The Classical Beat: Tanglewood Showcases Innovative Musical Forms; Sevenars Presents an Emerging Piano Virtuoso

Taiwanese pianist Ching-Yi Lin at SEVENARS CONCERTS Sunday afternoon

Tanglewood this week will be very rewarding and diverse, with innovative musical riches across genres, representing the progressive continuum of today's evolving musical styles: in one instance, music that crosses boundaries - part music theatre and song cycle, and everything in-between; in another, a musical biography via a poetical setting that explores the life of a beloved grandmother. What's going on? Composers are probing and inventing uniquely creative ways to communicate their personal histories, and in the process, are reaching out to audiences universally. Attend and participate in these imaginative musical explorations.

Tanglewood also continues its traditional orchestral programming, featuring a lineup of audience-favorite symphonic works performed by the Boston Symphony and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. The "heavy hitters" are: Dvorak (the powerful and melodic Ninth Symphony -'from the New World',) Prokofiev's delightful and exuberant 'Classical' Symphony No. 1, Modest Mussorgsky's rousing "Pictures at an Exhibition" (in the great orchestral arrangement by Maurice Ravel,) the picturesque 'Scottish' Third Symphony of Mendelssohn and Saint-Saens' lushly rhapsodic Cello Concerto No. 1, performed by the magnificent cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

• Thursday, August 7, 8:00 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: Familiar to Boston audiences for his recent opera "Eurydice," which was performed at Boston Lyric Opera in 2024, composer and MacArthur Grant Fellow Matthew Aucoin has a new staged song cycle, "Music for New Bodies," which receives its first Tanglewood performance following American Modern Opera Company's summer residency at Lincoln Center. Based on poetry by Jorie Graham, the work is a meditation on our times as seen from the perspective of a cancer patient. Staged in collaboration with groundbreaking director Peter Sellars and the American Modern Opera Company, the cast includes soprano Meryl Dominguez, mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven, and tenor Paul Appleby. This production marks the Tanglewood debuts of Aucoin, Sellars, Dominguez, and Raven. Tickets to the opera include free admission to a 6:00 p.m. "Meet the Makers" session in Ozawa Hall.

• Friday, August 8, 8:00 p.m. in the Shed: Colombian conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada, principal conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Italy, conducts the BSO in performances of Dvorak's much-beloved Symphony No. 9, ('from the New World') in his Tanglewood debut. The inimitable Joshua Bell joins to play Lalo's vivacious "Symphonie espagnole, continuing the violinist's long history of summer appearances at Tanglewood, having performed here each year since 1989.

• Saturday, August 9, 8 00 p.m. in the Shed: The 6:00 p.m. Prelude Concert for Film Night, presents "Sextet for Strings," Op. 10 by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, whose film scores influenced the youthful Mr. Williams, performed by TMC Fellows; also on the program is Joan Tower's "Into the Night." At 8:00 p.m., the ever-popular "John Williams' Film Night," curated by Maestro Williams and performed by the Boston Pops led by Keith Lockhart, presents selected film clips by Korngold and several other Hollywood master composers.

• Sunday, August 10, 2:30 p.m. in the Shed: Following his highly acclaimed Tanglewood debut last summer, BSO Assistant Conductor Samy Rachid conducts a crowd-pleasing program featuring the American premiere of French composer Camille Pepin's "Un Monde nouveau," Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3, ('Scottish,') and Saint-Saëns' Cello Concerto No. 1 with the spectacular soloist Yo-Yo Ma. It will be the first time at Tanglewood that Mr. Ma will have performed this Concerto - the work he first performed with the Boston Pops – since his 1971 Boston Symphony Hall debut as a 15-year-old prodigy.

• Monday, August 11, 8:00 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: Maestro Orozco-Estrada conducts the TMC Orchestra in a program of Carlos Simon's "Four Black American Dances," Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1, ('Classical,') and Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" (orchestrated by Ravel,) together with the TMC Conducting Fellows in Ozawa Hall.

Sevenars Music Festival

• Sunday, August 10, 4 :00 p.m.: Sevenars is delighted to present as a so- designated 'Young Artist to Watch 2025,' the outstanding young Taiwanese pianist Ching-Yi Lin, in a program that continues Ravel's 150th celebration with the composer's delightful "Tombeau de Couperin" and the little-known "La parade" (first published in 2008), in addition to masterpieces of Bach (the English Suite No. 2 in A minor) and Schumann ("Arabesque".) Mr. Lin is a major prizewinner in several international piano competitions. He completed the Bachelor of Music degree at Soochow University in Taiwan and received his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Peabody Institute as recipient of the Richard Franko Goldman Prize in Performance under the tutelage of mentor Alexander Shtarkman.

• Sevenars tickets, and general contact information: Founded in 1968, Sevenars Concerts is celebrating its 57^th season of six summer concerts, held at the Academy, a building designated "an acoustic gem in an idyllic setting," located in the  historic village of South Worthington, 15 Ireland Street, off MA Route 112.

Concerts are presented on consecutive Sundays at 4:00 p.m. until August 18. Phone: (413) 238-5854 (please leave a message for a return call.) Online: www.sevenars.org. Email: Sevenars@aol.com. Admission is by donation at the door (suggested $20.) Refreshments will be available.

Lee Breaks Ground on Public Safety Building

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
06:26AM / Saturday, April 25, 2026

Lee Town Administrator Chris Brittain says the community voted to invest in its future by approving the new $37 million complex. 

LEE, Mass. — Ground was ceremonially broken on the town's new public safety building, something officials see as a gift to the community and future generations. 

When finished, Lee will have a 37,000 square-foot combined public safety facility on Railroad Street where the Airoldi and Department of Public Works buildings once stood. Construction will cost around $24 million, and is planned to be completed in August 2027.

"This is the town of Lee being proactive. This is the town of Lee being thoughtful and considerate and practical and assertive, and this project is not just for us. This project is a gift," Select Board member Bob Jones said. 

"This is a gift to our children, our grandchildren."

State and local officials, including U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, gathered at the site on Friday, clad in hard hats and yellow vests, and shoveled some dirt to kick off the build. 

Town Administrator Chris Brittain explained that officials have planned and reviewed the need for a modern facility for the public safety departments for years, and that the project marks a new chapter, replacing 19th-century infrastructure with a "state-of-the-art" complex.

"The project is not just about concrete and steel, it's a commitment to the safety of our families, the efficiency of our first responders, and the future of our community," he said. 

He said he was grateful to the town's Police, Fire, and Building departments for their dedication while operating out of outdated facilities, and to the Department of Public Works, for coordinating site preparation and relocating its services.