Tanglewood / Let Summer Sing: August Highlights — Concerts, Speakers & Events | 86th Season

Tanglewood Program Highlights, August 2024

“I want Tanglewood to be the classical music destination for the world.” 

BSO President & CEO Chad Smith to The New York Times

August Concerts in the Shed: World-Renowned Guest Artists and Exciting Debuts

This August, an impressive lineup of world-renowned guest conductors join the Boston Symphony Orchestra for concerts in the Koussevitzky Music Shed, beginning with Alan Gilbert, who conducts two BSO concerts: first, with pianist Kirill Gerstein, violinist Joshua Bell, and cellist Steven Isserlis to perform Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, followed by his fourth symphony (August 4), and next Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring with Gerstein performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 (August 9).

Gilbert will be joined by Keith Lockhart, Ken-David Masur, and Anna Rakitina to conduct the BSO, Boston Pops, and Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra for this year’s Tanglewood on Parade concert, which features soprano Christine Goerke and the Marcus Roberts Trio (August 6). The eclectic program, which includes works by John Williams, Strauss, Berlioz, and Gershwin in addition to Tchaikovsky’s customary 1812 Overture, is dedicated to BSO Music Director Laureate Seiji Ozawa, who passed away earlier this year.

In a highlight of the season, trailblazing Los Angeles Philharmonic Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, who will begin as Music and Artistic Director of the New York Philharmonic in 2026, makes his first appearance at Tanglewood since 2006 conducting the National Children’s Symphony of Venezuela for its Tanglewood debut in the Shed (August 8), performing music by John Adams, Estévez, Ginastera, and Shostakovich. Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska makes her BSO and Tanglewood debuts with two works by Sibelius and Leila Josefowicz performing Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto in her Tanglewood debut (August 10). BSO-debuting conductor James Gaffigan is paired with young Cuban American soprano Elena Villalón who also makes her BSO and Tanglewood debuts in selections from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Idomeneo, as well as Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 (August 11).

The following weekend, 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 debuts leading Midori in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 on a program that includes Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and Svetlanov’s Dawn in the Field (August 16). Lee conducts 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).

For the final weekend of the festival’s classical programs, up-and-coming American conductor Ryan Bancroft makes his BSO debut along with Bruce Liu in Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1, followed by Elgar’s Enigma Variations (August 23).  Karina Canellakis accompanies violinist Leonidas Kavakos in Chausson’s Poème on a program that features the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and works by Beethoven, Brahms, and Ravel (August 24). Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu debuts at Tanglewood leading the orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus in the annual season-closing performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (August 25).

August Events in Ozawa Hall: Recital Series, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, and Spotlight Series Speakers

Marking 30 years since its opening, Ozawa Hall continues its acclaimed recital series this August with the dynamic Danish String Quartet (August 1), performing music by Schubert and Thomas Adès and featuring cellist Johannes Rostamo in Schubert’s Cello Quintet. Innovative chamber orchestra The Knights return to Tanglewood to perform two unique programs with star pianist Emanuel Ax: the overture to Bologne’s only opera, L’Amant anonyme, with Mozart Piano Concertos Nos. 14 and 20 (August 14), and Gabriela Ortiz’s La Calaca, for strings, with Mozart Piano Concertos Nos. 17 and 25. The recital series concludes with an exciting collaboration between violinist Leonidas Kavakos and pianist Daniil Trifonov, who will offer a program of music by Beethoven, Poulenc, Brahms, and Bartók (August 21).

Ozawa Hall will also house several noteworthy concerts featuring the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, conducted by TMC Fellows Na’Zir McFadden and Ross Jamie Collins. Grammy-winning conductor Alan Gilbert joins for a program of music by Haydn, Ravel, Revueltas, and Dutilleux (August 4). Opera returns to the Tanglewood Music Center with a program of excerpts from Mozart operas The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, and The Marriage of Figaro, sung by the TMC Vocal Fellows (August 12). Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu leads the TMCO’s final performance of the season alongside conducting fellows Collins and McFadden, featuring Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 and works by Gabriela Ortiz, Bernard Rands, and Sibelius. In addition to these orchestral performances, the TMC fellows will offer free chamber music performances at 10 a.m. on Sundays, August 4, 11, and 18.

Also in Ozawa Hall this August are the summer’s final two Tanglewood Learning Institute Spotlight Speakers: filmmaker and scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. (August 10) and tech journalist David Pogue (August 17). Professor Gates will share insights from Finding Your Roots, his influential series about genealogy, genetics, and history’s impact on our lives today, which has helped to expand America’s sense of itself, stimulating a national conversation about identity with humor, wisdom, and compassion. Pogue, the go-to expert on disruptive tech and science in a fast-changing world, will speak on artificial intelligence and the future of music, bringing his expansive knowledge, engaging wit, and occasional song to this hot-button topic.

Boston Pops and Popular Artists Performing in August

By popular demand, there will be two presentations of John Williams’ Film Night, with conductors Ken-David Masur and David Newman; in addition to the music of John Williams, the program will include a celebration of Henry Mancini’s 100th birthday (August 2 and 3). On August 17, Keith Lockhart conducts the Pops for Jurassic Park In Concert, performing Williams’ iconic score live to a screening of the film, abounding with visually stunning imagery and groundbreaking special effects projected in high definition.

The season closes with the final two installments of the Tanglewood Popular Artist series. Judy Collins, Indigo Girls, and Rufus Wainwright perform with special guest Lucy Wainwright Roche on August 30. The following evening, the Boston Pops and Keith Lockhart return for a concert with indie rock band DISPATCH.

August Programs at the Tanglewood Learning Institute: Exploring Music and Culture Through the Humanities

Showcasing Tanglewood’s prominence as a music and learning campus and center of the humanities, the Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI) offers a variety of programs this August that include public recitals, master classes, artist conversations, panel discussions, and family events.

The TLI Presents programs explore unique perspectives in music history and offer world-class performances in Studio E at the Linde Center of Music and Learning. Berklee scholar Angela Farr Schiller, PhD, hosts the conversation “Black Voices in Cabaret – Josephine Baker,” considering both Baker’s music and humanitarian work (August 3). The exploration of cabaret music continues with Kirill Gerstein and HK Gruber performing cabaret music from 1920s Berlin (August 4). Programs the following weekend considers themes of resistance and decolonization, with a “Decolonizing Classical Music in Eight Difficult Steps” talk by Columbia University composer and musicologist George Lewis (August 9), a two-part solo recital “This is America,” by violinist and producer Johnny Gandelsman (August 9 and 11), and a program of traditional and contemporary protest songs, “A Change Is Gonna Come,” with Palaver Strings, Grammy award-winning tenor Nicholas Phan, and vocalist Farayi Malek (August 10).

Former BSO violist and Terezin Music Foundation founding director Mark Ludwig returns with a two-part program on August 16 and 17 entitled “Trauma, Memory & Transcendence in Music,” highlighting the music of Gideon Klein and Viktor Ullmann; world-renowned composer Osvaldo Golijov will join on August 17. The beloved Silent Film project, which features live performances of original scores by the composition fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center, is offered twice on the evening of August 18. Additional TLI events include recitals by Avery Fisher prize-winning pianist Jeremy Denk (August 11) and Grammy-nominated jazz harpist Edmar Castaneda and his quartet (August 25).

TLI offers two events for families this August, hosted by the creator of WBUR storytelling podcast Circle Round, Rebecca Sheir: an interactive musical event in collaboration with the Norman Rockwell Museum (August 4), and a live recording of three new episodes of Circle Round (August 18).

Anthony Fogg, BSO Vice President of Artistic Planning, leads weekly TLI Talks and Walks, a series of artist conversations in the tent club. Guests include Ken-David Masur (August 1), Kirill Gerstein (August 8), Midori (August 15), and Karina Canellakis (August 22).

August also concludes the TLI Art of Conducting Series (with Alan Gilbert, August 2) and TLI Open Workshops series with TMC viola faculty member and president of the Curtis Institute of Music Roberto Díaz (August 14) and BSO principal flute Elizabeth Rowe who is retiring after 20 years in the chair (August 15).