Boston Symphony Orchestra Will Live Stream a Special Tanglewood Performance at Copley Square
Music Director Andris Nelsons, whose contract with the BSO has recently been extended, will lead the 75th anniversary celebration on August 8 (Photo by Marco Borggreve provided)
Every summer since 1940, Tanglewood Music Center has been nurturing emerging classical musicians, providing intensive training for a long list of alumni who would go on to become distinguished members of symphony orchestras throughout the nation.
To celebrate the academy’s rich 75-year history, the Boston Symphony Orchestra will host an anniversary gala concert on Saturday, August 8, in the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood. It will feature a special performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, or “Symphony of a Thousand,” one of the largest works ever written for orchestra.
Those who can’t make the trip to the Berkshires this weekend can still catch the performance right here in Boston, where the concert will be live streamed in high definition on a 16-foot screen set up in Copley Square.
The BSO performance at Tanglewood will be conducted by the orchestra’s acclaimed music director Andris Nelsons. Yesterday, it was announced that Nelsons’ contract with the BSO has been extended through 2022, replacing an initial five-year agreement with an eight-year one. His new contract also contains an evergreen clause, which would make future term extensions easier.
“This is a significant opportunity for me and the orchestra to work together on deeper levels, artistically and musically,” said Nelsons in a press release. “And it is particularly through this kind of closeness in our work together that we will be able to go much further in our growth, in the hope to realize inspirational performances and embrace new audiences with wonderful music.”
On Saturday, Nelsons will be joined on stage by current fellows and alumni of the Tanglewood Music Center, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Chorus, the American Boychoir, and a number of internationally acclaimed soloists, including sopranos Erin Wall, Christine Goerke, and Erin Morley, mezzo-sopranos Lioba Braun and Jane Henschel, tenor Klaus Florian Vogt, baritone Matthias Goerne, and bass Ain Anger.
Following the anniversary gala concert, the BSO will embark on a tour of major summer music festivals and concert halls in Europe.
The Tanglewood Music Center 75th Anniversary Gala concert will be broadcast live at Copley Square on Saturday, August 8. Pre-concert interviews and video clips of Tanglewood will begin at 8:15 p.m., followed by the entire “Symphony of a Thousand” performance, which will run from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. Blankets and lawn chairs are encouraged. For tickets to see the live performance at Tangelwood, visit bso.org.
