Berkshire Festival definition of Berkshire Festival in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Berkshire Festival (bûrk`shər, –shĭr), summer music festival, held since 1937 at "Tanglewood," a former estate in the adjoining towns of Stockbridge and Lenox, Mass. The Berkshire Festivals were begun in 1934 at a farm in Stockbridge. Henry Hadley Hadley, Henry Kimball, 1871–1937, American composer and conductor, b. Somerville, Mass., studied at the New England Conservatory and in Vienna. He composed and conducted in Europe from 1904 until 1909.
..... Click the link for more information. conducted an orchestra composed largely of members of the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, dating from 1842, the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States. Its present name derives from the merger (1928) of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra with the New York Symphony Orchestra.
..... Click the link for more information. for two summers. In 1936, Serge Koussevitzky Koussevitzky, Serge (Sergei Aleksandrovich Koussevitzky) (sĕrzh k
..... Click the link for more information. and the Boston Symphony Orchestra Boston Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1881 by Henry Lee Higginson, who was its director and financial backer until 1918. The orchestra performed at the Old Boston Music Hall for nearly 20 years until Symphony Hall was built in 1900; its concerts continue to be held
..... Click the link for more information. took over the festival, which became its summer home. Charles Munch began as musical director of the festival in 1951 and was followed by William Steinberg, who conducted there through the summer of 1969. From 1974 to 2002, Seiji Ozawa Ozawa, Seiji (sā`jē ōzä`wä), 1935–, Japanese conductor, b. Manchuria.
..... Click the link for more information. was the artistic director. In 1940 a summer school, the Tanglewood Music Center, was begun in combination with the festival. Today it is one of the world's preeminent training grounds for composers, conductors, instrumentalists, and vocalists.

The Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood, designed by Eliel Saarinen Saarinen, Eero (ā`rō sä`rĭnĕn), 1910–61, Finnish-American architect, grad. Yale (B.A.
..... Click the link for more information. , was opened in 1938. Its acoustics were enhanced by the addition of an orchestra canopy in 1959. The Shed seats more than 5,000 people and accommodates about 12,000 additional listeners on its vast lawns. In 1986 the festival grounds were expanded from the original 180 acres (73 hectares) to 300 acres (121 hectares). In 1994 an additional facility, the 1,180-seat Seiji Ozawa Hall, was opened. Intended for chamber concerts, rehearsals, recitals, and recording sessions, it also contains a library, performers' pavilion, and other facilities and accommodates some 2,000 concertgoers on its lawns.

Bibliography

See J. R. Holland, Tanglewood (1973).