Tanglewood

Grammy winner, and arguably the greatest jazz singer on the planet, Kurt Elling headlined the Saturday evening performance of the two day, Labor Day weekend Tanglewood Jazz Festival. There were sets by emerging artists, Brandon Wright and Kelley Johnson during dining sets in the Jazz Cafe. The packed Ozawa Hall enjoyed the afternoon live broadcast by John Pizzarelli and his clan.

When not collecting social security, or hanging out at the senior center shooting pool Crosby, Stills and Nash are out on tour. They brought their dino rock to Tanglwood last night to a sedate, not sedated, audience. Nice way to end a summer in the Shed.

There's nothing like listening to Beethoven's Ninth at Tanglewood. Kurt Masur ended BSO season at Tanglewood. Indeed an Ode to Joy.

All I can say is WOW!

"My message has to be more complicated... The job of the Sherrif is not a law enforcement job. The Sheriff is responsible for the care, custody and condition of inmates. You can take a broad or a narrow interpretation of that, but either one is public safety, not law enforcement. The Sheriff does not go out busting perps, he doesn’t go on stakeouts. The perception is that he’s Wyatt Earp or James Arness in the Wild West. That’s what people think, but that’s not what the job is."

As the summer season of 2010 winds down it is time yet again to swing in the Wood. The a nnual Tanglewood Jazz Festival returns to Lenox for he last hurrah of summer on September 4 and 5. Get a groove on before heading back to school and work.

Dawn Upshaw did her best, but still couldn't save the schmaltzy sherdherdesses. Descriptions of people engaging in such bucolic activities populate the “Songs of the Auvergne,” a selection of songs written by Joseph Canteloube and performed Friday night by Dawn Upshaw and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood

The total attendance for the weekend long Wilco Solid Sound Festival was about 10,000. But with weekend passes it is not clear just how many tickets were sold. Probably about half that figure. On an artistic level it was a great success. There was a nice mellow energy. With more advance planning and involvement from North Adams administration, merchants, vendors, artists and citizens it will surely be back bigger and better next year.

Up to 5,000 attended the Wilco Solid Sound Festival at Mass MoCA on Saturday. The day ended with a two hour plus Wilco performance on Joe's Field. The three day event winds down this afternoon with an acoustic set by Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy.

There is nothing hard-to-take about the music presented over five days im Osawa Hall at Tanglewood. Under the direction of Gunther Schuller, Oliver Knussen and John Harbison, 20th century composers sing and soar.

The silver haired and silken tongued Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies was the host for the enormously popular John Williams Film night. The Tanglewood program entailed a tribute to collaborations with Steven Spielberg.

Two and half years of planning went into the three day Solid Sound Festival that brought the rock band Wilco to Mass MoCA. If all goes well the museum director Joe Thompson hopes for their return. The experimental Festival will be a template for future events on a large scale. It got off to a great start on a glorious summer night in the Berkshires.

Grammy winner of album of the year Herbie Hancock brought his Imagine tour to Tanglewood. The recent Imagine album took two years to record on location in seven countries with all stars representing eleven nations.

Yo Yo Ma formed the Silk Road Ensemble in 1998. The performance last night at Tanglewood was quite different from what we experienced several years ago. There is more of an emphasis on commissioned works and arrangement's of traditional music some going back thousands of years. It was the exotic high point of a rich and diverse Tanglewood season.

On Friday night, pianist Richard Goode, with the assistance of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, gave the audience at Tanglewood a pitch-perfect performance of Mozart’s jewel-like Piano Concerto No. 14 in E-Flat, K-449. The piece for full orchestra sounds more like a chamber music work, probably because of Mozart’s precise, minute-like composition.

Shakespeare & Company has just received an $800,000 challenge grant from the Kresge Foundation. The funds were released after the Company raised an additional $1.5 million bringing its $10 million Capital Campaign , launched at its 30th Anniversary Gala in May 2007, to a successful conclusion. The centerpiece of the Campaign has been the creation of the Bernstein Center for the Performing Arts , a production center including state of the art rehearsal studios , new scene and property shops , and the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre.

It was a glorious summer evening for Tanglewood on Parade. The popular annual concert featured a tribute to the music of John Williams. This is his 30th season. Some special friends joined him on stage including Keith Lockhart, Stafan Asbury, Julian Kuerti, Yo Yo Ma and James Taylor. It ended with a big bang of 1812 Overture followed by fireworks.

This season three of the Tanglewood Music Center Vocal Fellows who performed in Ariadne auf Naxos are headed for the Metropolitan Opera Company. Audrey Elizabeth Luna, a scampy temptress and comedienne, as the delicious Zerbinetta makes her Met debut as Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflote. Emalie Savoy who performed the role of Ariadne/ The Prima Donna joins the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Cecelia Hall, the mezzo-soprano as the Young Composer will make her Met debut as the Second Priestess in Gluck’s Iphigenie en Tauride.

Few cellists â€" or musicians of any kind for that matter â€" have the power to entrance an audience, leave them speechless by playing just a few notes. Yo Yo Ma reminded the massive crowd attending Sunday afternoon’s performance at Tanglewood why he remains one of those gifted, magical musicians.

While struggling to overcome debt that threatened The Mount with bankruptcy its director, Susan Wissler, is moving forward with programming and development. Recently Edith Wharton's mansion and estate was the site for the first annual Berkshire WordFest at the Mount.

Pianist Peter Sirkin was forced to cancel due to illness, but substitute virtuoso Gilles Vonsattel stepped up and delivered an enthusiastic performance of Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1 on Saturday at Tanglewood.

Elizabeth Aspenlieder who won an Elliot Norton Award for Best Solo Performanceâ€"returns this summer for a special , limited run in a freshly re-imagined production directed by Eric Tucker (Women of Will this season , Pinter’s Mirror 2009). Haley Walker. The show that set the Berkshires astir in 2009â€"and nettarismatic heroine of Theresa Rebeck’s Bad Dates , possesses a sharp wit and an unsinkable determination to pursue the promise of new love , even while providing for her daughter.

The 2010 Festival of Contemporary Music, August 12-16, will be the culmination of a season-long celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Tanglewood Music Center, the BSO’s renowned summer music academy for young professional musicians, with performances of works by the TMC’s distinguished composition faculty over the course of its history.

Broadway star and four time Tony winner, Audra McDonald is on the run. It took some 26 hours of travel time, including multiple delays in Mexico City, to reach a scheduled Tanglewood concert. From the stage of sold out Ozawa Hall she announced that she was about to perform for the Obama family. Despite all that jet lag she settled into a stunning and intimate evening of show tunes. The evening was a highlight of what is proving to be a sensational season in the Berkshires.

Stepping in for the ailing James Levine, the sprightly and masterful Michael Tilson Thomas is becoming a familiar presence at Tanglewood. For the second weekend he conducted Stravinsky and Mozart on Friday night and returns on Saturday with more Mahler. On Sunday afternoon Pops features Alec Baldwin and Arlo Guthrie as guest artists. In one of the most anticipated concerts of the season Audra McDonald appears in Ozawa Hall on Sunday evening.