Berkshire Festival
| Former names | Berkshire Music Center |
|---|---|
| Address | 297 West Street, Lenox, Massachusetts, United States |
| Location | Lenox, Massachusetts, United States |
| Coordinates | 42°20′57″N 73°18′36″W / 42.34917°N 73.31000°WCoordinates: 42°20′57″N 73°18′36″W / 42.34917°N 73.31000°W |
| Owner | Boston Symphony Orchestra |
| Capacity | Koussevitzky Music Shed: 5,700 Seiji Ozawa Hall: 1,200 |
| Construction | |
| Built | 1937–1938 |
| Opened | August 4, 1938 |
| Renovated | 1959 |
| Tenants | |
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Boston Symphony Orchestra Tanglewood Music Festival Tanglewood Music Center Days in the Arts Boston University Tanglewood Institute |
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| Website | |
| www |
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Tanglewood is a music venue in the towns of Lenox and in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the Tanglewood Music Center, Days in the Arts and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. Besides classical music, Tanglewood hosts the Festival of Contemporary Music, jazz and popular artists, concerts, and frequent appearances by James Taylor, John Williams and the Boston Pops.
The history of Tanglewood begins with a series of concerts held on August 23, 25 and 26, 1934 at the Interlaken estate of Daniel Hanna, about a mile from today’s festival site. A few months earlier, composer and conductor Henry Kimball Hadley had scouted the Berkshires for a site and support for his dream of establishing a seasonal classical music festival. He found an enthusiastic and capable patron in Gertrude Robinson Smith. Within a few months they had organized a series of concerts featuring the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, where Hadley once had been the Associate Conductor. Staged in an amphitheater built on the estate's show horse ring, the first concert was attended by Sara Delano Roosevelt, the President's mother. Heartened by the success of this effort, Robinson and Hadley organized another well received series of concerts in Interlaken the following summer.
After two seasons featuring the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), under the direction of Conductor Serge Koussevitzky was invited to perform at the 1936 festival held at Holmwood, the home of Margaret Vanderbilt in nearby Lenox. The BSO gave its first concert in the Berkshires on August 13, 1936. For nearly eighty years the BSO has remained the crown jewel of the music festival.
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