Tanglewood this week offers audiences a wide spectrum of programs and works by living composers, alongside a diverse lineup of performers offering their extraordinary artistry in this expansive summer season, presenting a wide diversity of music that’s both traditional and time-honored, and new, and everything in-between.

 

 

A festival within a festival, contemporary music aficionados will have five days (August 4-8) to delight within alternative musical worlds, and experience the varied sounds of newly composed works emanating from Ozawa Hall, as the annual Festival of Contemporary Music showcases a representative sampling of new works (including several premieres) by both young and established composers. 

 

 

Under the direction of Ellen Highstein, and featuring Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center, this year's festival presents the American premiere of George Benjamin’s “Lessons in Love and Violence,” conducted by the composer. (Monday, August 8).

                                         

 

• Friday, August 5, 8:00 p.m.: Maestro Earl Lee makes his BSO assistant conductor debut in a program featuring Christina and Michelle Naughton performing Poulenc's scintillating Concerto in D minor for two pianos and orchestra; the program begins with Brian Raphael Nabors' “Pulse” and concludes with Mendelssohn's at times doleful but also vivacious Symphony No. 3 (“Scottish”) in A Minor, Op. 56.

 

• Saturday, August 6, 8:00 p.m.: Conductor JoAnn Falletta makes her long-awaited BSO/Tanglewood debut with composer Roberto Sierra's “Fandangos,” Ottorino Respighi's two thrilling tone poems “Fountains of Rome” and “Pines of Rome,” and Tchaikovsky's luxuriant Violin Concerto, featuring the phenomenal violinist Joshua Bell.

 

• Sunday, August 7, 2:30 p.m.: Composer-conductor Thomas Adès leads the BSO in his composition “Shanty—Over the Sea,” Holst's “The Planets” (featuring the Lorelei Ensemble), and Mozart's “Sinfonia concertate,” K.364 with violinist Leonidas Kavakos and violist Antoine Tamestit.

 

 

•Wednesday, August 3, 8:00 p.m.: The Danish String Quartet performs works by Schubert (the “Death and the Maiden” quartet) and Lotta Wennakoksi’s “Pige.”

 

 

This year's Festival is under the stewardship of TMC Director (retired) Ellen Highstein, with assistance from co-curators and TMC faculty soprano Tony Arnold, pianist Steve Drury, composer George Lewis, and cellist Astrid Schween.

 

This edition of the Festival includes the world premieres of short works by Michael Gandolfi and Augusta Read Thomas, as well as music by Thomas Adès, Eleanor Alberga, John Cage, Unsuk Chin, Mario Davidovsky, Julius Eastman, Erin Graham, John Harbison, Lee Hyla, Jesse Jones, Andile Khumalo, Oliver Knussen, George Lewis, Allison Loggins-Hull, Carlos Simon, Alvin Singleton, Christopher Trapani, Charles Wuorinen, and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon 

 

• Thursday, August 4, 8:00 p.m.: Conductors Stefan Asbury and Stephen Drury, pianist Thomas Adès, and soprano Tony Arnold join Tanglewood Music Center Fellows for an eclectic and free program of works by Oliver Knussen, Alvin Singleton, Thomas Adès (“Mazurkas, Op. 27”), Lee Hyla, and Christopher Trapani.

 

• Friday, August 5, 2:30 p.m.: TMC Fellows present the world premiere of a new work by Michael Gandolfi (“Fanfare for Ellen”), alongside chamber and choral works by Allison Loggins-Hull, Charles Wuorinen, Erin Graham, John Cage, and Julius Eastman in this free concert.

 

• Saturday, August 6, 6:00 p.m.: A Prelude program with works by Augusta Read Thomas, Mario Davidovsky, Unsuk Chin and Eleanor Alberga in this free concert.

 

• Sunday, August 7, 10:00 a.m.: Recent works by Carlos Simon, Andreia Pinto-Correia, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, John Harbison, Andile Khumalo, Jesse Jones, and George Lewis receive performances by TMC Fellows in this free concert.

 

• Monday, August 8, 8:00 p.m.: Composer George Benjamin conducts the American premiere of his opera “Lessons in Love and Violence,” performed in a concert version by TMC Vocal Fellows and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra.

 

 

• Wednesday, August 3, 1:30-3:30 p.m.: Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI) Open Cello Workshop with Juilliard String Quartet cellist Astrid Schween.

 

• Thursday, August 4, 1:00-2:00 p.m.: TLI In Conversation with TMC Director (retired) Ellen Highstein; Festival of Contemporary Music Concert co-curators Tony Arnold, Steven Drury, George Lewis, and Astrid Schween; and host Asadour Santourian in Studio E. 

 

• Friday, August 5, 1:00-2:15 p.m.: Coffee with Composers at the Gordon Studio.

 

• Saturday, August 6, 1:00-2:15 p.m.: Coffee with Composers at the Gordon Studio.

 

• Saturday, August 6, 6:00 p.m.: For this Saturday evening Prelude concert at the Linde Center's Studio E, TMC Fellows perform the world premiere of Augusta Read Thomas' “Bebop Riddle II,” as well as chamber works by Mario Davidovsky, Unsuk Chin, and Eleanor Alberga. 

 

 

• Sunday, August 7, 1:00-2:15 p.m.: Coffee with Composers at the Gordon Studio.

 

• Sunday, August 7, 8:00 p.m., in the Linde Center Studio E. The popular Silent Film Program returns with original music by TMC Composition Fellows set to Charlie Chaplin's classic 1921 film “The Kid.”

 

For tickets for these and for all Tanglewood/BSO concerts (lawn and Shed seating) and for special events call (617) 266-1200 or 888-266-1200. Online: tanglewood.org.

 

 

Founded in 1968, Sevenars Concerts, Inc. is showcasing its 54st anniversary season of six summer concerts, held at the Academy in the historic village of South Worthington, MA, located at 15 Ireland Street, just off MA Route 112.

 

• Sunday, August 7 at, 4:00 p.m.: Sevenars is delighted to present its penultimate concert of the summer season featuring pianist Judith Lynn Stillman and Friends: Rachel Braude (flute and piccolo) and Charles Dimmick (violin) – performing a diverse chamber music program entitled “The Birds and the B’s” – featuring extraordinary works across the stylistic musical spectrum by wonderfully fascinating composers of highly characterful salon music: César Cui, Florence Price, Cécile Chaminade, Jacques Ibert, Lynn Stillman,  Mélanie Bonis, Amy Beach, Herman Beeftink, William Bolcom, Grazyna Bacewicz and Lili Boulanger.

 

For Sevenars tickets, and general contact information, call: (413) 238-5854 (please leave a message for return call). On the Web: http://www.sevenars.org. Email: Sevenars@aol.com. Admission is by donation at the door (suggested $20). Refreshments are included.