cirque de la Symphonie (8/21), under the direction of Keith Lockhart, and the ever-popular Film Night with John Williams and David Newman conducting (8/22). Boston Pops brass and percussion will be featured along with famed drum & bugle corps Boston Crusaders and Blue Devils (7/6).

Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax, as 2015 Koussevitzky Artists, will make several appearances during the 2015 Tanglewood season, performing both together and separately as featured soloists, highlighted by a joint recital in the Koussevitzky Music Shed of Beethoven’scomplete sonatas for cello and piano (8/9).

Additional Boston Symphony Orchestra highlights include Act I from Puccini’s Tosca with Bryn Terfel as Scarpia and Sondra Radvanovsky in the title role, under the direction of Bramwell Tovey (7/11); a weekend devoted to the music of Mozart and Schumann with guest artists Christian Zacharias, Sarah Connolly, Baiba Skride, Sir Neville Marriner, and Paul Lewis (7-19); Christoph von Dohnányi leading all-Beethoven (7/24) and all-Mozart (7/26) programs; Michael Tilson Thomas leading Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 (7/25); Stéphane Denève leading a program featuring superstar organist Cameron Carpenter in his BSO debut (7/10); and an all-American opening night with works by Copland and Gershwin (7/3); as well as special guest appearances by Ludovic Morlot and Pinchas Zukerman (7/12), Ken-David Masur and Garrick Ohlsson (7/31); and Charles Dutoit and Joshua Bell (8/9).

Special events at Ozawa Hall include the return of the Mark Morris Dance Group (6/25&26); The Knights performing Falla’s Master Peter’s Puppet Show (7/30) and Matthias Goerne singing Schubert’s Winterreise (8/5), chamber music performance by the Boston Symphony Chamber Players (7/1), Emerson StringQuartet (7/22), and Apollo’s Fire (7/2), as well as an all-Brahms program with Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, and Leonidas Kavakos (8/6); and recital appearances by Sarah Connolly (7/14), Leon Fleisher (7/8), Paul Lewis (7/21), Audra McDonald (7/19), and Christian Tetzlaff (8/12).

Tanglewood Wine & Food Classic will take place August 6-9. Tanglewood’s Family Concert will take place on Saturday, July 4, at 11 a.m. in Ozawa Hall. One Day University, the acclaimed adult educational series, will return to Tanglewood on Sunday, August 23.

TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER CELEBRATES 75TH ANNIVERSARY
The Tanglewood Music Center, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s acclaimed summer academy for advanced musical study, will mark its 75th anniversary season in the summer of 2015 with events and programming that will spotlight its past accomplishments and celebrate its standing as one of this country’s preeminent places for the creation of new music and opportunities for collaborative music-making in the area of recital, chamber music, vocal, and orchestra performance.  Many of the world’s most renowned classical music figures of the 20th and 21st centuries—including Claudio Abbado, Leonard Bernstein, Osvaldo Golijov, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Wynton Marsalis, Leontyne Price, Ned Rorem, Bright Sheng, and Dawn Upshaw—have passed through the TMC’s programs since the academy’s founding in 1940.

The TMC’s 75th anniversary celebration will be rich and multifaceted, highlighted by more than 30 newly commissioned works; the annual Festival of Contemporary Music, July 20-27, featuring 15 premiere performances; and a Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra performance of Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 8, “Symphony of a Thousand,” 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, Ludovic Morlot, 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 Visitor Center.

Further details about the 2015 Tanglewood season are available at www.tanglewood.org.

TICKET INFORMATION IN BRIEF AND SEASON DATES
Tanglewood’s 2015 season opens on Saturday, June 20 and closes Labor Day Weekend. Tickets, priced from $10 to $124, go on sale Sunday, January 25, at 10 a.m., (tickets for James Taylor’s July 4 performance go on sale January 24) and 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. $20 tickets for attendees under 40, one of the BSO’s most popular discount ticket offers, will be available for BSO and Boston Pops performances in the Shed. In addition, Tanglewood continues to offer free lawn tickets to young people age 17 and under, as well as a variety of special programs for children, including Kids’ Corner, Watch and Play, and the annual Family Concert, this year to take place July 4. A 50% discount on Friday-evening lawn tickets is available to college and graduate students 18 and over with a student ID. Tickets must be purchased in person at the Main Box Office, only on the night of the performance.  

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. Introduced in 2013—$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, 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 July 4. Tanglewood is also the home of the Tanglewood Music Center (celebrating its 75th anniversary this year), 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, on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bostonsymphony­and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/bostonsymphony.

2015 TANGLEWOOD ONLINE PRESS KIT WITH FULL SEASON PROGRAM LISTING, DETAILED PRESS RELEASE, DOWNLOADABLE PHOTOS AND VIDEO, ARTIST PHOTOS AND BIOS, AND TANGLEWOOD HISTORY AVAILABLE HERE

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PRESS CONTACT:
Bernadette Horgan, Director of Public Relations ([email protected])                                       617-638-9285

Click here to view the 2015 Tanglewood Program Listing