Boston Symphony Orchestra to Unveil Sculpture of

Aaron Copland By Penelope Jencks At Tanglewood, Thursday, June 30, At 3 P.M.

 

Copland Sculpture is First-Ever Statue to be Given a Permanent Place on the Tanglewood Grounds

 

Sculptures of Leonard Bernstein and Serge Koussevitzky to Follow as Part Of Multi-Year Plan to Honor Tanglewoodπs Most Iconic Music Figures

 

            Celebrated New England-based artist Penelope Jencks has created a sculpture of Aaron Copland that will be unveiled in the formal gardens on the Tanglewood grounds on Thursday, June 30, at 3 p.m. The only statue of its kind to be given a permanent spot on the grounds in the 75-year history of the festival, the Copland statue is the first in a series of sculptures of Tanglewoodπs most iconic music figures planned for permanent display throughout the grounds. Sculptures of Leonard Bernstein and Serge Koussevitzky will follow, though there is no specific timeline yet in place for the completion of those works. This series of sculptures is made possible through a generous gift by Boston Pops Laureate Conductor and Tanglewood Artist in Residence John Williams.

 

The Aaron Copland statue will be placed in Tanglewoodπs formal gardens located behind the Tappan House at the top of the Tanglewood lawn, near the place where his ashes were scattered in 1990. The unveiling festivities on June 30 will begin with a short musical program by members of the BSO in the Chamber Music Hall at 3 p.m., followed by the statue unveiling in the formal gardens at 3:30 p.m. Ms. Jencks, Mr. Williams, and Mark Volpe, BSO Managing Director, will each say a few words during the informal ceremony.

 

≥As one of the worldπs most prestigious long-running summer music festivals, Tanglewood is steeped in a rich history of music making influenced by many of the great musical minds of the 20^th and 21^st centuries,≤ said Mark Volpe. ≥As we anticipate Tanglewoodπs 75^th anniversary in 2012, we are delighted to be able to memorialize several of the iconic Tanglewood figures with a series of sculptures, beginning this summer with Aaron Copland by the gifted American sculptor Penelope Jencks. One of the giants of 20^th-century American music, Copland had a tremendous influence on the founding and development of the Tanglewood Music Center, the BSOπs summer music academy. John Williamsπs support of this project means a great deal to all of us at the BSO, and is just one of countless examples of his tremendous contribution to the BSO, Pops, and Tanglewood these past 31 years.≤

≥Given Aaron Coplandπs stature as one of the worldπs great composers and his extraordinary relationship with Tanglewood and the BSO, it is most fitting that his is the first sculpture to be given a permanent place on the Tanglewood grounds,≤ said John Williams, Boston Pops Laureate Conductor and Tanglewood Artist in Residence. ≥The idea for the sculptures came about through several conversations I had with Ed Linde, Chairman of the BSO Board of Trustees, September 2005-January 20010. During our many strolls around the Tanglewood grounds, before his untimely passing in January 2010, we would often discuss the extraordinary music-makers who trod this landscape, leaving their distinctive and indelible stamp on Tanglewood. As I continued those conversations with his wife, Joyce, she became an invaluable partner in helping to define the breadth and scope of the project. Penelope Jencksπs extraordinary sculpture of Eleanor Roosevelt inspired me to ask her to help us with this project, which will honor these musical giants of Tanglewood.≤

                       

            Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestraπs summer home since 1937, is located in the Berkshire Hills between Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The 2011 Tanglewood season opens June 25 with Earth, Wind, & Fire and closes with the annual Tanglewood Jazz Festival, September 2-4, with a wide variety of orchestral, chamber music, recital, jazz, and popular artists concerts featured throughout the season. The Boston Symphony performs most Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays in July and August, regularly presenting many of the great conductors and soloists of our time. Tanglewood also features performances by Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center, the Boston Symphonyπs prestigious summer music academy for the advanced training of musicians. For more information, please visit www.tanglewood.org.

 

For complete programs, ticket information, and downloadable press photos, please visit Tanglewoodπs online press kit at www.tanglewood.org.

 

AARON COPLAND AT TANGLEWOOD

Considered by many to be the greatest American composer of the 20^th century, Aaron Copland (born November 14, 1900; died December 2, 1990) was a pivotal creative force behind the Tanglewood Music Center—the Boston Symphony Orchestraπs world-renowned summer music academy, located at Tanglewood, the orchestraπs summer home, founded by Serge Koussevitzky (BSO music director 1924-1949) in 1937. Aaron Copland began his association with the BSO in 1924 when he met Maestro Koussevitzky in Paris, during a period of study with the legendary composition teacher, Nadia Boulanger. Koussevitzky was so impressed with the young Mr. Copland during that Paris meeting, that the following year, during Koussevitzkyπs first season as conductor of the Boston Symphony, he programmed Coplandπs Symphony for Organ and Orchestra with Nadia Boulanger as soloist. That auspicious meeting ended up being the start of a three-decade-long musical association and friendship, much of which developed and prospered at Tanglewood. From 1925 to 1946, Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra performed many of Coplandπs orchestral works including five world premieres: Music for Theatre (1925), Concerto for Piano (1927), Two Pieces for String Orchestra (1928), Symphony Ode, a BSO 50^th anniversary commission (1932), and Symphony No. 3 (1946). From the start, Koussevitzky felt that Copland was the driving force in American music and said, ≥Besides the important contribution of Aaron Copland as a pioneer and leader in American music, let us remember that he holds an outstanding place among the composers of the world at large.≤

 

When Koussevitzkyπs dream of a music school became a reality in 1940 with the advent of the Berkshire Music Center (renamed the Tanglewood Music Center in DATE), he invited Copland to be the head of the composition faculty—a position he held for 25 years (taking leave for only three of those years). Copland served as Assistant Director of the BMC from 1946-1956 and then as Chairman of the Faculty from 1957-65. An impressive list of Coplandπs composition students at Tanglewood includes Lukas Foss, Harold Shapero, Gardner Read, Ned Rorem, Howard Shanet, Alberto Ginastera, Jacob Druckman, Luciano Berio, Thea Musgrave, and David Del Tredici. Copland met with students individually and in groups and stressed the importance of having the aspiring composersπ works performed by the fellowship musicians—a practice that is still carried out today. Even after his departure from the faculty, Copland continued to have an association with Tanglewood, frequently returning to conduct the Music Center Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

 

PENELOPE JENCKS

Perhaps best known for her monumental sculpture of Eleanor Roosevelt at Riverside Park in New York, Massachusetts-based artist Penelope Jencks is also the artist behind the Samuel Eliot Morison, ''Sailor, Historian" sculpture, which stands along Commonwealth Avenue and Exeter Street in Boston, and, most recently, in 2007, the sculpture of Robert Frost at Amherst College in Amherst, MA. Jencks attended Swarthmore College, where she studied art history and French before transferring to art school at Boston University. She studied under several mentors during her student years including Edwin Dickinson, Harold Tovish and Hans Hofmann in Provincetown. She has created numerous works in terra cotta and bronze, and for several years she spent most of her time living in Italy, where she had the sculpture of Robert Frost carved in granite. Her retrospective exhibition at Boston University in 2006 was given the AICA/NE (International Association of Art Critics) Second place Award for Best Monographic Show in a University Gallery - Boston Area.

 

Jencks is a member of the National Academy of Design, the Royal British Society of Sculptors and the National Sculpture Society. Her works can be found in private and public collections worldwide. Some of her notable public collections and commissions include: The White House (Washington, D.C.); The Maggie Cancer Care Center (Edinburgh, Scotland); the Readers Digest Corporate Headquarters (Pleasantville, NY); the Boston Public Library (Boston, MA); the Bibliotecca di Pietrasanta (Italy); the City of New York, NY; the City of Toledo, OH; the Cape Museum of Fine Arts (Dennis, MA); the National Academy of Design (New York, NY); Amherst College (Amherst, MA); and Brandeis University (Waltham, MA).

 

JOHN WILLIAMS, BOSTON POPS CONDUCTOR LAUREATE,

TANGLEWOOD ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

In a career spanning five decades, John Williams has become one of Americaπs most accomplished and successful composers for film and for the concert stage. In January 1980, Mr. Williams was named nineteenth conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, succeeding the legendary Arthur Fiedler. He currently holds the title of Laureate Conductor, which he assumed following his retirement in December 1993, and is also Artist-in-Residence at Tanglewood. In addition, he maintains thriving artistic relationships with many of the worldπs great orchestras. Mr. Williams has composed the music and served as music director for more than 100 films. His artistic partnership with director Steven Spielberg has resulted in such acclaimed and successful films as Schindlerπs List, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Indiana Jones films, and Saving Private Ryan. Their two latest collaborations, The Adventures of TinTin: The Secret of the Unicorn, and the WWI drama War Horse, are scheduled for release in late 2011. Mr. Williams also composed the scores for all six Star Wars films, the first three Harry Potter films, and Superman, among many others. He has received five Academy Awards and forty-five Oscar nominations, making him the Academyπs most-nominated living person. He also has received multiple British Academy Awards (BAFTA), Grammys, Golden Globes, Emmys, and gold and platinum records.

A composition student of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Mr. Williams also studied piano at the Juilliard School with Madame Rosina Lhevinne. He began his career in the film industry working with such accomplished composers as Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Newman, and Franz Waxman. He went on to write music for more than 200 television films, and more recently has written themes for NBC Nightly News (≥The Mission≤), NBCπs Meet the Press, and PBSπs Great Performances. His works for the concert stage include two symphonies, and concertos for violin, viola, cello, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, and tuba. ≥Seven for Luck,≤ a song cycle for soprano and orchestra based on texts by Rita Dove, was premiered by the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood in 1998. And at the opening concert of their 2009-10 season, James Levine led the Boston Symphony in the premiere of Mr. Williamsπs ≥On Willows and Birches,≤ a new concerto for harp and orchestra.

Mr. Williams has composed music for many important cultural and commemorative events, including ≥Liberty Fanfare≤ for the rededication of the Statue of Liberty, ≥American Journey≤ for the Americaπs Millennium concert in Washington, D.C., and ≥Soundings≤ for the gala opening of Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, as well as musical themes for the 1984, 1988, and 1996 Summer Olympic Games and the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. John Williams holds honorary degrees from twenty-one American universities. He is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists by the United States Government, the Olympic Order, the IOCπs highest honor, and the Kennedy Center Honor. In January 2009 Mr. Williams composed and arranged ≥Air and Simple Gifts≤ especially for the inaugural ceremony of President Barack Obama.

TANGLEWOOD CELEBRATES 75TH ANNIVERSARY IN 2012

Celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2012, Tanglewood, the renowned summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, will celebrate both the wonderfully storied history of the festival and what this special place has come to mean to music lovers throughout New England, the country, and around the world. Internationally regarded as one of the world's greatest summer music festivals, Tanglewood is located in the beautiful Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts—an area renowned for its role as a summertime mecca for lovers of music, art, dance, and theater. Over Tanglewood's 75-year history, the beautiful 500-acre campus has been the site of countless memorable performances, including those of such artists as James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Keith Lockhart, John Williams, James Taylor, RenÈe Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, and Joshua Bell. Many of the great musicians of the 20th century including the late Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, and Serge Koussevitzky, the former BSO music director (1924-1949) who founded the BSO's famous summer home, have had long and lasting effects on Tanglewood. Their legacies, along with countless others, live on through their extraordinary accomplishments in the areas of teaching, composing, commissioning, and conducting. Today Tanglewood presents a wide variety of artists in orchestral, chamber music, recital, jazz, and popular artists concerts, from late June through Labor Day weekend. Tanglewood is also home to the Tanglewood Music Center, the BSO's prestigious school for the advancement of young musicians, many of whom go on to sing on the world's great opera stages, perform in the world's most highly regarded orchestras, and teach the future generations of fine musicians.