Tanglewood Popular Artist Series: Paul Simon Performs ‘A Quiet Celebration Tour’ / June 27th

“a beautiful benediction for one of America’s defining songwriters… take any chance you get to see him again.” 

 – Los Angeles Times   

“the songwriter delivered a remarkable performance that mixed hits and deep cuts with a complete performance of his 2023 LP Seven Psalms……a victory lap for one of the greatest songwriters of the past century.” 

– Rolling Stone 

“The entire evening was magic. It displayed sheer musicianship from Simon and his accompanying band that included guitars, strings, percussion and woodwind instruments. As the tour name suggested, it was a quiet approach to showmanship, lacking the antics of the modern-day, pop-fueled concerts… Simon’s performance was majestic and vulnerable.” 

– St Louis Post Dispatch 

 “There’s a fragility and honesty combined with humour and charm… Simon’s A Quiet Celebration Tour may describe the tone of his two-hour-and-20-minute show — …but it doesn’t really do justice to the genuinely moving…career-spanning performance that unfolds.” 

-Toronto Sun 

Paul Simon, one of the most celebrated and beloved singer-songwriters of all time, is set to make his Tanglewood debut this summer as part of the festival’s Popular Artist Series. The 16-time GRAMMY® Award winner and two-time Rock & Rock Hall of Fame inductee brings his highly acclaimed “A Quiet Celebration” tour to the Koussevitzky Music Shed on Saturday, June 27, at 7:30 p.m. 

The show will be in two parts, opening with the performance of the GRAMMY-nominated masterpiece Seven Psalms. This beautiful 33-minute continuous piece of music was heralded by the press worldwide—Variety called it “Quietly stunning…unlike any other Simon album” and Rock Cellar hailed it as, “a stunning achievement from an artist with a career full of them.” After a brief intermission, the show resumes with Simon performing many of his greatest hits and many deep cuts celebrating the breadth of his career.  

Tickets go on sale Friday, February 6 at 10 a.m. at tanglewood.org. 

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Paul Simon

During his distinguished career spanning seven decades, musician Paul Simon has produced an unparalleled body of work including timeless masterpieces, such as Bridge Over Troubled Water, Sounds of Silence, and Graceland. Venerated as one of the greatest songwriters of all time and “popular music’s premier poet of the human condition,” Simon has received 16 Grammy Awards and has been twice inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. He is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors, and was presented the Library of Congress’ inaugural Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, which recognizes the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world’s culture. 

Simon was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011, and in 2012 named laureate of the prestigious Polar Music Prize along with Yo-Yo Ma. In 2019, Paul Simon was the first musician to be presented the Great Americans Medal by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. His song “Mrs. Robinson,” from the film The Graduate, was named in the top ten of the AFI’s 100 Years, 100 Songs. 

In 2023, Simon released his ambitious and widely acclaimed 33-minute, seven-movement masterwork, Seven Psalms, which earned him his 36th Grammy nomination and topped critics’ Album of the Year lists – lauded as “a masterpiece” by MOJO’s David Fricke, and “Profound” by The Times of London. Simon’s journey through the making of Seven Psalms is featured in director Alex Gibney’s career-spanning documentary, In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon. 

It was during the recording of Seven Psalms, as revealed in the film, that Simon began to steadily lose the hearing in his left ear, which initially made extended live performances impossible. Together with the Stanford Initiative to Cure Hearing Loss and his own production team, Simon redesigned his entire stage set up to make performing viable. 

Simon’s philanthropic work includes the co-founding of the Children’s Health Fund, which brings health care to low-income children and their families around the United States. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, which is committed to stopping the species extinction crisis through conservation. Over his career, Simon has raised millions of dollars for worthy causes, and in 2018 made a $1 million gift to the NYC Department of Education and Fund for Public Schools, to invest in music and art programs. 

How to Purchase Tickets

Tanglewood.org is the official site for all Tanglewood tickets. Tickets for Paul Simon’s performance go on sale Friday, February 6 at 10 a.m. There are strict limits on the number of tickets per purchaser. 

Tickets may also be purchased by calling 888-266-1200 on Monday–Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday 12:30–4:30 p.m. or at the Symphony Hall Box Office during regular Box Office hours.    

All tickets for this concert will be Mobile Delivery or Hold at Box Office. We have adopted this industry standard in order to better protect consumers from price gouging, hidden fees, and other deceptive practices by some third-party ticket resellers. 

The full schedule of the 2026 Tanglewood summer season, including other Popular Artist Series dates as well as concerts by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, and Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, was announced on January 29. Tickets for some Popular Artist dates are already on sale at tanglewood.org. Most other events go on sale on March 5 at 10 a.m. 

Sponsorships

The BSO is proud to welcome back Berkshire Health Systems as the Official Health System of Tanglewood.