Grab your plastic cups, bottles of cava, and the ability to distinguish Schubert from Schumann, then get ready for a night under the stars. The Boston Symphony Orchestra will be back at the Tanglewood for in-person concerts from June 6 through August 16, according to the Associated Press.
The celebrated open-air classical music concerts have been a staple in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts since 1937. The 2020 season was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the first interruption of programming since World War II.
“My hope is that in this moment, we will discover together an even deeper purpose and meaning for music in our lives,” musical director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons, said in a statement. The concerts bring in an estimated $100 million to the region each year, the AP reported.
The 2021 season will be roughly half the length it usually is, however, and shows will be truncated with no intermission to about 80 minutes. (Hey, Gustav Mahler, snip a little from the Symphony No. 3 in D Minor and the BSO may fit you in!) Additionally, all ticketing will be contactless, and mask-wearing and social distancing will be enforced.
Tanglewood is one of the sacred sites for classical music lovers in North America. Longtime patron Philip Roth set an emotionally resonant scene there in the PEN/Faulkner Award-winning 2000 novel The Human Stain. Conductors and composers associated with the BSO or Tanglewood Music Center include Serge Koussevitzky, Charles Münch, Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Leon Fleischer, and James Levine. Jazz, pop, and rock acts play there as well. (The Beach Boys nudged the door open in 1965, then Janis Joplin in 1969. A notable Santana show from 1970 in on YouTube.)
There’s no word yet on non-BSO events at Tanglewood just yet, or at many of the country’s noted outdoor “sheds” around which live music junkies plan their summers. (Red Rocks Amphitheater outside of Denver is selling tickets for Die Antwoord on May 9, but this is still an outlier.)
Last week, a Berkshires resident who knows a thing or two about classical music, Yo-Yo Ma, performed an impromptu concert as he waited the 15 minutes after receiving his COVID vaccine in a college gymnasium.
— Why Meghan and Harry’s Revelations About Racism Within the Royal Family Were So Devastating
— After the Year of No Bras, Things Are Looking Up
— The Hamptons Rids Itself of Donald Trump Jr. Ahead of High Season
— The New, Sad Irony of the Rift Between Prince William and Prince Harry
— Caroline Rose Giuliani’s Unicorn Tale: Three-Way Sex Has Made Me a Better Person
— A Brief History of Piers Morgan’s One-Sided TV Feud With Meghan Markle
— 20 Women-Owned Fashion Brands for Celebrating Women’s History Month
— From the Archive: Meghan Markle, an American Princess
— Not a subscriber? Join Vanity Fair to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now.