| Tanglewood 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tanglewood History | ||||||||||||||||||||
Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home located in the
Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts, had its beginnings in 1936 when the
BSO gave its first outdoor concerts in the area, a three-concert series held
under a tent for a total crowd of 15,000.
In 1937, the BSO returned to the Berkshires for an all-Beethoven program, but this time at
Tanglewood, the 210-acre estate donated by the Tappan family, initiating a new era in the
history of the American summer music festival. In 1938, the 5,100-seat Shed
was inaugurated, giving the BSO a permanent, open-air structure in which to perform
at Tanglewood. The Boston Symphony Orchestra has performed in
the Koussevitzky Music Shed every summer since, except for the war years 1942-45, and
Tanglewood has become a place of pilgrimage to millions of concertgoers. The 1986 acquisition of the Highwood estate next to Tanglewood increased the festival's public grounds by 40 percent
and allowed for the construction of Seiji Ozawa Hall, which opened in 1994 along with the Leonard Bernstein Campus, which became the center for most
Tanglewood Music Center activities. Seiji Ozawa Hall serves not only as a performance home for the Tanglewood
Music Center, but as a modern venue for the BSO's varied recital and chamber music offerings. Tanglewood annually draws more than 350,000 visitors for orchestral and chamber music concerts, instrumental and
vocal recitals, student performances and the annual Festival of Contemporary
Music, as well as performances by popular and jazz artists. The season offers
not only a vast quantity of music, but also a vast range of musical forms and
styles, all of it presented with a regard for artistic excellence that makes the
festival unique. |
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