PREVIEW: Tanglewood Has a Whole New Season to Soundtrack Your Year
Tanglewood Learning Institute, Lenox MA
“It's our most ambitious and varied season yet.”
This cold season, the Tanglewood Learning Institute is making a strong case that the music should never stop. With more than 50 events planned from September through May, TLI is launching its most expansive year-round season yet, bringing classical, jazz, dance, film, and photography programming into the months when most of us are still waiting for summer to come back.
“One of the most rewarding parts of planning this season has been having people stop to ask who's coming and when they'll get to see the lineup,” says Mark Rulison, artistic administrator for Tanglewood Learning Institute. “It's our most ambitious and varied season yet, and I'm humbled that the community we are building is as excited to hear about what's in store as I am to share it.”
That variety is the real story. TLI is no longer simply something to squeeze into a Tanglewood summer itinerary. Since launching year-round programming, the institute has presented more than 400 programs, transforming the Linde Center into a place where audiences can encounter artists in intimate settings, hear ideas explored in conversation and discover music that might not otherwise make its way to the Berkshires. The 2026–2027 season takes that idea and turns the volume up.
The season begins September 18 with jazz pianist, vocalist, composer and actor Mark G. Meadows and his band The Movement, performing Stevie Wonder favorites, jazz standards and original music. The Beijing Guitar Duo follows September 25 with a program ranging from Telemann and Giuliani to Chinese American composer Tan Dun. Accordionist Radu Ratoi arrives October 23, offering a surprisingly expansive recital that moves from Rameau and Bach to Philip Glass, Gubaidulina and Tchaikovsky.
Then things get delightfully eclectic.
Broadway arrives November 13 when two-time Tony-nominated Christine Andreas brings S'Wonderful to the Linde Center with Grammy-nominated composer and pianist Martin Silvestri. The cabaret style evening even introduces table seating with food and beverages available for purchase, giving TLI audiences a chance to experience the Linde Center in an entirely different way. Two days later, Imani Winds brings its adventurous blend of classical masterworks, new commissions and global influences.
Dance takes the stage November 21 when Lam Dance Works combines movement, live music and the human voice in works by internationally-acclaimed choreographers Peggy Baker, Jorma Elo and Yury Yanowsky. December brings the increasingly beloved BSO Holiday Brass, while February offers Colombian cellist Santiago Cañón Valencia and his imaginative pairing of Bach, Crumb and his own compositions.
For anyone who likes their genres blurred beyond recognition, April may be the month to circle. Broadway veteran Jarrod Spector brings Jukebox Life on April 9, tracing his journey from winning *Star Search* as a child to Broadway. Then, on April 17 and 18, pianist and composer Conrad Tao joins choreographer and dancer Caleb Teicher for Counterpoint, a wildly ambitious collision of Bach, Art Tatum, Schoenberg, Gershwin and their own work. Their previous collaboration, More Forever, earned a Bessie Award and was praised by The New York Times for “constantly extending the sonic aspects of dance.”
Jazz gets its own substantial runway. TLI Jazz returns with Ulysses Owens Jr. and Generation Y, Ted Rosenthal and his Quartet, Marissa Mulder, Camille Thurman, Jon Regen, Caity Gyorgy and the Django Festival Allstars. The series moves comfortably between holiday warmth, Valentine's Day romance, bebop, swing, blues, funk and the sophisticated improvisational energy that makes jazz feel less like a genre and more like a conversation.
And then there is Bach, because apparently one cannot spend a year at Tanglewood without finding one's way back to Johann Sebastian.
Berkshire Bach Portals returns through a collaboration with the Berkshire Bach Society, exploring how Bach's music continues to influence artists across disciplines. Programs include Eugene Drucker's reading from his historical novel The Savior, a documentary and live performance pairing, a celebration of Bach's 342nd birthday and a program centered on Edward Klorman's Bach: The Cello Suites. Each event ends with an interactive conversation between artists and audience, turning the Linde Center into something closer to a musical salon than a traditional concert hall.
The season also keeps a distinctly local heartbeat. TLI Close to Home arrives October 30 through November 1 with Berkshire artists, BSO connected musicians and dancers from Berkshire Pulse. BSO musicians curate five TLI Chamber Concerts, with each performance highlighting a local mission-driven organization through the In Concert with Community initiative.
Even the movies get their moment. TLI Cinematics, presented with The Triplex Cinema and Berkshire International Film Festival, features documentaries about pianist Yuja Wang, composer Gustav Mahler and the Emerson String Quartet. Meanwhile, TLI Focal Point brings photography classes outdoors for golden hour and fall foliage sessions led by Sheffield photographer and educator Thaddeus B. Kubis.
That spirit of discovery is ultimately what makes this season feel so distinctly Tanglewood. The Linde Center is not simply extending the concert calendar. It is extending the invitation.
There are performances to hear, films to discuss, photographs to make, artists to meet and plenty of reasons to return to the Berkshires after the summer crowds have gone home. From September's first notes to Roomful of Teeth's season closing Tanglewood debut on May 23, TLI is proving that Tanglewood does not hibernate.
Tickets are now on sale at www.bso.org/tanglewood.