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Elaine and Jerome Rosenfeld Concerts in the Courtyard Summer Series 2012
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
©Rich Gastwirst 2011
An exciting range of music will be featured in this year’s Elaine and Jerome Rosenfeld Concerts in the Courtyard Summer Series hosted by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA). This year’s series will feature outdoor evening concerts by the soulful Campbell Brothers, MFA favorite Patty Larkin, the world-renowned band Freshlyground, and local musicians among others. All concerts take place outside in the MFA’s Calderwood Courtyard on summer evenings as listed from July 11 – August 29, 2012 (if it rains, concerts are moved inside to Remis Auditorium). Bravo Restaurant also opens its outdoor balcony for premium seating (see ticket information for details).
July 11: The Campbell Brothers with Re-Union Choir
Doors open at 6:00 p.m.
The summer series will kick off with steel-guitar driven gospel. The Campbell Brothers will present Sacred Steel: African-American gospel music with electric steel guitar and vocals. This tradition is just now emerging from the House of God Keith Dominion Church, where for over sixty years it has been an integral part of worship and a vital, if little known, American tradition.
Opening the evening will be Boston’s own Re-Union Choir.
July 18: Ghost Train Orchestra with Sinti Rhythm
Doors open at 6:00 p.m.
The evening will start with Boston-based Sinti Rhythm, playing tribute to the jazz of Django Reinhardt.
Ghost Train Orchestra’s debut 2011 album achieved much critical acclaim and reached the top 10 of the Billboard Jazz
charts in the weeks following their spot on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. The band has performed at the Museum of
Modern Art, the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and the Highline Ballroom in Manhattan. Comprising New
York and Boston members, Ghost Train Orchestra takes audiences back to the 1920s with horns, percussion, strings,
and original compositions.
MFA Boston, Elaine and Jerome Rosenfeld Concerts in the Courtyard, p. 2
July 25: Oliver Mtukudzi and the Black Spirits
Doors open at 6:00 p.m.
August 1: Animal Hospital Ensemble*
Doors open at 6:00 p.m.
August 2: Patty Larkin
Doors open at 6:00 p.m.
August 15: Freshlyground
Doors open at 6:00 p.m.
August 22: Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three with Blue Moose and the Unbuttoned Zippers
Doors open at 6:00 p.m.
Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three play a mix of original hits and early jazz, string ragtime, country blues, and western swing. A favorite of the Newport Folk Festival, Jack White, and NPR, LaFarge strives to transport listeners and live audiences to an earlier time in America by bringing forth his special mix of music, featuring such acoustic instruments as parlor guitar, guitjo, double bass, and kazoo.
Opening the evening will be Boston’s own Blue Moose and the Unbuttoned Zippers, who play originals, American classics, and Scandinavian fiddle tunes with a contemporary twist.
Oliver Mtukudzi and the Black Spirits is an ensemble fronted by guitarist, vocalist, performer, and composer Oliver
Mtukuzi or “Tuku”. Tuku began performing in 1977 and has earned a devoted following across Africa and beyond, all the
while incorporating elements of different musical traditions. A member of Zimbabwe’s Kore Kore tribe, he sings in the
nation’s dominant Shona language as well as Ndebele and English. Tuku is an alumnus of Acoustic Africa II (2011
edition) and a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Eastern and Southern Africa, focusing on Young People’s Development
and HIV and AIDS Prevention.
Animal Hospital Ensemble is a herd of guitarists, string players, and drummers that forges “an intense beauty” (Boston
Globe) through layered loops and meticulously crafted melodies. The expansion of leader Kevin Micka’s solo
performances, the ensemble gives individual loops to individual players in a highly orchestrated immersive performance.
Patty Larkin is an MFA favorite. She is part of the urban-folk/pop music phenomenon that spun off of the
singer/songwriter explosion of the seventies, reinterpreting traditional folk melodies, rock, pop, bossa nova, drawing on
anything from Dylan (Bob) to Dylan (Thomas). A self described “guitar-driven songwriter,” Larkin has wound her way
through soundscapes of evocative vocals, inventive guitar wizardry and imaginative lyrics. Her songs run from
impressionistic poetry to witty wordplay.
Freshlyground has performed sold out tours across the globe, achieved gold and platinum album sales, recorded a
track with Shakira for the 2010 World Cup, and is considered one of South Africa’s top cultural exports. The band formed
in early 2002 and is made up of seven talented and diverse musicians from South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.
Fronted by the diminutive but dynamic Zolani Mahola, the band exudes a live performance energy that has been the
bedrock of its success. The experienced rhythm section is complemented by guitar, keyboards, violin, flute, mbira, sax,
and harmonica.
MFA Boston, Elaine and Jerome Rosenfeld Concerts in the Courtyard, p. 3
August 29: Red Baraat with DJ Jesse Kaminsky
Doors open at 6:00 p.m.
Red Baraat have made a name for themselves as one of the best live bands playing anywhere in the world. Led by dhol drummer Sunny Jain, the nine-piece group (comprising a dhol [a double-sided barrel-shaped North Indian drum slung over one shoulder] drumset, percussion, a sousaphone, and five horns) melds the infectious North Indian rhythm Bhangra with a host of sounds, namely funk, go-go, Latin, and jazz. Sunny Jain and Red Baraat have created and defined a sound entirely their own, which NPR has called “the best party band in years.”
DJ Jesse Kaminsky will spin international music prior to the performance.
TICKETS: Tickets are $30 for general public and $24 for MFA members, seniors, and students. Tickets can be purchased:
Online: www.mfa.org/tickets
By phone: 1.800.440.6975; Mon-Sat, 9am-9 pm; and Sun 9 am-6 pm
In person: At MFA ticketing desks; desk closes 30 minutes before the Museum
Price exception: tickets for the Animal Hospital Ensemble will be $20 for general public and $16 for MFA members, seniors, and students.
All tickets are general admission seating. General admission concert tickets can be upgraded for al fresco dining on the Bravo balcony for an additional $30/person which can then be applied to food/drink from the restaurant. To purchase this upgrade, or for additional information, visit any ticket desk or call 617.369.3395 starting at 2 p.m. the day of the concert.
A $3.00 per-ticket processing fee applies to online and phone orders. An additional $4.50 fee applies for mail delivery. Tickets ordered within 10 days of a program are held at the MFA and may be obtained at any ticket desk or kiosk.
Elaine and Jerome Rosenfeld Concerts in the Courtyard is sponsored by Staples, Inc.
The media sponsor for the Elaine and Jerome Rosenfeld Concerts in the Courtyard is The Boston Phoenix.
The Calderwood Courtyard opens at 6 p.m. Courtyard seating is limited; low lawn chairs and/or blankets are recommended.
Alcoholic beverages may be purchased in the Courtyard; state law prohibits the possession or consumption of alcohol purchased outside of the MFA. All bags are subject to inspection by Museum staff.
All concerts are wheelchair accessible. For more information call (V) 617.369.3189 or
(TTY) 617.267.9703, or e-mail access@mfa.org.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AMERICAN CONDUCTOR KEITH LOCKHART CALLED IN TO CONDUCT
QUEEN’S DIAMOND JUBILEE CONCERT, TONIGHT, MONDAY, JUNE, 4

BOSTON POPS CONDUCTOR KEITH LOCKHART WILL BE JOINED BY
ALFIE BOE, LANG LANG, RENÉE FLEMING,
AND MORE TO CELEBRATE THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF
QUEEN ELIZABETH II’S ASCENSION TO THE THRONE

Boston Pops and BBC Concert Orchestra Conductor Keith Lockhart was called on Thursday to lead the BBC Concert Orchestra in the Diamond Jubilee Concert for Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, tonight, Monday, June 4, at 7:30 p.m. BST. In addition to his role as Boston Pops Conductor, Mr. Lockhart was named the Principal Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra in August 2010.
The Diamond Jubilee Concert is the culmination of four days of UK-wide celebration of the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s ascension to the throne; these events will feature guest artists Elton John, Paul McCartney, Lang Lang, Stevie Wonder, Renée Fleming, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Gary Barlow, Shirley Bassey, Alfie Boe, Jools Holland, Jessie J, JLS, Tom Jones, Annie Lennox, Madness, Cliff Richard, Ed Sheeran, Kylie Minogue, and Ruby Turner. The June 4 musical celebration will be attended by the Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, and members of the Royal Family. The concert will take place at the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace and be broadcast live on BBC One, BBC One HD, BBC Radio 2 in the UK, as well as worldwide. Highlights from the concert will be available to United States viewers on ABC on Tuesday, June 5 at 9 p.m. ET. 10,000 free tickets to the event were distributed to the British public by a national ballot.

MORE ON KEITH LOCKHART
Keith Lockhart will return to the United States on June 5 to continue the Boston Pops spring season, which culminates at Symphony Hall in Boston on June 16. Maestro Lockhart will also lead the Boston Pops on the Charles River Esplanade with special guests Jennifer Hudson and Michael Chiklis at one of the country’s largest Fourth-of-July parties. This summer the Boston Pops conductor will also appear five times at Tanglewood, one of the world’s most beloved music festivals and the famed summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra located in the beautiful Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. Tanglewood celebrates its 75th anniversary season, June 22-September 2, with a spectacular lineup of musical guests and programs that spotlight Tanglewood’s rich tradition of presenting summertime concerts at their best since 1937. Details about the Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Season area available at tanglewood.org.

Keith Lockhart became the twentieth conductor of the Boston Pops in 1995, adding his artistic vision to the Pops tradition established by his predecessors John Williams and Arthur Fiedler. Mr. Lockhart holds the Eunice and Julian Cohen Boston Pops Conductor chair. He has worked with a wide array of established artists from virtually every corner of the entertainment world, while also promoting programs that focus on talented young musicians from the Tanglewood Music Center, Boston Conservatory, and Berklee College of Music. During his seventeen-year tenure, he has conducted more than 1,400 Boston Pops concerts and introduced the innovative JazzFest and EdgeFest series, featuring prominent jazz and indie artists performing with the Pops. Mr. Lockhart has also introduced concert performances of full-length Broadway shows, including Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel and Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, and the PopSearch and High School Sing-Off competitions. Under his leadership, the Boston Pops has commissioned several new works—including The Dream Lives On, a tribute to the Kennedy brothers, which was premiered in May 2010 during the 125th anniversary season—and dozens of new arrangements. For more information visit www.keithlockhart.com.

BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ANNOUNCES 2012-13 SYMPHONY HALL SEASON

BSO’S 2012-13 SEASON CONTINUES THE ORCHESTRA’S EXTRAORDINARY 132-YEAR TRADITION OF PRESENTING THE VERY BEST OF THE CLASSICAL MUSIC WORLD BY SPOTLIGHTING THE VIRTUOSIC TALENTS OF BSO MUSICIANS ALONG WITH AN INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED ROSTER OF CONDUCTORS AND GUEST SOLOISTS; MANY WILL MAKE THEIR DEBUT PERFORMANCE WITH THE ORCHESTRA IN MUSIC RANGING FROM LARGE-SCALE MASTERPIECES TO INTIMATE AND LESS FAMILIAR MUSIC, INCLUDING EIGHT WORKS BY
EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN COMPOSERS OF OUR TIME

ITZHAK PERLMAN TO MAKE HIS FIRST SYMPHONY HALL APPEARANCE
WITH THE BSO AS BOTH CONDUCTOR AND SOLOIST IN
ALL-BEETHOVEN SEASON OPENER, SEPTEMBER 22

BSO CONDUCTOR EMERITUS BERNARD HAITINK LEADS SEASON-ENDING PERFORMANCES
OF WORKS BY BRAHMS AND SCHUBERT (5/2-5/4), AS WELL AS
MAHLER’S FOURTH SYMPHONY (4/25-4/30)

BSO PRESENTS CHARLES DUTOIT IN THREE PROGRAMS LEADING MAJOR WORKS OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY, INCLUDING MUSIC OF DEBUSSY, MARTIN, RACHMANINOFF, STRAVINSKY, RAVEL, HINDEMITH, AND PROKOFIEV; THESE PROGRAMS ARE THE FIRST IN WHAT WILL BE A MULTI-YEAR SURVEY FEATURING MAESTRO DUTOIT CONDUCTING THE REPERTOIRE FOR WHICH HE IS A FOREMOST INTERPRETER

DANIELE GATTI LEADS CELEBRATIONS OF THE VERDI AND WAGNER BICENTENNIALS WITH PERFORMANCES OF VERDI’S REQUIEM (1/17-1/19) AND A PROGRAM OF EXCERPTS FROM WAGNER’S LOHENGRIN, TRISTAN UND ISOLDE, GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG, AND
PARSIFAL FEATURING MICHELLE DEYOUNG (3/21-3/26)

THOMAS ADÈS AND OLIVER KNUSSEN, TWO OF TODAY’S MOST ACCLAIMED BRITISH COMPOSERS, LEAD PROGRAMS INCLUDING THEIR OWN WORKS, REPRESENTING THE BSO’S ONGOING COMMITMENT TO PRESENTING COMPOSERS AS INTERPRETERS; SEASON ALSO FEATURES WORKS BY ACCLAIMED COMPOSERS HENRI DUTILLEUX, JAMES MACMILLAN, KAIJA SAARIAHO,
ROBERTO SIERRA, AND AUGUSTA READ THOMAS

BSO REPRISES ITS ACCLAIMED CONCERT PERFORMANCE OF PORGY AND BESS WITH
ALFRED WALKER AND LAQUITA MITCHELL IN THE TITLE ROLES, UNDER
THE DIRECTION OF BRAMWELL TOVEY (9/27-9/29)

BSO SPOTLIGHTS THE VIRTUOSIC MUSICIANS OF THE ORCHESTRA WITHOUT A CONDUCTOR WHEN
INDIVIDUAL SECTIONS OF THE ORCHESTRA PERFORM MUSIC OF BRITTEN, MOZART, DVOŘÁK, AND TIPPETT (4/18-4/23); SEVEN BSO PRINCIPAL PLAYERS PERFORM MUSIC OF
MARTIN (10/18-10/23); HAWTHORNE STRING QUARTET OF BSO MUSICIANS TO
PERFORM MUSIC OF SCHULHOFF (10/9)

OTHER ACCLAIMED GUEST ARTISTS APPEARING WITH THE BSO INCLUDE CONDUCTORS
STÉPHANE DENÈVE, CHRISTOPH VON DOHNÁNYI, CHRISTOPH ESCHENBACH,
RAFAEL FRÜHBECK DE BURGOS, ALAN GILBERT, ANDRIS NELSONS IN HIS SUBSCRIPTION SERIES DEBUT, AND VLADIMIR JUROWSKI IN HIS BSO DEBUT, AND GUEST SOLOISTS JOSHUA BELL, LANG LANG IN HIS SUBSCRIPTION SERIES DEBUT, RADU LUPU, GARRICK OHLSSON,
ANNE SOFIE VON OTTER, GIL SHAHAM, JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET, AND DAWN UPSHAW

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES INCLUDING BSO 101, FRIDAY PREVIEW TALKS, AND UNDERSCORE FRIDAYS MAKE CLASSICAL MUSIC AVAILABLE TO NEWCOMERS AND AFFICIONADOS ALIKE

SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR THE BSO’S 2012-2013 SEASON ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE BY CALLING
888-266-7575 OR VISITING WWW.BSO.ORG.; SINGLE TICKETS PRICED FROM $31-$123
GO ON SALE AUGUST 6

BSO OFFERS DISCOUNTED TICKET OPTIONS TO COLLEGE AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS,
AS WELL AS YOUNG PROFESSIONALS; DISCOUNTED RUSH TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE TO
PATRONS OF ALL AGES

THE 2012-13 SEASON IS SPONSORED BY BANK OF AMERICA AND EMC CORPORATION

Click here to see Alfred Walker performing “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin'” from Porgy and Bess
with Bramwell Tovey and the BSO.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 2012-13 season, September 22-May 4, offers concertgoers an impressive array of programs featuring both familiar friends and new faces, in performances ranging from powerful, large-scale masterpieces for symphony orchestra, soloists, and chorus to distinctive works rarely performed by the BSO, as well as a conductor-less program focusing on the virtuosic individual sections of the orchestra. The BSO’s 132nd season continues the BSO’s proud tradition of extraordinary music-making and presenting the important composers of our time, with the new season showcasing eight works by the most prominent living composers of our time.

From the September 22 Opening Night all-Beethoven concert featuring Itzhak Perlman in his first Symphony Hall appearance as both conductor and soloist, to programs highlighting BSO signature works and the extraordinary talents of individual BSO players, and concerts focusing on some of the brilliant composers of our time, among them Thomas Adès, Henri Dutilleux, Oliver Knussen, James MacMillan, Kaija Saariaho, and Augusta Read Thomas, the BSO’s 2012-13 season spotlights some of the greatest music of the past along with fascinating new works of the 20th and 21st centuries.

One of the BSO’s most popular guest conductors since his debut with the orchestra in 1981, Charles Dutoit will be featured in three programs leading major works of the first half of the 20th century, including a sparkling operatic double bill of operas by Stravinsky and Ravel, as well as music by Debussy, Martin, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Hindemith, and Lizst. With these programs the BSO initiates a multi-year survey of the repertoire for which Maestro Dutoit is a foremost interpreter.

Also highlighting the BSO’s 2012-13 season are season-opening concert performances of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, led by Bramwell Tovey with Alfred Walker and Laquita Mitchell in the title roles; programs under the direction of Daniele Gatti celebrating the bicentennials of Wagner and Verdi, with performances of Verdi’s Requiem and excerpts from Wagner’s Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde, Götterdämmerung, and Parsifal, featuring Michelle DeYoung; and Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 under Gatti and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with BSO Conductor Emeritus Bernard Haitink, who leads the BSO in the final two programs of the BSO’s 2012-13 season.

BS0 2012-13 SEASON TICKET INFORMATION IN BRIEF
The 132nd season of the Boston Symphony Orchestra takes place September 22, 2012–May 4, 2013. Subscriptions for the BSO’s 2012-2013 season are currently available by calling 888-266-7575 or visiting www.bso.org. Single tickets for the BSO’s 2012-13 season, priced from $31 to $123, go on sale Monday, August 6, at 10 a.m. BSO concerts take place Thursday, Saturday, and Tuesday at 8 p.m. and Friday at 1:30 p.m. or 8 p.m. The BSO’s 2012-13 Opening Night concert on September 22—featuring Itzhak Perlman in an all-Beethoven program, begins at 7 p.m.; the evening begins with a pre-concert gala reception and ends with a post-concert celebratory dinner for benefactors. Regularly priced Opening Night tickets are priced from $75 to $250. The BSO’s <40=$20 program allows patrons under the age of 40 to purchase tickets for $20. The BSO College Card and High School Card are the best way for students and aspiring young musicians to experience the BSO on a regular basis. A limited number of Rush Tickets for Boston Symphony Orchestra subscription concerts on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Friday afternoons are set aside to be sold on the day of a performance. The Boston Symphony Orchestra offers groups advanced ticket reservations and flexible payment options for BSO concerts at Symphony Hall.

BOSTON CONSERVATORY
Have you been watching the TV series Smash? Well one of the leads vying for the part of Marilyn Monroe, is former American Idol finalist Katherine McPhee. What you might not have known is that Katherine perfected her craft at the Boston Conservatory.
The Conservatory produces many of Broadway’s working actors such as:
Jason Michael Snow (The Book of Mormon),
Erick Buckley (The Addams Family)
Allison Blackwell (The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess).
I am so happy to announce that Boston Conservatory is now offering an MFA in MUSICAL THEATRE. They are only the second university in the nation offering this advanced degree and I couldn’t be happier. Oh to be young again.

MFA
At Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts it’s Alex Katz prints. 85 year old Katz born in 1927 has created some of the most recognizable images in contemporary art. “I’ve always been very interested in people’s ideas of the here and now,” says Alex Katz. “I want to paint in the present tense.”

RAGS TO RICHES
America’s story might be one of accomplishment in spite of adversity. Who better to exemplify this than George Gershwin son of a Russian immigrant and school drop out and Scott Joplin, son of a freed slave?
Now Basically Broadway and the City of Newton Community Education celebrate the intertwined lives of these two giants with a matinee lecture and concert on Saturday June 2.
They are bringing in Smithsonian lecturer and Steinway artist Robert Wyatt.
Wyatt will play the iconic works of both composers and he details their lives.
He is not only an exquisite pianist but a charming raconteur.
You won’t want to miss this exceptional event.
SATURDAY JUNE 2 at 2 PM
BRIMMER AND MAY SCHOOL IN CHESTNUT HILL

BOSTON POPS
Still need more Gershwin. No problem. The Boston Pops has many Gershwin events. Here’s just one.
People of all ages are welcome to a George Gershwin matinee Family Concert at 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 12. The Family Concert will feature a performance by the winner of the BSO Youth Concerto Competition, and children 18 and under receive a 50% ticket discount.

BOSTON BALLET
Boston Ballet presents Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote, April 26 – May 6, at The Boston Opera House. The vibrant, lavish masterpiece, last presented in 2006, was first staged by Nureyev for Boston Ballet in 1982 when he danced the leading role of Basilio. Rudolf Nureyev first choreographed his version of Don Quixote in Vienna in 1966 and it would later become one of his major successes.

ART
WOODY SEZ
The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie
With words and Music by Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie comes to life in a joyous, toe-tapping, and moving theatrical portrait
that uses Woody’s words and songs, performed by the company of four actor/singers playing over twenty instruments. The audience is taken on a voyage through Guthrie’s
fascinating, beautiful, and sometimes tragic life, capturing the heart and spirit of
Woody Guthrie and the stories of America.

HUNTINGTON THEATRE
Due to popular demand, the Huntington Theatre Company has extended the run of its production of The Luck of the Irish, to May 6.

MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM IS THE TOPS!

The Huntington Theatre Company’s production of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom gets their standing ovation the old fashioned way… they earned it.
This production is the first of August Wilson’s ten Century Cycle plays, which explores the heritage and African American 20th century experience decade-by decade.

In the play, a quartet of blues musicians gather in a run-down 1920s Chicago studio waiting for legendary blues singer Ma Rainey to arrive to record new sides of her old favorites. Young, hotheaded trumpeter Levee aspires to a better life for himself and sees the emerging form of the blues as his ticket to fame and fortune. When he clashes with veteran musicians Toledo and Cutler and Ma Rainey spars with her white music producers, generational and racial tensions explode in the powerful and moving drama.

The characters, played by Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Corey Allen, Jason Bowen, Yvette Freeman (as Ma Rainey,) Thomas Derrah, Will LeBow, Timothy J. Smith, G. Valmont Thomas, Glen Turner and Charles Weldon brought Wilson’s script to life. Their portrayals were finely honed so that their unique personalities were crisp and defined.
The credit goes both to the exceptional writing and extraordinary acting.

The scenic and costume design by Clint Ramos puts you immediately into1927 Chicago. The tri-level set works so well that you forget you are in a theatre.

This play can move onto the Great White Way without missing a beat. This is special theatre that you won’t want to miss.

WHAT
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM

WHEN
March 9 – April 8, 2012 Evenings: Tues. – Thurs. at 7:30pm; Fri. – Sat. at 8pm; Select Sun. at 7pm Matinees: Select Wed., Sat., and Sun. at 2pm Days and times vary; see complete schedule at end of release.
Press Opening: Wednesday, March 14, 7pm. RSVP online at huntingtontheatre.org/news. WHERE
BU Theatre, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston – Avenue of the Arts

TICKETS
Single tickets start at $25. FlexPass subscriptions are also on sale:  online at huntingtontheatre.org;  by phone at 617 266 0800, or  in person at the BU Theatre Box Office, 264 Huntington Ave. and the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
Box Office, 527 Tremont St. in Boston’s South End.
$5 off: seniors $10 off: subscribers and BU community (faculty/staff/alumni) $25 “35 Below” tickets for patrons 35 years old and younger (valid ID required) $15 student and military tickets (valid ID required)

BB’s BUZZ

Get out your calendar and plastic because I have some very exciting events to tell you about.  These not-to-be-missed plays and concerts have sold out quickly in other cities so I want to give you a heads-up.

For instance, The Book of Mormon sells out in hours… literally. The musical Billy Elliott, and concerts by Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters likewise.

So let’s start with the Boston Pops 2012 season.

They open the season with none other than the belle of Broadway Bernadette Peters. I saw the Sondheim “A Little Night Music” revival in NY with Peters and cannot imagine anyone else doing the role. She makes each part her own and her voice only gets better.
I have been a fan for years and have never been disappointed. Of course opening of Pops has the opening reception along with the concert. It is always an exciting gala.  I guarantee that this concert will be one of your favorites. See you there May 9.

How about King Tut’s alter ego Steve Martin? This funny man is dead serious about his banjo and blue grass music. So on May 29, 30 and 31 he appears with the Pops in An Evening of Comedy and Blue Grass.


Click here to listen to a clip from Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers’
“Northern Island” off the album, Rare Bird Alert.

If you love Barbra Steisand’s Songbook such as the music from Funny Girl and The Way We Were then you won’t want to miss Broadway vocalist Ann Hampton Callaway singing this incredible repertoire. But that’s not all. The special guest is Alan Bergman. Alan and Marilyn Bergman are some of my all time favorite lyicists having written “The Way We Were,” “What are you Doing the Rest of Your Life” and others.

All takes place MAY 15 and 16.

The Pops is celebrating composers such as Gershwin and

the incomparable Cole Porter.

Singing the Porter classics are Broadway’s golden couple Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley June 5,6, and 8.  Beside Porter you will hear the music of his contemporaries Jerome Kern and Richard Rogers.

Looking ahead, June 1 and 2 John Williams celebrates his 80^th birthday with a Film Night. He has won so many awards for his film scores, these concerts are always a treat….and John Williams is not only an incredibly talented composer but a wonderful gentle person as well.

From the Pops to Popular…the hit Schwartz musical  Wicked flies back to Boston August 7.….and that’s not all.

I attended the 2012/ 2013 preview of Broadway in Boston at The Opera House and it was wonderful. Don’t bother going to NY, Boston is getting all the shows plus a pre-Broadway opening ( that hasn’t happened in a while..called Tuck Everlasting.)

Hold on to your hats cause here we go.

“War Horse,” Oct. 10-21 at the Boston Opera House. A love story between a boy and his horse – fate brings them together, war breaks them up. Bring tissues.

“Memphis,” Dec. 11-23, Colonial Theatre. Set to roof-raising beats, this musical tells the tale of fame and forbidden love in underground dance clubs of 1950s Memphis, Tenn.

“Jersey Boys,” Jan. 30-March 9, 2013, at the Colonial Theatre. It’s like eating peanuts, you can never have enough. It  tells the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

“Sister Act,” Jan. 22-Feb. 3, 2013 at the Boston Opera House. A musical adaptation of the Whoopi Goldberg 1992 movie that centers on a Diana Ross wannabe whose career has been nothing but heartaches. She witnesses a crime and the police send her to a convent for protection. You’ll be lifted to divine heights. Woopie is the producer.

“The Book of Mormon,” April 9-28, 2013 at the Boston Opera House. Since opening in New York last spring, “Book of Mormon” is still one of the hottest tickets in town. The creators of “South Park,” Trey Parker and Matt Stone, took home nine Tony’s last year for their ribald yet good-natured religious satire.

“Mary Poppins,” May 28-June 2, 2013. Musical about a magical nanny who flies in to save the Banks family lands in Boston for a one-week engagement with new dance numbers.

…and “Tuck Everlasting” opens June 2013. This pre-Broadway tryout at the Colonial Theatre. I love that we are going to have pre-Broadway shows as I am about see theatre in the golden restored Colonial Theatre. Tuck  looks at immortality though the eyes of a young girl who has fallen in love and wants to live forever.

“Wicked,” Aug. 7 to Sept. 15, 2013 at the Boston Opera House. “Wicked” is the prequel to the “Wizard of Oz.” It tells the story of how two girls became the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good.

So you see there are many family shows. It is never too early to expose your children to the excitement of live theatre.

THE BOSTON BALLET HAS COME SUCH A LONG WAY SINCE I FIRST MOVED TO BOSTON. They are now a world class ballet company. 

Their production of “Play with Fire”

Was edgy and interesting. The dancing was superb, the sets first class, the costumes wonderful. In the second act (NAME?) where the ballerinas appeared topless wearing nothing but  red skirts looking like prepubescent boys I was a little perplexed.

However, looking around at the capacity audience, which included many young people, maybe edgy is the way to go.

Their next production is sure to please everyone..it’s Rudolph Nureyev’s acclaimed production of Don Quixote.

The production was originally staged on Boston Ballet by Nureyev himself in 1982 when Nureyev danced the leading role of Basilo.

He first choreographed his version of Don Quixote in Vienna in 1966 and it would later become one of his greatest successes.

BTW Speakeasy is extending Next to Normal until April 15 due to an overwhelming demand for tickets.

March 30-April 29, it’s “THE LUCK OF THE IRISH,”

At the Huntington Theatre Company at the Calderwood Pavillion at the BCA in the South End . It is new play that explores Boston race relations and the universal longing for home. ( Sounds a lot like Fiddler .)  Remember to ask for student , military or senior tickets if you applicable.

.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Isn’t it cool to have such hot A&E events close at hand.

Going to theatre and concerts is not only food for the soul, it supports the arts and those who make it possible.

For THE BUZZ, this is Barbara Brilliant

Post-Show Audience Conversations

Ongoing

Led by members of the Huntington staff. After most Tuesday – Friday, Saturday matinee, and Sunday matinee performances throughout the season. Free with a ticket to the performance.

Student Matinee Performances

Fri. 4/13 and Thurs. 4/26 – SOLD OUT

Call 617 273 1558 about purchasing student tickets to other performances.

Humanities Forum

Sun. 4/22, following the 2pm performance

A post-performance talk exploring the context and significance of The Luck of the Irish.

Actors Forum

Fri. 4/13 and Thurs. 4/26, following the 10am student matinee performances

Thurs. 4/19, following the 7:30pm performance

Wed. 4/25, following the 2pm performance

Participating cast members answer questions from the audience.

Remember when you attend these shows and concerts you are supporting the arts and artists. That’s it for The Buzz . I’m Barbara Brilliant..back to you Jen.

AWARD-WINNING BROADWAY MUSICAL

PLAYING A LIMITED ENGAGEMENT
AT THE CUTLER MAJESTIC THEATRE
PRESENTED IN ASSOCIATION WITH
ARTSEMERSON: THE WORLD ON STAGE

~ April 24 – May 6, 2012 ~

FELA!, the international sensation heralded on three continents, is a provocative hybrid of dance, theatre and music exploring the extravagant world of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti. FELA!, comes to Boston for a limited engagement, playing at the Cutler Majestic Theatre Tuesday, April 24 through Sunday, May 6. The press opening is scheduled for Wednesday, April 25 at 7 PM.

Critics around the country have been effusive in their praise of the national tour. The kinetic energy pulsing from the music and dancing of FELA! prompted Ben Brantley of The New York Times to say “There should be dancing in the streets.” Peter Marks of The Washington Post described it as “electroshock for the soul” and Charles McNulty added in The Los Angeles Times that FELA! was “the most exuberant musical I’ve seen this season” and “the fusion of his (Fela’s) sound is rapturously celebrated with a pinwheel parade of pelvises” and Time Out gave it 5 stars saying “more than a musical, an ecstatic phenomenon.”

Olivier and Tony Award-nominated actor Sahr Ngaujah will lead the cast of FELA! He is joined by Melanie Marshall and Paulette Ivory, who co-starred with Ngaujah in the Olivier-nominated Royal National Theatre production. This touring production is a once in a lifetime experience, a glorious amalgam of the original casts of both Broadway and London’s Royal National Theatre.

A triumphant tale of courage, passion and love, FELA! is the true story of Kuti, who created a type of music, Afrobeat, and mixed these pounding eclectic rhythms (a blend of jazz, funk and African rhythm and harmonies) with incendiary lyrics that openly attacked the corrupt and oppressive military dictatorships that rule Nigeria and much of Africa. Featuring many of Fela Kuti’s most captivating songs and Bill T. Jones’s visionary staging, FELA! reveals Kuti’s controversial life as an artist and political activist and celebrates his pioneering music.

Sahr Ngaujah and the cast of FELA! have performed in unique places for unique individuals, from St. James Palace for Prince Charles to Fela’s Lagos Shrine for the Kuti family. First Lady Michelle Obama helped lead a standing ovation and Madonna has seen the show twice. Denzel Washington, Oprah Winfrey, Sting, Janet Jackson, Hugh Jackman, Anna Wintour, Bruce Springstein and Robert DeNiro are but a few of the celebrities who have danced in the aisles to the percussive joys of its Afrobeat.

The production received its world premiere Off-Broadway in September 2008, and won the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical, before transferring to Broadway’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre in November 2009 where its accolades included three 2010 Tony Awards®, including one for Bill T. Jones for best choreography. Mr. Jones also received the Astaire Award for best choreography and the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors.

FELA! is directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones, with a book by Jim Lewis and Bill T. Jones, and music and lyrics by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Conceived by Bill T. Jones, Jim Lewis and Stephen Hendel, the design and Tony Award winning costumes are by Marina Draghici, lighting design by Robert Wierzel and the Tony Award winning sound design by Robert Kaplowitz.

FELA! is produced in association with Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter, Will & Jada Pinkett Smith, Ruth & Stephen Hendel, Roy Gabay, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Edward Tyler Nahem, SlavaSmolokowski, Chip Meyrelles/Ken Greiner, Douglas G. Smith, Steve Semlitz/Cathy Glazer, Daryl Roth/True Love Productions, Susan Dietz/Mort Swinsky, Knitting Factory Entertainment and with Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson.

FELA! plays at the Cutler Majestic Theatre, 219 Tremont St., Boston, for sixteen performances: Tuesday through Thursday evenings at 7:30 PM (except Wednesday, April 25, at 7:00 PM); Friday evenings at 8:00 PM; Saturdays at 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM; and Sundays at 2:00 PM and 7:30 PM. Tickets are priced at $23.50 -$123.50. Tickets for FELA! are on sale at the Paramount Center box office (559 Washington St., Boston’s Theatre District), online at www.artsemerson.org or by calling 617.824.8000.

2012 SESSION OF THE TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER
—THE BOSTON SYMPHONY’S PRESTIGIOUS SUMMER MUSIC ACADEMY—TO TAKE PLACE JUNE 25-AUGUST 19
TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER ORCHESTRA TO BE FEATURED ALONG WITH THE BSO, 
BOSTON POPS, JOHN WILLIAMS, KEITH LOCKHART, ANDRIS NELSONS, JAMES TAYLOR, 
YO-YO MA, EMANUEL AX, PETER SERKIN, AND ANNE-SOPHIE MUTTER IN THE JULY 14 
GALA CONCERT CELEBRATING THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TANGLEWOOD FESTIVAL
ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC, AUGUST 9-13, TO PRESENT EAST COAST PREMIERE OF OLIVER KNUSSEN’S HIGGLETY PIGGLETY POP!, WITH MULTI-MEDIA COMPONENT
FEATURING CLASSIC IMAGES FROM THE POPULAR MAURICE SENDAK CHILDREN’S BOOK
ADDITIONAL TMC HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
 10TH ANNIVERSARY COLLABORATION WITH MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP; 
TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER ORCHESTRA CONCERTS UNDER THE DIRECTION OF MIGUEL HARTH-BEDOYA, STEFAN ASBURY, MARCELO LEHNINGER, AND RAFAEL FRÜHBECK DE BURGOS, AS WELL AS A CONCERT FEATURING TMC WIND, BRASS, PERCUSSION, AND PIANO FELLOWS LED BY CHARLES DUTOIT; AND 
TANGLEWOOD ON PARADE, THE EVER-POPULAR DAY-LONG MUSIC CELEBRATION HIGHLIGHTED BY TCHAIKOVSKY’S 1812 OVERTURE PERFORMED BY THE COMBINED FORCES OF THE BSO AND TMCO
Joining in the celebration of the 75th anniversary of Tanglewood, the famed summer music festival and summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Center, the BSO’s prestigious summer music academy, will present its annual seven-week session June 25-August 19. For further information about Tanglewood—located in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts—including details about the Tanglewood Music Center, please visit www.tanglewood.org.
The focal point of the Tanglewood Music Center’s celebration of the parent festival’s 75th anniversary will be its participation in the Tanglewood 75th Celebration Gala Concert on July 14, which will also feature the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops orchestras, along with an exciting roster of guest artists. The TMC Orchestra portion of the program will feature Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, and Anne-Sophie Mutter. The BSO and Boston Pops will perform with Peter Serkin, longtime Tanglewood friend James Taylor, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, led by conductors John Williams, Keith Lockhart, and Andris Nelsons.
The 2012 Festival of Contemporary Music, August 9-13, under the direction of composer Oliver Knussen, will present the east coast premiere of Mr. Knussen’s opera Higglety Pigglety Pop!, based on the award-winning children’s book by Maurice Sendak. This special performance, which will take place on August 12, will feature an interactive multi-dimensional component designed by Netia Jones, a British director and video artist who works frequently in opera and staged concerts, using video, film, and projected media in all of her work. In addition to this highly anticipated performance of Higglety Pigglety Pop!, Mr. Knussen, who celebrates his 60th birthday this season, has curated a selection of music that focuses on the works of a 20th-century Italian composer almost unknown in this country—Niccolò Castiglioni—and of four rising stars: English composers Luke Bedford and Helen Grime, and Americans Sean Shepherd and Marti Epstein, the latter presenting her new, TMC-commissioned string quartet. The 2012 FCM will also present a reprisal (August 13) of the new Gunther Schuller work commissioned by the TMC in honor of Tanglewood’s 75th anniversary, scheduled to receive its world premiere earlier in the season on July 8. Other composers to be represented during this year’s FCM include George Benjamin, Elliott Carter, John Harbison, and David Del Tredici.
Additional highlights of the TMC’s 2012 summer session include the 10th anniversary of its collaboration with the Mark Morris Dance Group, June 28 and 29, an intensive eight-day String Quartet Seminar, featuring music of composers from Haydn through the 20th century, a collaboration with Shakespeare & Co. and TMC Composition Fellows; and its ever-popular series of Ozawa Hall orchestral concerts, this year under the direction of Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Stefan Asbury, BSO assistant conductor Marcelo Lehninger, and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, and with musicians from the TMC orchestra performing a program of 20th-century masterworks under the direction of Charles Dutoit. The TMCO will also participate in Tanglewood on Parade, one of Tanglewood’s most beloved traditions, on August 7.
BRIEF BACKGROUND ON THE TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER
Founded in 1940 by Serge Koussevitzky (BSO music director, 1924-49), the Tanglewood Music Center is a program of advanced study for experienced young musicians – instrumentalists, singers, pianists, composers, and conductors – who have completed the majority of their formal training. In addition to high-profile orchestral performances, the Tanglewood Music Center Fellows also participate in chamber music and vocal recital programs, and master classes and coaching sessions led by some of the preeminent artists of our time. More than half the members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra also teach at the TMC each summer. The Tanglewood Music Center also offers programs for orchestral librarians, audio engineers, piano technicians, and publications professionals.
DETAILS OF THE TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER SUMMER SESSION, JUNE 25-AUG. 19
FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC, AUGUST 9–13
FCM kicks off Thursday, August 9, at 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall with a program of chamber and chamber-orchestra music including Luke Bedford’s witty Or Voit Tout En Aventure—six songs for soprano and 16 instrumentalists based on mediaeval texts. Also on the program are Harrison Birtwistle’s toccata Cantus Iambeus; Niccolo Castiglioni’s breathless set of variations Quickly; and Sean Shepherd’s colorfully waxing-and-waning These Particular Circumstances.
On Friday, August 10, the festival turns its attention to piano music with an afternoon Ozawa Hall recital by virtuoso and acclaimed new-music specialist Gloria Cheng. In addition to music by Knussen and Birtwistle, Ms. Cheng performs works by their fellow Englishmen George Benjamin and Bernard Rands, as well as music by Boston-based composer and longtime BSO collaborator John Harbison.
On Saturday, August 11, at 6 p.m., the Tanglewood Music Center’s weekly prelude concert, held in Ozawa Hall before the evening’s BSO concert in the Shed, will feature little-known and rarely played works by Charles Ives, which represent an amazing variety of styles and genres. Gunther Schuller, who helped rediscover the works in the Library of Congress, will conduct the program.
At 10 a.m. on Sunday, August 12, the annual Fromm Concert at Tanglewood comes to Ozawa Hall, featuring at its heart the world premiere of Boston-based composer Marti Epstein’s new TMC-commissioned string quartet. Also on the program are Birtwistle’s Dinah and Nick’s Love Song, Castiglioni’s Tropi, Elliott Carter’s Double Trio, for violin, cello, trumpet, trombone, piano, and percussion (2011), and Shepherd’s Quartet for Oboe and Strings. A work by Helen Grime makes its first appearance with Seven Pierrot Miniatures—inspired by the archetypical commedia dell’arte character of its title as well as Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire—on a program also including American composer David Del Tredici’s very first composition, Soliloquy (1958).
Stefan Asbury conducts a highlight of FCM 2012 on Sunday, August 12, at 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall, with a complete concert performance of Knussen’s one-act opera Higglety Pigglety Pop!, based on Sendak’s children’s book of the same name. The Tanglewood performance—the work’s east-coast premiere—will feature animated projections of the author’s drawings, “performed live by the animator [Netia Jones] so that they have the flexibility and spontaneity of the live performance, enhancing and supporting the music, following the conductor and the live performers, while offering an exciting visual narrative.” The world premiere of Higglety Pigglety Pop! took place in October 1984 at Glyndebourne and the US premiere took place at Los Angeles Music Center in June 1990. The August 12 program also includes Castiglioni’s crystalline Inverno In-Ver.
The 2012 Festival of Contemporary Music concludes Monday, August 13, at 8 p.m. with The Margaret Lee Crofts Concert in Ozawa Hall, conducted by Mr. Knussen himself and TMC Conducting Felllows, and featuring full orchestra as well as piano soloist Peter Serkin. With the exception of a reprise of the new Schuller work commissioned by the TMC in honor of the Festival’s 75th anniversary – originally performed on the TMCO’s opening program on July 8 – the program presents music by composers heard in earlier concerts: Bedford’s dreamlike Outblaze the Sky, George Benjamin’s piano concertino Duet, Del Tredici’s Alice in Wonderland-inspired Happy Voices, and Grime’s joyous but fragile Everyone Sang.
TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER ORCHESTRA CONCERTS IN THE KOUSSEVITZY MUSIC SHED

The TMCO will perform during the Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Celebration Gala on July 14, also featuring the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops orchestras. Guest artists to be featured with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra include Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, and Anne-Sophie Mutter. The BSO and Boston Pops portions of the program will feature Peter Serkin, longtime Tanglewood friend James Taylor, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and other special guests, led by conductors John Williams, Keith Lockhart, and Andris Nelsons. This program will be made available to a worldwide audience through a series of international broadcasts, details of which will be announced at a later date.

The TMCO will also participate in Tanglewood on Parade, one of Tanglewood’s most beloved traditions, on August 7. The day-long event, featuring small ensemble performances throughout the day, culminates in an extended evening concert featuring the festival’s orchestras—the BSO and Boston Pops, in addition to the TMCO—and conductors Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnányi, Stéphane Denève in his Tanglewood debut, Keith Lockhart, and John Williams. The program will include Beethoven’s Overture to Egmont, Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, and recent film scores by Mr. Williams, as well as the traditional TOP finale, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, featuring both the BSO and TMCO.

The Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra’s 2012 season comes to a close with The Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert in the Koussevitzky Music Shed on Sunday, August 19, at 2:30 p.m. Tanglewood veteran conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos leads the orchestra’s farewell performance. On the first half of the program, Israeli-American violinist Gil Shaham is featured in Beethoven’s legendary Violin Concerto, and the concert concludes with Bartók’s most famous work, the Concerto for Orchestra.
TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER ORCHESTRA CONCERTS IN OZAWA HALL
JULY 8: MIGUEL HARTH-BEDOYA AND TMC CONDUCTING FELLOWS LEAD TMCO IN RESPIGHI, PROKOFIEV, DVORÁK, AND NEW WORK BY GUNTHER SCHULLER

The talented and dynamic young musicians of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra open the ensemble’s 2012 season in Seiji Ozawa Hall on Sunday, July 8, at 8 p.m. Peruvian conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya—currently music director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra—and TMC Conducting Fellows are on the podium, and the wide-ranging program of late-Romantic and 20th-century music includes Respighi’s sun-drenched Fountains of Rome, selections from Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet, Dvořák’s rarely performed overture In Nature’s Realm, and the world premiere of a new work, commissioned by for the TMC in honor of the Tanglewood Music Festival’s 75th anniversary, by eminent American composer Gunther Schuller. Mr. Schuller served on the TMC faculty from 1963 to 1984, the last fourteen of these years as its Artistic Director. This new work will also be performed on August 13 during the Festival of Contemporary Music.
JULY 16: BSO ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR MARCELO LEHNINGER AND TMC FELLOWS CONDUCT BRAHMS, SCHUBERT AND STRAUSS

The TMCO returns to Ozawa Hall on Monday, July 16, at 8 p.m. for a program including works by Brahms and Schubert, led by the TMC Conducting Fellows, and Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra led by BSO assistant conductor Marcelo Lehninger. The program opens with Brahms’s Tragic Overture, which was composed over the course of just a few months in 1880 and is as turbulent as its title would suggest, packing an impressive amount of angst into its 13-minute duration; also on the program is Schubert’s beloved Symphony No. 8, Unfinished, the most intriguing and impressive of the composer’s many works left incomplete at the time of his tragically early death. Mr. Lehninger then leads the TMCO in Strauss’s famous Nietzsche-inspired tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra.
JULY 23: STEFAN ASBURY AND TMC CONDUCTING FELLOWS CONDUCT IVES AND STRAVINSKY

Maestro Stefan Asbury, a leading advocate for contemporary music and chief conductor of the Noords Nederlands Orkest, leads the TMCO on Monday, July 23, in an 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall program featuring exclusively 20th-century music. American pianist and longtime Tanglewood guest Emanuel Ax joins the orchestra at the heart of the program for Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto (1942), a lyrical masterpiece that employs the composer’s famous 12-tone system. The concert opens with Ives’s evocative Three Places in New England (including a movement inspired by Stockbridge, Mass., just down the road from Tanglewood) and closes with Stravinsky’s kaleidoscopic and virtuosic ballet Petrushka.
JULY 30: CHARLES DUTOIT LEADS TMCO MUSICIANS AND TFC IN PROGRAM FEATURING WORKS BY STRAVINSKY AND MESSIAEN

On July 30 at 8 p.m., wind, brass, and percussion players from the TMCO and TMC pianists take on another all–20th-century program—this time one with a distinct French accent—and welcome leading maestro Charles Dutoit, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and TMC Vocal and Conducting Fellows. Mr. Dutoit, a specialist in French and Russian repertoire, conducts the orchestra in Stravinsky’s hybrid ballet-cantata Les Noces, a work by a Russian composer written and premiered in Paris. Also on the program are Varèse’s Intégrales, a work for winds and percussion that focuses on the way instrumental timbres blend and contrast, and Messiaen’s Oiseaux exotiques, which, like much of the composer’s work, was inspired by and contains vivid representations of bird song.
ADDITIONAL TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER HIGHLIGHTS, JUNE 25-AUGUST 19

In additional to the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra concerts on July 8, 16, 23, 30, and August 13 and 19, the Tanglewood Music Center’s 2012 season includes the annual collaboration between the exuberant Mark Morris Dance Group and musicians from the TMC on June 28 and 29, performing three of Mark Morris’s works: Something Lies Beyond the Scene, set to Walton’s Façade, An Entertainment, featuring as narrators both Mr. Morris himself, and Phyllis Curtin, soprano and chairman of the TMC’s Vocal Arts Program; Rock of Ages, set to the second movement of Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat; and Festival Dance, set to Hummel’s Piano Trio No. 5 in E. In addition to the Mark Morris Dance Group appearances in June, Mark Morris will lead a series of class for Vocal Fellows on stage skills and movement.
All violinists, violists, and cellists begin the summer with the eight-day String Quartet Seminar, an intensive workshop that explores this repertoire from Haydn through the 20th century. Participants concentrate exclusively on the study of pre-assigned quartets during this period; master classes are held throughout the seminar. The seminar concludes with the String Quartet Marathons on July 1 at 8 p.m. and July 2 at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.; all concerts are in Seiji Ozawa Hall.

As part of her teaching activities this summer, Stephanie Blythe will focus on the poetry of Emily Dickinson, culminating in a concert of song and poetry with TMC Vocal Fellows on Wednesday, August 15, at 8 p.m. in Seiji Ozawa Hall.
For the second year, the TMC will invite a number of young conductors to come to Tanglewood for a week as guests of the conducting program. These conductors will take classes with TMC conducting coordinator Stefan Asbury, and will observe Tanglewood Music Center and BSO rehearsals and concerts, and the work of the current TMC Conducting Fellows. The week gives the conductors a better sense of the Tanglewood Music Center, and allows the conducting faculty to become more familiar with these potential TMC Fellows for future seasons.
TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER FACULTY AND BSO INVOLVEMENT
The Tanglewood Music Center faculty comprises BSO musicians and conductors along with distinguished guest conductors, composers, instrumentalists, and vocalists. The 2012 faculty includes Stefan Asbury, coordinator of the conducting program; Phyllis Curtin, vocal studies program chairman; mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe; soprano Lucy Shelton; pianists Emanuel Ax, Steven Drury, Claude Frank, and Ignat Solzhenitsyn; violinist Pamela Frank; composers John Harbison, Michael Gandolfi, and George Benjamin; and visiting artist Mark Morris, among many others.
In addition, more than half the members of the BSO, including concertmaster Malcolm Lowe, will again participate in TMC teaching, coaching, and curriculum preparation this season. The 2012 TMC section representatives are Mark McEwen, oboe; Edward Gazouleas, viola; Jessica Zhou, principal harp; Mihail Jojatu, cello; Ronan Lefkowitz, violin; Tom Martin, clarinet; Thomas Rolfs, principal trumpet; Elizabeth Rowe, principal flute; Toby Oft, principal trombone; Mike Roylance, principal tuba; Richard Sebring, associate principal horn; J. William Hudgins, percussion; Todd Seeber, double bass; and Richard Svoboda, principal bassoon. Principal bassist Edwin Barker is the Instrumental and Orchestral Studies chairman.
DESCRIPTION OF TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMS
Participants in the TMC Fellowship Program are experienced young musicians who have generally completed the majority of their formal training. The sole criterion for admission is musical excellence. The program is open to instrumentalists, singers and vocal pianists, composers, and conductors. Those accepted into the program receive fellowships that cover TMC tuition, room, and board.
Instrumental Fellows all play in the TMC Orchestra and participate in master classes with the TMC’s distinguished faculty. In addition, all Fellows at the Tanglewood Music Center study and perform chamber music, a program coordinated by cellist Norman Fischer, throughout each season. TMC chamber music concerts take place every Sunday morning in Seiji Ozawa Hall, starting this year on July 8. On Saturday evenings TMC Fellows perform chamber music Prelude Concerts at 6 p.m., before the BSO evening performances; additional instrumental and vocal chamber music concerts are scheduled throughout the season.
The TMC Conducting Program gives several young conductors each year the opportunity to work with internationally recognized maestros; podium time in front of an extraordinarily talented group of colleagues, leading the TMCO and smaller ensembles; and the chance to study the technique of many distinguished artists working with the BSO in rehearsals, master classes, and performances.
Fellows in the Vocal Arts Program take part in performances and master classes throughout the summer in opera, art song, and vocal chamber music, and perform with the TMC Orchestra. Singers and pianists will participate in master classes taught by Stephanie Blythe, Martin Katz, and Hakan Hagegaard, among others.
The TMC Composition Program, chaired by John Harbison and coordinated by Michael Gandolfi, balances intensive on-site writing projects with classes, seminars, and discussions led by distinguished composers from a wide range of aesthetic perspectives. Each composer has several performances of his or her works during the summer.
The TMC also has programs for Orchestra Library Fellows, who work with some of the world’s most important conductors, preparing materials for the TMCO and for conducting and instrumental classes; Audio Engineering Fellows, who assist the Audio Engineering department in a broad spectrum of activities, and have an opportunity to learn and refine audio skills while working in a truly world-class musical environment; Piano Technician apprentices, who, working side-by-side with Tanglewood’s piano technicians, practice their craft by tending to over 70 Steinway pianos on the Tanglewood grounds; and a Publication Fellow, who gains hands-on experience in the creation of printed concert programs and the writing and/or editing of program notes for TMC Orchestra concerts and select chamber music concerts.
TMC TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets for TMC Orchestra Concerts (July 8, 16, 23, 30, and August 19) and Festival of Contemporary Music events (August 9-13) are available in advance online at www.tanglewood.org or by calling SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200 or 617-266-1200. For all other TMC concerts, tickets ($11) are available one hour prior to concert start time at the Ozawa Hall Box Office.
HISTORY OF THE TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER
Since its start as the Berkshire Music Center in 1940, the Tanglewood Music Center has been closely tied to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, its players, and its music directors. Serge Koussevitzky, who headed the BSO from 1924 to 1949, founded the school with the aim of creating a premier music academy where young instrumentalists, vocalists, conductors, and composers could sharpen their skills under the tutelage of Boston Symphony Orchestra musicians and other world-class artists, with the resources of a great symphony at their disposal. To this end, he also enlisted some of the day’s most important composer-teachers as faculty members, a tradition distinguished by the presence of such longtime TMC faculty as Aaron Copland and Paul Hindemith. Koussevitzky helped develop that dream until 1950, a year after his retirement as BSO music director. Charles Munch, his successor in that position, took over the TMC from 1951 through 1962, working with Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland to shape the school’s programs. In 1963, new BSO Music Director Erich Leinsdorf took over the school’s reins, returning to Koussevitzky’s hands-on leadership approach while restoring a renewed emphasis on contemporary music. In 1970, three years before his appointment as BSO Music Director, Seiji Ozawa became head of the BSO’s programs at Tanglewood, while Gunther Schuller was appointed to lead the TMC and Leonard Bernstein became general advisor. Leon Fleisher served as Artistic Director of the TMC from 1985 to 1997. In November 1997, Ellen Highstein became director of the TMC, a position she holds today.
In addition to Mr. Ozawa, prominent alumni of the TMC include Claudio Abbado, the late Luciano Berio, the late Leonard Bernstein, William Bolcom, Phyllis Curtin, David Del Tredici, Christoph von Dohnányi, the late Jacob Druckman, the late Lukas Foss, Michael Gandolfi, John Harbison, Oliver Knussen, Lorin Maazel, Wynton Marsalis, Zubin Mehta, Sherrill Milnes, Osvaldo Golijov, Leontyne Price, Ned Rorem, Bright Sheng, Sanford Sylvan, Cheryl Studer, Michael Tilson Thomas, Augusta Read Thomas, Dawn Upshaw, the late Shirley Verrett, and David Zinman.
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF TANGLEWOOD, THE BSO’S SUMMER HOME SINCE 1937

One of the most popular and acclaimed music festivals in the world, Tanglewood—the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home since 1937—is located in the beautiful Berkshire Hills between Lenox and Stockbridge, MA. With an average annual attendance of more than 300,000 visitors each season, Tanglewood has a $60 million impact on the Berkshire economy each summer. Tanglewood presents orchestra concerts by the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, and visiting ensembles, featuring many of the greatest classical musicians of our time; recital and chamber music concerts in the intimate setting of Ozawa Hall; programs highlighting the young musicians of the Tanglewood Music Center; performances by some of today’s leading popular artists; and a season-ending Labor Day Weekend festival. Tanglewood is family-friendly, with free lawn tickets available for children and young people age 17 and under, a 50% discount on Friday-evening lawn tickets for college and graduate students, and a variety of special programs for children, including Kids Corner, Watch and Play, and the annual Family Concert, this year to take place Saturday, August 25. Tanglewood is also the home of the Tanglewood Music Center, the BSO’s

preeminent summer music academy for the advanced training of young professional musicians, and Days in the Arts, a multi-cultural arts-immersion program that gives 400 fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-graders from communities across Massachusetts the opportunity to explore the arts throughout each week-long session of the summer. These are just two of the BSO’s many educational and outreach activities, for which more information is available at www.bso.org—the largest and most visited orchestral website in the country, receiving about 7.5 million visitors annually and generating over $70 million in revenue since its launch in 1996. The Boston Symphony Orchestra is online at www.bso.org. Music lovers can follow the BSO on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bostonsymphony or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bostonsymphony.
All programs and artists are subject to change. For further information, call the Boston Symphony Orchestra at 617-266-1492. The Boston Symphony Orchestra is on the Internet at www.bso.org.
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