This Friday, June 28, at 9 a.m., Tanglewood marks one of the most anticipated events of the 2019 music season, the official opening weekend of the four-building Linde Center for Music and Learning and Tanglewood Learning Institute programs, with a public ribbon-cutting ceremony that will include speeches from a cross-section of the administration, builders, and funders who made the new complex and programming initiatives possible. Following the ribbon-cutting, the public can tour the facility, located along the top of the Highwood ridge, overlooking Ozawa Hall and the Berkshire Hills.

The first fundamental expansion in programming in many decades, the offerings of the Tanglewood Learning Institute—more than 140 activities—reflect today’s wider cultural shift towards learning and participatory activities that complement the concert experience. These programs have been designed to encourage thought-provoking conversations as they explore ways to better understand the world through the lens of music and break down traditional boundaries between performer and audience. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, soprano Renee Fleming, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons, and playwright Tom Stoppard, are among the many luminaries joining Tanglewood for these expansive programs. Complete program details of the first summer season of the Tanglewood Learning Institute are available here.

The new multi-use buildings of the Linde Center also reflect a major paradigm shift for Tanglewood. Starting in fall 2019 they will play an essential role in establishing Tanglewood for the first time as a year-round facility, offering TLI programming and event rental and concert use by the BSO, the Tanglewood Music Center, as well as the Berkshire community and beyond. Spanning all aspects of the organization—including the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, and Tanglewood—the Tanglewood Learning Institute also plans to offer programs in Boston beginning in fall 2019, as well as a series of online learning programs to be unveiled in 2020. Further details about the Linde Center for Music and Learning are below.

With an average annual attendance of more than 300,000 visitors, Tanglewood is an economic driver of more than $103 million annually which is expected to grow significantly with the addition of this new year-round resource.

The Linde Center’s opening weekend, June 28-July 1, will also feature free Tanglewood Learning Institute open houses (June 29, 9 a.m.-12 noon, June 30, 1-5 p.m., and July 1 2-4:30 p.m.) and a festive range of special events and musical performances. Click here for more details on the free open houses.

(Press release sent from Emily Cotten, Junior Publicist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for online and on-air use, article image taken from Tanglewood Music Center's Facebook page

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