Boston, MA (May 16, 2017) – Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI)—one of this country’s premiere summer training programs for young musicians—announces its 2017 programs and events today. The 2017 BUTI summer season, which will take place at Tanglewood and on the BUTI campus in Lenox, MA, June 18–August 12, features concert and recital programming throughout the Berkshires; a new Electroacoustic Composition Workshop; a new Junior Strings Intensive for students ages 10–13; workshops led by distinguished performers and teachers from Boston University College of Fine Arts and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO); Visiting Artists cellist Lynn Harrell and composers Nadia Sirota and Nico Muhly (BUTI ’96, ’97); and rich programs of learning and performance. Led by Executive Director Hilary Field Respass, BUTI is the only program of its kind associated with one of the world’s great symphony orchestras, the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Created in 1966 at the invitation of then-BSO music director Erich Leinsdorf, BUTI was developed as an extension of the BSO’s Tanglewood Music Center (TMC), then called the Berkshire Music Center. More than fifty years and thousands of alumni later, BUTI remains a pioneer of musical training, challenging the world’s next generation of artists to perform at the highest level while providing them unparalleled access to the Tanglewood Music Festival.
BUTI will launch two new programs this summer: a Junior Strings Intensive and an Electroacoustic Composition Workshop. The Junior Strings Intensive, led by violinist Margaret Cerjan, will offer middle school violinists, violists, and cellists ages 10–13 the opportunity to advance their technical and musical skills in a small group setting. Through a holistic and immersive curriculum of large ensemble, chamber music, and solo instruction, students will rehearse, receive coachings, participate in master classes, and perform in community concerts and program recitals. This is the first time BUTI has offered programming for middle school-aged students. In the Electroacoustic Composition Workshop, led by composer Justin Casinghino, participants will learn cutting-edge electronic composition, mixing, and sound editing techniques. Students will compose a multi-channel fixed media work, and the workshop will culminate in a concert-exhibition featuring a surround-sound presentation of these projects.
BUTI Executive Director Hilary Field Respass says, “Building on our successful additions of individual string workshops in 2016, these new programs continue to stretch BUTI’s offerings to serve a greater number of talented young artists from across the country. The new programs create opportunities for younger students to experience the rigor and magic of Tanglewood and expand the opportunities we offer for young composers.”
Other programs and workshops include the full Strings and Orchestra curriculum; Winds & Brass; Percussion; Harp; Voice; Composition; and Piano. Over the course of the eight-week residential program, more than 400 BUTI students and faculty will offer more than 70 performances in the Berkshire community, including faculty recitals, solo recitals, chamber music, opera scenes, vocal recitals, community concerts, and large ensemble concerts at some of the most notable venues in the local area including the Koussevitzky Music Shed and Seiji Ozawa Hall.
Continuing the new tradition of Visiting Artists, inaugurated during the 50th Anniversary season in summer 2016, this year’s Visiting Artists are cellist Lynn Harrell, composer Nico Muhly (BUTI ’96, ’97), and violist/composer Nadia Sirota. They will be in residence with BUTI in July and August 2017. Ms. Sirota will also serve as a co-curator of the Tanglewood Music Center’s Festival of Contemporary Music throughout the month of August. All of these artists will be threaded into the daily fabric of the BUTI programs, providing direct instruction to students, including activities like coaching chamber music, teaching private lessons, giving masterclasses, and leading ensemble sectionals. BUTI students will also have the opportunity to engage with these artists through Q&As and other seminars on topics unique to the artist and their personal interests and backgrounds.
In addition to these offerings, BUTI offers a robust master class series featuring some of the world’s most esteemed artists, drawn from the roster of the Tanglewood Music Festival and beyond. Recent master classes and question and answer sessions have been given by Lauren Ambrose (BUTI ’94, ’95), Hilary Hahn, Thomas Hampson, Håkan Hardenberger, François Leleux, Yo-Yo Ma, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Dawn Upshaw, Pinchas Zuckerman, and Christian Tetzlaff. Additionally, numerous BSO members and BU School of Music faculty teach master classes each summer.
BUTI’s Young Artists Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, and Chorus will perform a series in Seiji Ozawa Hall and the Koussevitzky Music Shed on the Tanglewood grounds from July 15–August 12. A notable roster of guest conductors will work with these three ensembles including Paul Haas (BUTI ’87, ’88), Bruce Kiesling, David Martins, Ken-David Masur (BUTI ’96), H. Robert Reynolds, and Katie Woolf (BU ’05).
BUTI’s affiliation with the Boston Symphony Orchestra continues to be a highlight of the program. BUTI’s Young Artists Orchestra and Chorus will be featured as part of Tanglewood on Parade on August 1 at 4 p.m. at the Koussevitzky Music Shed. The women of the Young Artists Chorus will partner with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its guest soloists for a performance of Mendelssohn’s Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Saturday, August 5 at 8 p.m. at the Koussevitzky Music Shed. Special performance collaborations like these afford BUTI students the unique opportunity to perform in a main stage Boston Symphony concert alongside the professional soloists and ensemble.
View the Full Performance Schedule