Untold Lives of Gilded Age Estate Workers

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LENOX, Mass. — Historic New England Fellow Eleanor Martinez Proctor, will talk about about the lives of estate workers during the Gilded Age at Ventfort Hall on Tuesday, Aug. 6 at 4 pm. 
 
A tea will be served after the presentation.
 
She will discuss the diverse staff of the Eustis Estate, a Gilded Age mansion in Milton, Mass. Her research revealed stories of the staff and their families, both at the estate and beyond, that reflect many fascinating aspects of the Progressive era. 
 
Eleanor Martinez Proctor has an M.A. in Public History from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Martinez Proctor has worked for three years as a Research Fellow at Historic New England, uncovering the lives of workers and women at the Eustis Estate. From this research, she helped create several new programs including a regular tour that explores Gilded Age working-class life, as well as the David Chesnut Jazz Festival which brought together musicians, historians, and the local community to honor the musical traditions of one working family. She also co-curated the exhibition, Music and Motion: The Chesnut Family Legacy at the Eustis Estate in 2023. Martinez Proctor’s work focuses on finding new perspectives within established narratives to broaden and enrich the histories we share.
 
Tickets are $40 for members and with advance reservation; $45 day of; $22 for students 22 and under. Ticket pricing includes access to the mansion throughout the day of this event from 10 am to 4 pm. Reservations are strongly encouraged as seats are limited. Walk-ins accommodated as space allows. For reservations visit https://gildedage.org/pages/calendar or call us at (413) 637-206. Note that all tickets are nonrefundable and non-exchangeable. The historical mansion is located at 104 Walker Street in Lenox.

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The Classical Beat: Tanglewood, Sevenars Offer Culminating Programs

By Stephen DanknerSpecial to iBerkshires

The Classical Beat: Tanglewood, Sevenars Offer Culminating Programs

During this penultimate week of the Tanglewood Music Festival, the spotlight will focus on a wide range of standard repertoire in both the concerto and symphony genres: Mozart piano concerti, performed by the stellar Knights chamber orchestra, with the masterful soloist Emanuel Ax; Prokofiev's brilliant Violin Concerto No. 1, with the luminous Midori as soloist; and for fans of Tchaikovsky, the lushly lyrical Symphony No. 5. Later in the week, don't miss out on Prokofiev's alternatively lyrical, boisterous, majestic and thrilling Symphony No. 5; Beethoven (the joyous and heartfelt Seventh Symphony) and Schumann (the extraordinary Cello Concerto, performed by the great master Yo-Yo Ma) will certainly be high points for listeners. As always, Tanglewood presents a bouquet of musical riches presented in an incomparably bucolic setting. Many of those superlative concerts will reside in our collective memory for a long time.

Here are five special not-to-be- missed highlights, followed by the full listing and extraordinary range of programming to be found in each of Tanglewood's superb venues — the Shed and Ozawa Hall, and including the Tanglewood Learning Center's special lectures during the six-day period from Wednesday, August 14 through Monday, August 19.

Tanglewood Highlights This Week

  • Chamber orchestra "The Knights" with the magnificent pianist Emanuel Ax performing two Mozart piano concertos each evening (August 14 and 15).
  • The landmark CGI (computer-generated) film "Jurassic Park" in concert. Screening with the Boston Pops performing John Williams' incredibly brilliant score, conducted by Keith Lockhart (August 17).   
  • Two showings of the popular TLI Silent Film project with TMC composers, conductors, and instrumentalists, in collaboration with Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival (August 18).
  • BSO Assistant Conductors Samy Rachid and Earl Lee lead two programs featuring some of the most esteemed soloists of our time. Rachid makes his BSO and Tanglewood marks the debut of the phenomenal violinist Midori in Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 on a program of Russian masterpieces that includes Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 and Evgeny Svetlanov's "Dawn in the Field" (August 16). 
  • Samy Lee conducts the incomparable Yo-Yo Ma in Schumann's Cello Concerto with BSO Composer Chair-designate Carlos Simon's "Fate Now Conquers" and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 (August 18).

Tanglewood Full Programming Aug. 14-19

Wednesday, August 14

1:30 p.m., Studio E, Linde Center for Music and Learning. TLI Open Workshops: Roberto Díaz, viola.

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Thursday, August 15

1 p.m., Tent Club: TLI Talks and Walks Anthony Fogg, moderator, with violinist Midori

8 p.m., Seiji Ozawa Hall Recital Series: The Knights, Eric Jacobsen, conductor, Emanuel Ax, piano Gabriela ORTIZ La Calaca, for strings. MOZART Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K.466. MOZART Piano Concerto No. 25 in C, K.503.

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Friday, August 16

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