Brian McCreath, host of CRB's live BSO and Tanglewood broadcasts, talked with Boston Symphony Vice President for Artistic Planning Tony Fogg about several parts of a packed season in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. To hear the conversation, use the player above, and read the transcript below.
For full information about the Tanglewood season, visit the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
TRANSCRIPT (lightly edited for clarity):
Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Tony Fogg, the Vice President for Artistic Planning here at the Boston Symphony, talking about the 2026 Tanglewood season, exquisitely timed as always to follow a gigantic snowfall to remind us all that we do look forward to summer. So Tony, thank you for the timing and for your time today.
Tony Fogg Well, I had nothing to do with the timing of the snowstorm, let me make that disclaimer, Brian.
Brian McCreath Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. We won't hold you responsible.
Tchaikovsky on Opening Night and Beyond
But let's start by talking, because the beginning is the beginning, and I'm interested in Opening Night and how it's an All-Tchaikovsky program: the First Piano Concerto, with Seong-Jin Cho, which he just played here at the hall, just spectacular performance, and then also excerpts from Swan Lake, the ballet, in which members of the Boston Ballet will be joining you. And so, tell me about Tchaikovsky and how your thinking about Tchaikovsky played into the season, because then later in the same month, there are three of the composer's six symphonies coming through in programs. So, tell me about Tchaikovsky and why it felt like this is the right composer to start the season with, and then have a little bit of a special emphasis on this summer.
Tony Fogg As we heard not only from the recent performance of the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto with Seong-Jin Cho, but earlier in this winter season at Boston, the Fifth Symphony, we know that our Music Director, Andris Nelsons, is a masterful conductor of the music by Tchaikovsky, and it's one of his great strengths, and it's certainly music that resonates with the qualities of the great Boston Symphony. So, as you mentioned, we're opening with the First Piano Concerto and a selection from Swan Lake, with some members of the Boston Ballet, and then later in the summer, the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Symphonies of Tchaikovsky, paired with the music of Mozart. And we know that Tchaikovsky loved Mozart's music. He even wrote a piece called Mozartiana. So, it's a really beautiful pairing. And to hear those three symphonies on successive concerts, I think, will be a great experience, paired with Mozart concertos. We have two Mozart violin concertos and the great Piano Concerto No. 27, K.595, with Paul Lewis. It's a beautiful weekend of programs. So, I think it was really to focus on this great strength that we see in our Music Director's work with the BSO and to hint at some, if I can say, some other big Tchaikovsky programs coming up in future seasons.
Brian McCreath Oh, wow, that sounds exciting. Let me ask you to unpack a little bit - Andris's relationship to Tchaikovsky. To illuminate a little bit further, what is it about Tchaikovsky's music and Andris's, maybe, artistic personality? Tell me more about Tchaikovsky and Andris and their relationship.
Tony Fogg I think it's really the extremes of emotion that we find in Tchaikovsky's music that really resonate with Andris. He's a person who lives with his heart on his shirtsleeve. We all know that. And the passions, the sense of despair at times, the joyousness, the sense of fun, of enjoyment of dance, which you so often find in Tchaikovsky's music. These are sort of sentiments which resonate with Andris as a personality and as a music maker. So, I think somehow that's the key to it all, at least as I see it.
Boston Ballet and the Martha Graham Dance Company
Brian McCreath Going back to that first concert with Boston Ballet, that is one of two dance collaborations that you have on your schedule this summer with the Boston Symphony. And I don't know the full history of dance at Tanglewood, but certainly I remember so well that Bernstein year, with Fancy Free, and how electric that was. And then there have, it seems from my observation, that every year, more or less since then, there has been something of a dance component with Boston Symphony programs. Tell me what it is at Tanglewood that allows that to happen more fully or what the rewards of that at Tanglewood are, especially.
Tony Fogg This is in fact our third collaboration with the Boston Ballet. We had the marvelous production of Fancy Free, as you referenced, back in the Bernstein year, and then a couple of summers ago we did Stravinsky's Apollo, and now some excerpts from Swan Lake. There's a practical reason for this, and that's at Tanglewood we have, in the Shed, a big stage, a big space where we can accommodate both an orchestra and dancers. We can't quite manage that in the same way here in Symphony Hall. So, there's that practical consideration. But when you look at Tanglewood as a whole, and this season I think is a very, very good example, Tanglewood embraces the whole breadth of the arts. Obviously, music is our focus, but we include strong elements of the visual arts, of dramatic arts. You know, it's a place where there's this incredible crosscurrent of all manner of artistic thinking. And coming together, some of the great ballet scores are, of course, among some of greatest orchestral music ever written. So, I think that's part of the rationale.
You mentioned a second collaboration, which we're very, very happy about, which is our first collaboration with the Martha Graham Dance Company in the centennial year of their formation, and we're doing one of Martha Graham's most famous choreographies, which is to Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring, which of course has a very strong Tanglewood connection. And then another really intriguing new work, which is to a score written by Chris Rountree, the composer and conductor, based on some recently discovered fragments of music by Leonard Bernstein, which had been intended for a collaboration with Martha Graham that never happened. And like these things happen, in a folder, in a box in the Bernstein archives, they found a page of music with this fragment on it. So, this has been expanded and created to a work of about seven or eight minutes long by Chris Rountree. And we'll be having that as part of the program with the Martha Graham company. So, a wonderful way of bringing together so many of the legendary figures of Tanglewood's history, and the lore of Tanglewood all comes together in a program like that with Martha Graham. We're happy to be collaborating with the Jacob's Pillow Company, our great colleagues in the dance field in the Berkshires, for this evening, and so it promises to be a great, great night.
Brian McCreath Absolutely. Yeah, the way you describe that is perfect. It's the coming together of Bernstein, Copland, and Appalachian Spring, just such a... I mean, that's an irresistible night.
Tony Fogg Well, it is, and I can't give you chapter and verse, but reportedly, there was a meeting in Lenox between Martha Graham and Copland when the ballet was being cooked up. So, you know, the Lenox Coffee shop, as it was back then, may well have had a role in the gestation of Appalachian Spring.
Brian McCreath The ghosts of the Berkshires dwell amongst us.
Opera at Tanglewood
Andris always loves to do opera at Tanglewood. And for this year, it’s The Marriage of Figaro, which has to be everybody's favorite... I shouldn't presume too much, but I think it's many people's favorite Mozart opera. Tell me about the choice of this and some of the cast that you've engaged to sing it.
Tony Fogg Well, this completes an idea or project that we started a few seasons ago, which is to do the three Da Ponte operas of Mozart at Tanglewood. We started with Don Giovanni, then we did Così fan tutte, and now, to complete the cycle, Marriage of Figaro. And as you say, it's probably in the top 10 of everyone's favorite operas. And we have a great cast, including Michael Sumuel in his Tanglewood debut in the title role of Figaro, Hannah-Elisabeth Müller as the Countess, Joshua Hopkins as the Count, Ying Fang, who's collaborated with us several times so memorably, sings the role of Susanna, and Susan Graham, who is one of our most beloved collaborators, will be taking on the role of Marcellina for the first time.
Brian McCreath Oh wow, for the first time?
Tony Fogg The first time, so look, it's a really terrific cast. Patrick Carfizzi, who has worked with us recently as the Doctor in Barber’s Vanessa, it is really a great cast and I'm so thrilled that we've been able to assemble such a line up for this great, great work.
Brian McCreath I have to say, for such a small role that Patrick sang in Vanessa, he absolutely got the most out of it. He was a highlight every time he came on stage.
Tony Fogg He's one of those singers who, without you noticing it, can steal every scene.
Brian McCreath That's a good way to put it.
Tony Fogg He's a great actor, a beautiful, beautiful voice. He just speaks to an audience immediately when he walks on stage. We've done so many projects with Patrick over the years, and he's a great friend of the Boston Symphony and of Tanglewood.
Brian McCreath Yeah, and Ying Fang, just an unforgettable voice. Unbelievable.
Tony Fogg It's an unbelievably beautiful voice.
Yo-Yo Ma and “We the People”
Brian McCreath Yo-Yo Ma is always somehow woven into the season at Tanglewood, seemingly substantially, but somehow, you've managed to raise the bar on his involvement this year, with a whole week of concerts and events that he's curating. He's calling it "We the People," which has clear reference to the time in which we live, both chronologically as the 250th birthday of the nation, but also at a time when we all are thinking of our country and what is going on, how it is changing around us. But tell me what the genesis of working with Yo-Yo on this particular week was. How did this grow from his usual BSO concert, maybe a recital, something like that, to an entire week? Including, by the way, curating Tanglewood on Parade.
Tony Fogg If I can just step back for a moment from that question, Brian.
Brian McCreath Sure.
Tony Fogg I think one of the important features that people, I hope, people will notice about the Tanglewood season and about our work generally is the degree to which we are putting artists front and center. We want Tanglewood to be like a sort of playground for artists that they can come and try things out, do some of their most creative work. Revisit musical friends, actual or on the printed page, but we want to make Tanglewood a place where artists can come and celebrate and be celebrated. And so, throughout this summer, you'll see – I'll speak in more detail about Yo-Yo's week in a moment – but we have Esa-Pekka Salonen coming to direct the Festival of Contemporary Music, to work in several capacities with the Tanglewood Music Center Fellows, to conduct the Boston Symphony. We have Laurie Anderson, one of the legendary figures of American music, coming for a residency. We have Andris in repertoire in which he has the greatest passion, which he shines in. So, we want to make Tanglewood a place where artists come and really can show their individuality, their personality. And we are all the beneficiaries of that.
Yo-Yo has had a very, very long association with the festival and is one of our greatest friends. As you say, typically he'll come and perform with the orchestra each year. That's almost a given. But he's also done some other big chamber music projects, these performances of transcriptions of the Beethoven symphonies with Emanuel Ax and Leonidas Kavakos, he's appeared with, over the years, the Silk Road Ensemble, with Edgar Meyer in an Appalachian program...
Brian McCreath He did the Goat Rodeo at Tanglewood, with Chris Thile, yeah.
Tony Fogg Yes, with Mark Morris Dance Group, doing a Bach Suite, "Falling Down Stairs." So, you know, we are blessed that we have Yo-Yo as a constant with us every summer. But we asked him whether he would consider, in fact, curating a whole week of programs. We gave him carte blanche, an open slate, in which to put together whatever sort of programming he wanted to. And it's been an incredible journey working with him over the last months. We started on this before last summer's Tanglewood season. And it's very slowly taken shape, and he's doing such an incredible range of things throughout the week, all under the heading "We the People." So, there is the dimension of the programming in which he is challenging us to think about who we are, our identity as individuals, as a nation, where does our musical culture fit into that? How do we relate to fellow citizens? How do we relate to notions of democracy? Where do we come from? Where are we now? Where are going? What's the nature of our population? You know, we are essentially a nation of immigrants in many ways. So, there's a sort of vast body of themes which he has brought together in the set of programs. And I hope that when everyone sees them, you'll be as dazzled as we have been in putting them together. But throughout the course of the concert week, he will be curating Tanglewood on Parade, as you mentioned, not only the evening program, which has got some great musical surprises, but right throughout the afternoon. He's playing some chamber music, we're going to have square dancing on the lawn, we've got marching bands. It won't be the usual Tanglewood on Parade.
He's also doing a program with the cello section of the Boston Symphony, which will be a beautiful and fascinating collaboration. And then over the course of the weekend, three very, very distinctive BSO programs. He's playing in all three of them, including the Brahms Double Concerto with Renaud Capuçon. On Sunday afternoon, he's playing a piece by John Tavener. On Saturday, we have a whole line-up of guests making appearances, so it's a really incredible occasion for Tanglewood and its audiences.
Brian McCreath I could see it no other way. I think this is one of those weeks that already jumps out as something people will remember for years to come. And I do want to just highlight what you mentioned about the cello section. I would worry that that concert may get lost in the shuffle as people are looking at the schedule, but it is not to be missed. When Yo-Yo and the section do things as encores, which they often have done in the past when he does concerto appearances, it's lovely. But personally, I just love the sound of a cello ensemble. I think it's one of the most beautiful chamber music sounds because the range is so wide for what any single cello can do. So, when you put together however many it will be, you know, 8, 10, 12 cellos, there's the possibility of all kinds of things.It's just a beautiful sound.
Tony Fogg We have the most fantastic cello section, I must say…
Brian McCreath That is worth saying.
Tony Fogg …from the first desk to the back, everyone of them is an amazing player. Great artists with great musical personalities and great imaginations. The program that is being worked on will showcase the artistry of each and every player in a different way. So, it'll be great. But as you say, the sonority of massed cellos is really unique and very beautiful. And we hope it'll be a program that will move, that will amuse, that will make us think about different things in different ways through the medium of a large ensemble of cellos.
Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Festival of Contemporary Music
Brian McCreath You mentioned before Esa-Pekka Salonen, who is, I don't know how to describe Esa-Pekka, so I won't even try, other than the fact that he's a brilliant conductor, a brilliant composer, a figure who comes up with ideas that nobody has thought of before in ways that concerts can be presented, ways of framing music, ways of programming music. So, I think it's brilliant that you've engaged him for a number of things, but most centrally, the Festival of Contemporary Music. So, tell me more about his way of doing his art and what you see as the relationship to how Tanglewood will go this year.
Tony Fogg It's a long relationship in that he first worked with the orchestra when he was a young conductor, which is about 40 years ago now.
Brian McCreath Oh gosh, okay.
Tony Fogg But, as things work out, he hasn't appeared regularly with the orchestra. It's been from time to time. He was to have come to the festival last year, and then some personal matters kept him from us, so we're very happy that he's here with us and he's worked with my good colleague, Ed Gazouleas, to plan a really brilliant Festival of Contemporary Music organized around certain themes.
Brian McCreath And Ed is the Director of the Tanglewood Music Center.
Tony Fogg So there is one program which is called "Meta Music," which is music about other music. And it includes works by Esa- Pekka himself based on Bach, by Peter Maxwell Davies, based on early English pavanes. There's another program called "Nordic Boomers," which is about the composers from that part of the world, senior figures, Hans Abrahamsen, Anders Hilborg. There's a program which focuses on the next generation of mainly American composers and mainly women. We have some iconic pieces, Lutoslawski's Chantefleurs et Chantefables, Ligeti's Melodien. They're really incredibly well conceived programs that draw works into and around a certain theme and concept. So, over the course of five days, we'll hear some fantastic pieces. It's always a great discovery for many of us. Many of these composers and works are ones which are not regularly performed, so a great discovery, but also just to hear the quality of the performances, which we can be assured by the Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center, in this instance under Esa-Pekka's direction, will be, I'm sure, amazing.
Brian McCreath And what jumped out to me amongst all those programs of the Festival of Contemporary Music is the Abrahamsen Let Me Tell You, which I remember so vividly when the BSO did that here at the hall with Barbara Hannigan singing. It's just an incredible piece.
Tony Fogg It's an incredible piece, yes, which Andris gave the world premiere of...
Brian McCreath That's right, that's right. I forgot about that.
Tony Fogg ...with the Berlin Philharmonic, yes. And it's based on Shakespeare's text. And we did it back in 2014, when we did the Shakespeare Festival. A haunting piece. It will be performed by a pair of Tanglewood Music Center vocal Fellows with one of our Fellow conductors taking on the direction of it. But an incredible piece. I'm glad you mentioned that. I'm looking forward, of the many, many great works, particularly to that Abrahamsen piece.
Brian McCreath Yeah, yeah, it's haunting. It's beautiful. I mean the words of Ophelia from Hamlet, even chilling at times. It's just gorgeous. I'm so glad that's part of the schedule.
Laurie Anderson
You mentioned "playground for artists" and one of the names that you dropped there was Laurie Anderson, who is... almost to call her a "musician" is not enough. She's a performance artist. She is a thinker, a conceiver of experiences, even. And I think that's kind of what is going to happen at Tanglewood. There may be some straight-ahead music performances, but Laurie Anderson's work goes so far beyond that, including what she's planning for Tanglewood.
Tony Fogg It does, yes. And look, she's still working on some of the ideas of her programs. But you're right, it's hard to categorize Laurie. She sees the world in ways which we mere mortals don't…
Brian McCreath That's fair.
Tony Fogg …and is able to bring all of that together through this incredible artistry, and her voice is unique as a composer and singer and instrumentalist. She was groundbreaking in many ways during the 70s and 80s when she first became more prominent. But of the great figures of contemporary music, she's without doubt one of the most important. So, we're thrilled that she's there for us this week. She has two programs in Ozawa Hall, the centerpiece of one of which is a work called Amelia, which is based on the story of Amelia Earhart and will be performed with the strings of the Boston Symphony. I'm glad that we'll have a close collaboration between our musicians and Laurie herself. There are electronic elements and so forth. And then over the course of the weekend, various other things, a collaboration on Sunday night with an ensemble called Sexmob in a work called The Republic of Love, a very, very moving piece. So, a great four days, five days of programming with one of the most important artists of our time.
Brian McCreath And this thing that, I've got to figure out a way in my own schedule to somehow show up for this, for part of it, which is Lou Reed Drone, in which she takes her late husband Lou Reed's guitars and creates some sort of drone effect that other musicians interact with. And I don't quite understand it by the description, but it absolutely intrigues me. And it's over a long afternoon that it goes on. It's not something you sit down and sort of carve out two hours and there's an intermission. It sounds like you come in at some point during this and you experience it and then you can leave but...
Tony Fogg That's exactly right, yeah, and it's an intriguing work. It uses the guitars of Lou Reed, who's her late husband, and somehow the resonances of the guitars are amplified and create a sonic environment. This will be in Studio E of the Linde Center for the entirety of that Sunday, the 15th of August. And so, people will come and spend as much time as they would like, listening to the drone.
The Linde Center for Music and Learning
Brian McCreath And if someone hasn't been to the Linde Center, this is an ideal opportunity to come to the Linde Center and just gaze upon this beautiful space, first of all, and then see what that space is actually capable of, because I think this is maybe the only place on the campus where this kind of thing really makes any kind of sense.
Tony Fogg Well, for those who may not have been to Tanglewood in recent years, the Linde Center was opened in 2019, and it was created as the home for the Tanglewood Learning Institute. But we wanted to make it a laboratory, a playground, however we describe it for artists. And the possibilities of the Linde Center are extraordinary. We have, over the course of this summer, a great program of talks, presentations, master classes, performances featuring a variety of artists, the young Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center, some great thinkers, speakers. It's a way to get inside the music in a manner that we previously didn't have a way of being able to achieve. So, a great program right throughout the summer. The Linde Center, as I should say, as a little aside, is the only venue that we can operate year-round at Tanglewood, and when it was created, one of our ambitions was to present programming right throughout the fall, winter, spring season, in addition to summer. And I'm glad that we've got a very robust series of concerts going on year-round now, even in the depths of winter, like now, that we still can go and, in the beautiful space of Studio E, enjoy some great, great music making by not only the Boston Symphony musicians, but by other guest artists.
Brian McCreath And I love metaphorically "getting into music," but also literally, in the case of Laurie Anderson's program, literally getting into it, having it surround you. That's wonderful.
BSO Guest Artists
Let's steer things back towards the Boston Symphony concerts and a lineup of young soloists that are coming through in their Tanglewood debuts, including Eric Lu, who just won the International Chopin Competition. Keila Wakao is playing the Barber Violin Concerto. That is a demanding piece. And then you have others: Himari, a violinist who's very young, and Ray Chen, who has a way of lighting up concert halls, and Randall Goosby in the last weekend, doing music by Florence Price. It's a really exciting group of young soloists coming through Tanglewood this year.
Tony Fogg We enjoy the privilege of working with many of the great marquee artists of our time. We spoke earlier about Yo-Yo Ma, but in the course of the summer, we have Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Joshua Bell.
Brian McCreath Daniil Trifonov.
Tony Fogg Daniil Trifonov, Renée Fleming, Tom Hampson, so many of greatest artists of our time. But at one point, they were all emerging artists, and we think it's important that we create a relationship with them early on in their careers, which we hope will blossom as the years go on. You've mentioned a handful of very, very talented instrumentalists: Eric Lu, who has played with the Boston Symphony before, but Tanglewood debut; Keila Wakao, who is in fact the daughter of our retiring associate Principal Oboist, Keisuke Wakao, but a brilliant player, so poetic; Himari, who is this 15-year-old sensation; Randall Goosby, who is one of the most charismatic young artists before the public.
Brian McCreath And he was here the season before last, or something like that?
Tony Fogg A couple of seasons ago, yes.
Brian McCreath He was wonderful. He was a really poetic player.
Tony Fogg And he's playing one of the concertos by Florence Price, which he's been championing; and then Ray Chen, who's not only a terrific fiddle player but a very engaging and charismatic violinist.
Brian McCreath Yeah, that's the word: charismatic. He really brings an excitement to the stage, doesn't he?
The Boston Pops at Tanglewood
We don't want to wrap things up without talking about the Pops, because the Pops, as we always love and expect, there's a “John Williams Film Night,” led by Keith Lockhart, and that's just one of the highlights of the summer no matter what. But there's also a late-in-the-season concert with Cynthia Erivo, who seems to have developed a pretty special relationship with the Pops.
Tony Fogg “Film Night” this year will actually be a very special evening. It's going to be the first presentation of a program which has been put together by John and his team called "Maestro of the Movies." As those who might attend “Film Night” regularly know, we often include film montages that our video team assembles, drawn from one or several of John's movies. This will be a very beautifully curated and articulated evening, featuring clips from many of the films for which John has written the score, and which really trace his whole path as a film composer. We're honored that this is going to be the first performance of this program. We know it's then going on to the Hollywood Bowl and will no doubt be performed worldwide, but we have the great honor of performing it for the first time. So certainly, that's one of the highlights of the season and of the Pops.
And Cynthia Erivo, who amazingly was available to appear with the Pops on the final weekend of the season, the 21st of August. She had a spectacular debut with us last spring in the spring Pops season, and we’re so lucky to have her, an artist absolutely at the peak of her powers, famous for Wicked and many other great productions. So, two strong things, but also back in the early part of the season, we have the opening weekend featuring, as typically, James Taylor in two concerts on the 3rd and Fourth [of July] and bookending that with some programming still to be announced on the 2nd and 5th will be the Pops again. So, four Pops concerts throughout the season.
Popular Artist Series
In addition, Brian, I should mention we of course have our Popular Artist Series, which are mainly on the shoulders of the main season, this year beginning on the 21st of June with "Yacht Rock Review," and then continuing right throughout the summer. There are some great artists, Jason Isbell, Ziggy Marley.
Brian McCreath Trombone Shorty is in this summer, right?
Tony Fogg Trombone Shorty, yeah.
Brian McCreath I mean, I can't say enough about Trombone Shorty. I put on his recordings, and I can't turn them off sometimes. It's just so addictive. There's such groove, such energy to Trombone Shorty.
Tony Fogg Such energy. And then there's, of course, Weird Al...
Brian McCreath Ah, yes, of course.
Tony Fogg ... who has his own special brand of humor and following. Some of the popular artist series programming we've already announced. There will be more emerging over the next month, but as I mentioned, mainly on the shoulders of this main season, but spotted throughout on some Tuesday evenings throughout the months of July and August as well.
Seiji Ozawa Hall Concert Series
Brian McCreath And then finally, we'll just touch on the Ozawa Hall concert / recital series that is separate from the Tanglewood Music Center, groups like Les Arts Florissant and the Danish String Quartet, Yuja Wang is giving a recital, another roundup of just incredibly exciting performers on the Ozawa Hall stage.
Tony Fogg It's a pretty eclectic, but I must say thrilling lineup of programs and artists that we've managed to include in the season, beginning with our own Boston Symphony Chamber Players, but then we have Augustin Hadelich, who's our 2025-26 season Artist-in-Residence, giving a recital with Seong-Jin Cho, no less. You mentioned Les Arts Florissants, doing two operas by Charpentier. Our own Boston Camerata, which will be doing early American Revolutionary music.
Brian McCreath That's something that... They just own that.
Tony Fogg They own that, yes. One of the special programs that we're doing in one evening, featuring five different pianists, we have the complete Piano Etudes of Philip Glass, iconic music for the piano. We mentioned Laurie Anderson. We also have, to round out the season, the Silk Road Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens, doing a fantastic program, but one which also celebrates their 25th anniversary. Silk Road had its origins at Tanglewood. The very first gathering of those musicians 25 years ago, 26 years ago was on the Tanglewood campus, and no one quite knew what it was and what crazy idea Yo-Yo had at the time to bring together these very disparate musicians from all around the world. But the rest is, as they say, history.
Brian McCreath Absolutely. Of all these things we've talked about, it feels like it's still only about maybe half at best of what's going on at Tanglewood. The season is always just such an amazing assemblage of experiences, performances, illuminations even. So, I really appreciate your taking some time to talk through so much of it with me, Tony. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Tony Fogg My pleasure, Brian. When you think of the forces that we have at Tanglewood between the Boston Symphony, the Pops, the great talent in the Tanglewood Music Center Fellows, the great opportunities that we have in our venues, the Shed, Ozawa Hall, the Linde Center, which opens up the Learning Institute, all of our humanities work. But all of this is happening in the most incredible physical environment. And it always comes back to this nexus of landscape, of thought, of musical art, that makes Tanglewood just so absolutely special. There's a spiritual quality which is hard to describe. And in our times which are troubled, troubling, turbulent, this is a place where we can find refuge, where we find solace, where we look into ourselves through the power of music and hope to find some truths.
Brian McCreath Well said, and I fully endorse the idea that it's hard to define, so much so that it really just needs to be experienced in person. So, I think that's the way to unlock exactly what you're describing. Tony, thank you so much.
Tony Fogg My pleasure, Brian.
