BSO hits right notes with Tanglewood
The Berkshires hardly need an attraction in order to be an attraction, particularly in summertime. Lakes, trails and arts festivals of one variety or another have long been a draw for the region. But for over 80 years Tanglewood, comprised of several hundred acres of magic owned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Lenox, has pulled in tens of thousands of visitors a year, most of them attendees at about 100 BSO performances over a two-month period. These take place in an iconic music shed set on a sprawling lawn dotted with big-limbed trees, and it is small wonder that the spot has taken on the quality of holy space for those who visit, many of them over and over. “Shangri La” is how a retired New Jersey school teacher who transplanted herself to the Berkshires precisely because of Tanglewood describes it, and it is hard to disagree.
Tanglewood’s role in the region and the region’s stake in Tanglewood have grown as the industries that once formed the Berkshires’ economic base have withered or shuttered altogether. General Electrics’ presence in Pittsfield is gone, and the paper mills that once thrived in western Massachusetts are largely gone with it. This has left tourism the second largest sector of the area’s economy, behind only health care.
“Berkshire County has had to reinvent itself as a cultural center,” said Mark Volpe, the BSO’s president and chief executive officer, who is proud of the magnet that Tanglewood has become for visitors not just from Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut but across the country. “We are a destination.”
The statistics bear Volpe out. Berkshire County has about 120,000 residents; Tanglewood draws almost 350,000 visitors a year. A 2018 economic impact study conducted by Williams College found that the BSO’s presence there creates 1,000 jobs and generates well over $100 million annually in western Massachusetts, half of it spent locally by out-ofstaters. Volpe is acutely aware of the benefits all around to their partnerships with local institutions. “It’s all about being a good citizen,” he said.
Earlier this summer, the BSO made good on its commitment to good citizenship, unveiling a major expansion of its programming at Tanglewood — a year-round institute offering lectures, classes and workshops on civic, public policy and educational topics extending beyond music. Inspired in part by the success of the Aspen Ideas Festival, an annual weeklong event held in Colorado, the Tanglewood Learning Institute will operate on a four season basis, housed in a multibuilding complex made possible by a $70 million fundraising campaign led by the family of the late Edward Linde, a Boston real estate developer and philanthropist. The idea, Volpe explains, was to meet the needs of a region that is home to increasing numbers of baby boomers who want to intensify, rather than reduce, their intellectual engagement and to serve as a cultural and economic anchor for those who follow. In the meantime, construction of the Institute has provided a short-term boost, creating about 1,400 jobs, and a long-term one, fueling what is expected to be a 25% increase in regional revenue each year.
But most of all, Tanglewood continues to provide a refuge, however temporary, from the toxicity of our times. On a recent Sunday night, nearly 13,000 people, the musically uneducated among us joining legitimate music mavens, to marvel at the sheer endurance of world famous cellist Yo Yo Ma, who performed for over two hours without intermission or a single piece of sheet music. It has been said that Hall of Fame center fielder Willie Mays proved that all men are not created equal after all, and Ma is in that league. Like the 340,000 other people who visit each year, the 13,000 fortunate souls departed that night with reason to be grateful for the visionaries who created Tanglewood in the first place, and those devoted to preserving it for generations to come