Boston Symphony Orchestra Unveils 2026 Tanglewood Season

Tanglewood has revealed the details of its 2026 season, opening in late June and continuing to Labor Day weekend. The jam-packed schedule brings many of the world’s most exciting musicians and innovative minds to the beautiful Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts, making Tanglewood a quintessential cultural playground. In celebration of America’s 250th, this season offers an abundance of iconic American artists as part of the BSO’s multi-season E Pluribus Unum: From Many One theme, as well as programs exploring music inspired by nature and faith. 

Late June brings the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis to the Koussevitzky Music Shed. The Fourth of July long weekend features James Taylor and his All-Star Band (July 3 and 4) bookended with two all-American programs featuring the Boston Pops (July 2 and 5).

From July 10 through August 23, weekly classical programs (Friday, Saturday, and Monday evenings and Sunday afternoons) offer performances by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra (TMCO) led by Music Director and Head of Conducting at Tanglewood Andris Nelsons and top guest conductors. Programs feature world-renowned soloists including pianists Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Seong-Jin Cho, Paul Lewis, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and Daniil Trifonov and violinists Joshua Bell, Renaud Capuçon, and Augustin Hadelich. BSO programs also feature members of Boston Ballet and Martha Graham Dance Company and the Tanglewood debuts of 2025 Chopin Piano Competition winner Eric Lu and exciting young violinists Randall Goosby and Himari. Internationally celebrated conductor Marin Alsop, a Tanglewood Music Center (TMC) alumna, leads the TMCO in Ray Chen’s much-anticipated festival debut. 

Late July brings the TMC’s annual Festival of Contemporary Music (July 23–27), directed this summer by composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, who stays to lead BSO and TMCO programs and to give a talk with BSO President and CEO Chad Smith. 

August offers two more exciting artist-led curations: We the People, an innovative week-long residency in which Yo-Yo Ma explores the past, present, and future of the American experience alongside an eclectic roster of artists; and several events with pioneering multimedia artist Laurie Anderson in her first Tanglewood appearance.  

Other August highlights are the Boston Pops’ annual John Williams Film Night with Keith Lockhart leading a new tribute program to Williams and Cynthia Erivo’s performance with the Pops.  

Throughout the season Ozawa Hall features a variety of recitals and performances by renowned artists and ensembles including superstar pianist Yuja Wang, Les Arts Florissants, the Danish String Quartet, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens.  

The Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI) and TMC present humanities events and educational workshops in both Ozawa Hall and at the Linde Center for Music and Learning led by guest artists and speakers including tenor Nicholas Phan, flutist Claire Chase, historian Heather Cox Richardson, and documentary photographer Peter van Agtmael. 

From late June to early September, the Popular Artist Series welcomes celebrated rock, country, reggae, and jazz artists to the Shed. New additions to the lineup include: Tedeschi Trucks Band with special guest Lukas Nelson, Ziggy Marley with Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, and Yacht Rock Revue. Previously announced artists are Jason Isbell with special guest Patty Griffin, Carrie Underwood, “Weird Al” Yankovic, and Taylor. More dates to be announced in the coming weeks. 

We the People: Our Shared Past, Present, and Future 

A Week of Programs Curated by Yo-Yo Ma

In an innovative collaboration with Tanglewood and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Yo-Yo Ma curates and appears in a week of concerts and events (Aug. 4–9) that explores the wisdom and contributions of the many people who make up this country—past, present, and future. Gathering artists and thinkers from the Berkshires community and far beyond, We the People will ask us to reflect on our shared histories and experiences, to consider our relationships to each other and to the natural world, and to think about how we—human beings who are a part of nature and therefore as creative and destructive as nature itself—can together choose a path of creation for the next 250 years. These concert programs and events are described in date order in other sections that follow.

BSO Programs Led by Music Director Andris Nelsons

During the first four weeks of the classical season (July 10–Aug. 2), BSO Music Director and Head of Conducting at Tanglewood Andris Nelsons leads nine BSO programs in the Shed with a concentration on Tchaikovsky and Mozart, opening with principal dancers from Boston Ballet in excerpts from Swan Lake and culminating in The Marriage of Figaro. The theme of music inspired by nature is explored in works by Schumann, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and the Tchaikovsky ballet. In addition to programs that feature celebrated returning guest soloists Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Seong-Jin Cho, Augustin Hadelich, Paul Lewis, Erin Morley, and Daniil Trifonov, Nelsons introduces two emerging young talents, violinists Himari and Keila Wakao. Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson perform excerpts from Nixon in China, reprising their spring 2026 BSO programs in Boston and at Carnegie Hall. Nelsons also conducts two TMCO programs with this year’s TMC Conducting Fellows (Mon., July 13 & 20, 8 p.m.) and coaches them in an open “Art of Conducting” workshop (Sun., July 12, 11 a.m.). 

The BSO programs led by Andris Nelsons are described in chronological order below; his two TMCO programs are described separately in the section dedicated to Tanglewood Music Center programs. 

Opening the BSO’s summer season, its 89th at Tanglewood, Nelsons conducts an all-Tchaikovsky program that features soloist Seong-Jin Cho in the composer’s popular Piano Concerto No. 1, which had its world premiere in Boston in 1875. Cho, winner of the prestigious Chopin International Piano Competition in 2015, impressed a full house in Ozawa Hall last season with his marathon recital of Ravel’s complete solo piano works, having also recorded both of the composer’s concertos with the BSO and Nelsons on the Deutsche Grammophon label. The opening program also welcomes principal dancers from Boston Ballet (Mikko Nissinen, artistic director) performing an excerpt from Swan Lake (Fri., July 10, 8 p.m.). The annual Summer Celebration gala for Tanglewood donors takes place before the concert, starting at 5 p.m. with a cocktail reception, followed by dinner at 6 p.m.

The following evening, Nelsons and the BSO are joined by a favorite returning pianist Emanuel Ax, who has performed at Tanglewood every summer since 1982, in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25. The program also offers Mahler’s sublime Symphony No. 4 with world-renowned soprano Erin Morley, the 2021 Beverly Sills Artist Award winner, in the finale's rhapsodic “Life in Heaven” (Sat., July 11, 8 p.m.).

The second weekend of the BSO season offers Friday evening and Sunday matinee programs led by Nelsons. Friday’s concert pairs two of the greatest American voices of their generation, soprano Renée Fleming and baritone Thomas Hampson, in excerpts from John Adams’ groundbreaking 1987 opera Nixon in China, which the two are scheduled to perform with Nelsons and the BSO at Symphony Hall and Carnegie Hall in April. The program also includes Meditations on Grace (2024) by BSO Composer Chair Carlos Simon and Barber’s famously melodic and technically demanding Violin Concerto, with young soloist Keila Wakao in her Tanglewood debut with the BSO. Wakao began studying with former BSO concertmaster Joseph Silverstein at age 6 and won First Prize at the 2021 Menuhin International Violin Competition Junior Division at age 15. She made her BSO debut at the BSO’s Opening Night Gala at Symphony Hall in 2024 (Fri., July 17, 8 p.m.).  

In Sunday’s matinee the same weekend, Nelsons leads the extraordinary pianist Daniil Trifonov and BSO Principal Trumpet Thomas Rolfs in Shostakovich’s witty Piano Concerto No. 1. Nelsons and the BSO are nominated for a 2026 Grammy award for their recording on the Deutsche Grammophon label of the Shostakovich piano concertos with pianist Yuja Wang and Rolfs as soloists. The program also offers Haydn’s contemplative Symphony No 22, The Philosopher, with its striking horn chorale, and Beethoven’s exuberant Symphony No 2 (Sun., July 19, 2:30 p.m.).

The third weekend offers three Nelsons-led programs that pair a Mozart concerto with one of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies. The Friday evening program brings acclaimed violinist Augustin Hadelich, the BSO’s 2025-26 artist in residence, to perform Mozart’s adventurous Violin Concerto No. 5 (nicknamed the “Turkish Concerto”). Tchaikovsky’s balletic, five-movement Symphony No. 3, Polish rounds out the first program of the Mozart-Tchaikovsky cycle (Fri., July 24, 8 p.m.). 

The Saturday evening program offers one of the world’s foremost interpreters of the Viennese classical piano repertoire, Paul Lewis, in Mozart’s serene and introspective Piano Concerto No. 27, followed by Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, featuring brilliant orchestration, gorgeous melodies, Romantic emotional intensity, and Russian folk song (Sat., July 25, 8 p.m.).  

The third weekend’s Sunday matinee program introduces Himari, a young violinist often described as a “once-in-a-generation talent. Himari (who turns 15 this June) is set to perform Mozart’s youthful Violin Concerto No. 1. The afternoon program also includes Finnish composer and this year’s Festival of Contemporary Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Gambit and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 (Sun., July 26, 2:30 p.m.). 

Nelsons’ summer season would not be complete without the performance of a concert opera, and this year he returns to Mozart. Building on the success of 2023’s Così fan tutte and 2022’s Don Giovanni—and completing the Da Ponte trilogy of operas co-created by Mozart’s favorite librettist—Nelsons leads the BSO and a chorus composed of TMC vocalists in The Marriage of Figaro, the first time the opera will be performed in full at Tanglewood. Directed by James Darrah, the stellar cast is headed by baritones Michael Sumuel (Figaro) and Joshua Hopkins (Count) opposite sopranos Ying Fang (Susanna) and Hanna-Elisabeth Müller (Countess) and mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo (Cherubino). Baritone Patrick Carfizzi (Doctor Bartolo), mezzo-soprano Susan Graham (Marcellina), soprano Eden Bartholomew (Barbarina), and tenors Joshua Sanders (Don Curzio) and Rodell Rosel (Don Basilio) round out the cast. Making their festival debuts with the BSO are Sumuel, Hopkins, D’Angelo, Müller, and Bartholomew who is a 2025 alumna of the Tanglewood Music Center (Sat. Aug. 1, 8 p.m.). 

In his final summer program, Nelsons welcomes violinist Joshua Bell back for his 37th consecutive season with the BSO at Tanglewood to perform Bruch’s virtuosic Scottish Fantasy, for which his 2018 recording earned him a Grammy nomination. The matinee program also offers Schumann’s Symphony No. 3, Rhenish, his last symphony and a paean to the beauty of the Rhineland as well as Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Marmoris, which was inspired by the sea and oceanic movement (Sun., Aug. 2, 2:30 p.m.).

BSO Programs Led by Acclaimed Guest Conductors

This season offers some of the world’s top guest conductors to lead BSO programs with favorite returning and exciting new artists, beginning with the first appearance at Tanglewood by Dallas Symphony Orchestra Music Director Fabio Luisi to lead 2025 International Chopin Competition First Prize winner Eric Lu in Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Lu, who grew up outside Boston and was the first American to win the Chopin competition since 1970, performed with the BSO at Symphony Hall in 2023 and is making his Tanglewood debut. The program also includes two works inspired by nature: Brahms’ enchanting Symphony No. 2 and Sophia Jani’s mysterious What do flowers do at night? The Dallas Symphony’s composer in residence since 2023, Jani wrote her piece about a night-blooming cactus species that flowers only once a year (Sun., July 12, 2:30 p.m.).  

The following weekend, composer Joe Hisaishi makes his Tanglewood debut to conduct the BSO in three of his own works: Adagio for strings and harps, DA·MA·SHI·E, and the Symphonic Suite from Princess Mononoke. Known for his many collaborations with the great Japanese animator and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, Hisaishi scored Miyazaki’s films The Boy and the Heron (2024) and Spirited Away (2023), which both won the Academy Award for Best Animated Film. Hisaishi also scored Princess Mononoke, which Miyazaki wrote and directed in 1997. The program also welcomes back the celebrated French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet to perform Ravel’s jazzy Piano Concerto in G (Sat., July 18, 8 p.m.). 

Following the conclusion of his directorship of the 2026 Festival of Contemporary Music, Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen stays to lead a Friday BSO performance in the Shed as well as a Monday TMCO concert in Ozawa Hall (described separately in the TMCO section below). In the Friday evening BSO program, Salonen conducts Beethoven’s towering Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor, with Yefim Bronfman, a beloved guest artist at Tanglewood for more than three decades. The program also features Wagner’s passionate Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde and Sibelius’ single-movement Symphony No. 7 (Fri., July 31, 8 p.m.). 

The following long weekend (Aug. 7–9) offers three BSO programs as part of We the People: Our Shared Past, Present, and Future, curated by Yo-Yo Ma. In the first, inspired by the historic links between the United States, France, and Tanglewood’s own history, BSO Assistant Conductor Samy Rachid leads program host Ma and acclaimed French violinist Renaud Capuçon in Brahms’ Double Concerto for violin, cello, and orchestra. The Friday evening program also offers Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine with Berkshire Lyric (Jack Brown, conductor) and Brahms’ String Sextet No. 2 in G, Op. 36 (arranged by Atterberg) (Fri., Aug. 7, 8 p.m.). 

In Saturday’s program, Yo-Yo Ma, the BSO, and special guests including Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Aoife O’Donovan (of the bands Crooked Still and I’m With Her) and Emmy-nominated Native American vocalist Jennifer Kreisberg (a founding member of the Native women’s trio ULALI) will explore the many voices of American music and how it reflects the nation’s triumphs, tragedies, and vitality (Sat., Aug. 8, 8 p.m.). 

In Sunday’s Ma-curated BSO matinee, Rachid shares the podium with his fellow BSO Assistant Conductor Anna Handler, both of whom conclude their terms with the BSO at the end of the Tanglewood season. Handler, who last fall began her work as Kapellmeister of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, was recently appointed Chief Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra, starting this September. The program looks to the future with three modern compositions that feature cellists: Ma joins in Tavener’s Mahámátar, for cello, voice, chorus, and orchestra with Grammy-winning vocalist Arooj Aftab and the BUTI Chorus. Cellist Karen Ouzounian, a member of Silkroad Ensemble, is the soloist in Iranian-American composer Kayhan Kalhor’s Venus in the Mirror, for kamancheh, cello, and orchestra, with the composer as co-soloist.  BSO cellist Christine Lee is the soloist in Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov’s Azul, for cello and orchestra, a BSO commission from 2006 (Sun., Aug. 9, 2:30 p.m.). 

Handler returns the following Friday evening to lead a BSO program that brings the Martha Graham Dance Company (Janet Eiber, artistic director) to Tanglewood for the first time as part of the Company’s 100th anniversary celebration at Jacob’s Pillow. The dancers perform Christopher Rountree’s For Martha (Variations on a Theme of Leonard Bernstein) with choreography by Hope Boykin commissioned by the BSO and Jacob's Pillow. The dance-themed orchestral program also includes Copland’s Appalachian Spring performed to Martha Graham’s original 1944 choreography and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 (Fri., Aug. 14, 8 p.m.). 

The BSO’s final weekend offers two programs with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus (TFC). On the last Saturday of the festival’s classical season, BSO Artistic Partner Thomas Wilkins leads the Tanglewood debut of exciting young violinist Randall Goosby, a 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant Winner, in the first BSO performance of Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2. The program also includes Bernstein’s life-affirming Chichester Psalms with the TFC and boy soprano Edward Njuguna and Dvořák’s songful Symphony No. 8 (Sat., Aug. 22, 8 p.m.). 

The BSO’s final performance of the season, the traditional Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, marks the debut of conductor Gustavo Gimeno, music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Soloists include Mané Galoyan (soprano), Zoie Reams (mezzo-soprano), Benjamin Bliss (tenor), and Soloman Howard (bass). The TFC also performs a to-be-announced work for unaccompanied chorus (Sun., Aug. 23, 2:30 p.m.).

Tanglewood Music Center Programs & 

Festival of Contemporary Music

The Fellows studying at the Tanglewood Music Center (TMC) perform in eight concerts as the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra (TMCO) from July 6 to Aug. 16. This year’s TMC Conducting Fellows Julian Gilewski and Lauren Smith jointly lead several of the TMCO programs along with Andris Nelsons and guest conductors. TMCO performances take place on Monday evenings in Ozawa Hall except for Tanglewood on Parade (Tues., Aug. 4, 8 p.m.) and the final program with conductor Marin Alsop and debuting violin soloist Ray Chen (Sun., Aug. 16, 2:30 p.m.), which are in the Shed.  

TMC Fellows perform numerous vocal and instrumental recitals throughout the season, with the annual Festival of Contemporary Music (FCM) as the centerpiece of their summer. Directed this year by Esa-Pekka Salonen, FCM takes place in Ozawa Hall from July 23 through 27 and offers five concerts performed by Fellows with a focus on works by Salonen and other Nordic composers. Each FCM program is organized by theme: Those We have Lost Too Soon; Meta Music: Music About Other Music; The Next Generation; Gen Z Paired with Iconic Works; and Nordic Boomers. Salonen conducts the TMCO in the final FCM program, which features the debut of highly acclaimed young Finnish cellist Senja Rummukainen.  

Concerts that feature the TMCO are described below:

TMC conducting fellows Julian Gilewski and Lauren Smith make their Tanglewood debuts on the TMCO’s first Monday evening program in Ozawa Hall. The program offers Ives’ Variations on America and Vaughn Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis as well as an unconducted performance of Beethoven’s beloved Symphony No. 6, Pastoral. (Mon., July 6, 8 p.m.) 

The following week, Andris Nelsons conducts the TMCO in Beethoven’s iconic Symphony No. 5 and Leonore Overture No. 3, as well as Haydn’s Symphony No. 31, nicknamed Hornsignal due to the prominent use of four horns throughout the piece and Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56a (Mon., July 13, 8 p.m.). 

Nelsons then conducts the TMCO in two tone poems by Strauss, Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel. Nelsons has long held an affinity for Strauss’ music, having recorded all the composer’s major orchestral works in a 2022 Deutsche Grammophon 7-CD set that included contributions from the BSO, Gewandhaus Orchestra, Yuja Wang, and Yo-Yo Ma. The TMC Conducting Fellows lead Beethoven’s Overture to Egmont, Op. 84 and Hindemith’s Konzertmusik for strings and brass, Op. 50 (Mon., July 20, 8 p.m.). 

Concluding the annual Festival of Contemporary Music, festival director Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the TMCO in a program titled “Nordic Boomers,” with music by Hans Abrahamsen, Anders Hillborg, and Magnus Lindberg. Finnish cellist Senja Rummukainen makes her Tanglewood debut performing Salonen’s own Cello Concerto (Mon., July 27, 8 p.m.). 

Salonen is joined by Gilewski and Smith for the following week’s program of three seminal works from the first half of the twentieth century: Debussy’s La Mer and Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin (Fellows conducting), and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra (Salonen conducting), commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky, Tanglewood’s founding music director, and premiered by the BSO in 1944 (Mon., Aug. 3, 8 p.m.). 

The TMC Fellows play a central role in the annual Tanglewood on Parade (TOP), which this year kicks off We the People, the week of concerts and events curated by Yo-Yo Ma. Starting at 2:30 p.m., groups of Fellows and BUTI students perform throughout the afternoon in various indoor and outdoor locations, and at 6 p.m. the Shed opens for a TMC performance of the Brahms Sextet in G. Square dancing on the Shed lawn begins at 7 p.m. followed by a grand parade of all BSO and TMC musicians to the Shed stage for the evening’s concert. The TMCO performs Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, Pastoral, unconducted, along with members of the BSO. Samy Rachid conducts the BSO in Allison Loggins-Hull's Rhapsody on a Theme by Joni with BSO principal flute Lorna McGhee as soloist, and Keith Lockhart conducts Copland’s El Salón de México with the Boston Pops. The combined forces of the BSO and TMCO conclude the concert with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, conducted by Lockhart (Tues., Aug. 4, 8 p.m.). 

The TMCO led by Gilewski and Smith accompanies the vocalists of the TMC for an evening of American opera, with works by Aaron Copland, Tania León, John Adams, John Harbison, Osvaldo Golijov, and Missy Mazzoli (Mon., Aug. 10, 8 p.m.).   

The final TMCO concert is a Sunday afternoon performance in the Shed, conducted by Marin Alsop. The first woman to serve as the head of major orchestras in the United States, South America, Austria, and Great Britain, Alsop is an alumna of the Tanglewood Music Center, where she studied with Leonard Bernstein. She leads a crowd-pleasing program of Bruch’s Violin Concerto with virtuoso Ray Chen (Tanglewood debut) and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 (Sun., Aug. 16, 2:30 p.m.). 

Programs Featuring the Boston Pops

To kick off Tanglewood’s four-day celebration of America 250, the Boston Pops, “America’s Orchestra,” performs an American-themed program; guest artist and other details to come. (Thurs., July 2, 8 p.m., tickets go on sale at a later date) 

Following James Taylor’s July 3 and 4 shows, the Pops returns with Damon Gupton on the podium to lead an afternoon of quintessential American classics, including iconic works by Gershwin, Copland, Bernstein, and John Williams, as well as favorites from the Great American Songbook (Sun., July 5, 2:30 p.m.). 

Keith Lockhart, now in his 31st season as Pops Conductor, arrives in August to lead the Pops in a portion of the evening concert at Tanglewood on Parade as part of We the People, curated by Yo-Yo Ma (Tues., Aug. 4, 8 p.m.). 

Lockhart also leads the Pops in the ever-popular John Williams Film Night curated by Williams, his predecessor as Pops conductor (Sat., Aug. 15, 8 p.m.). This year’s Film Night program, titled Maestro of the Movies: A Tribute to John Williams, features more than 50 minutes of specially edited scenes and clips from John Williams’ best-loved films, projected in HD and in sync to his spectacular music. 

As previously announced, Grammy, Tony, and Emmy award-winning actress, singer, and Wicked star Cynthia Erivo makes her Tanglewood debut with the Boston Pops along with conductor Anthony Parnther and pianist and music director Mark G. Meadows (Fri., Aug. 21, 8 p.m.). Tickets for this date are on sale now at tanglewood.org. 

Ozawa Hall Recitals

World-renowned soloists and ensembles perform unique programs in the intimacy of Seiji Ozawa Hall. The recital series opens with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players performing Composer Chair Carlos Simon’s Gardner Suite along with Barber’s Summer Music and Dvořák’s String Quintet No. 2. Premiered by the Chamber Players in January 2026, Gardner Suite is a BSO commission inspired by works from the collection of Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Wed., July 8, 8 p.m.).  

The following evening, two favorite BSO guests, Augustin Hadelich and Seong-Jin Cho, perform works for violin and piano by Brahms, Janáček, Beach, and Prokofiev. This program, which Hadelich and Cho also present at several festivals across Europe this summer, marks the artists’ first performance collaboration (Thurs., July 9, 8 p.m.).  

Acclaimed Baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants returns to Ozawa Hall to perform two chamber operas by seventeenth-century French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier: La descente d’Orphée aux enfers and the eponymous Les Arts florissants. The performance, music directed by Les Arts Florissants’ founder William Christie, features vocal soloists from the organization’s Jardin des Voix training academy and dancers choreographed by Martin Chaix and Eleanor Freeman (Wed., July 15, 8 p.m.). 

Early music ensemble The Boston Camerata returns to Tanglewood to present Free America! Early Songs of Resistance and Rebellion. Led by the Camerata’s artistic director Anne Azéma, the program explores the vital and life-affirming sounds of the young Republic, as its citizens stood and played forth their love of freedom and their rejection of tyranny (Thurs., July 16, 8 p.m.). 

In anticipation of the upcoming weekend’s Festival of Contemporary Music, July 22 brings a uniquely designed program that gathers five prominent pianists (Timo Andres, Bruce Brubaker, Daniela Liebman, Lisa Moore, and Christian Sands) to perform composer Philip Glass’ complete Etudes for Piano. Composed between 1991 and 2012, these works represent some of Glass’s most evocative and inventive music and have become a staple of contemporary piano repertoire (Wed., July 22, 8 p.m.). 

The Grammy-nominated Danish String Quartet returns to Tanglewood on July 30 to perform Stravinsky’s Suite italienne, Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 16 in F, Op. 135, and their own arrangements of Danish folk songs (Thurs., July 30, 8 p.m.). 

On August 6, as part of his We the People residency, Yo-Yo Ma curates and performs in a one-of-a-kind program of music for multiple cellos, joining forces with the cellists of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Ma has enjoyed a close relationship with the BSO cello section for many years, frequently joining them for encores and special appearances (Thurs., Aug. 6, 8 p.m.). 

Kicking off a series of events spotlighting groundbreaking artist Laurie Anderson is an Ozawa Hall recital featuring a selection of her compositions for string orchestra led by conductor Dennis Russell Davies, principal conductor of the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra and artistic director and chief conductor of the Filharmonie Brno. The program includes Anderson’s Amelia, which draws upon text from Amelia Earhart’s pilot’s log from her final international trip (Thurs., Aug. 13, 8 p.m.). 

Superstar pianist Yuja Wang, a longtime BSO collaborator, performs a solo recital on August 19 (program details to come). Wang’s recording of Shostakovich’s Piano Concertos with the BSO and Andris Nelsons is nominated for a 2026 Grammy for Best Classical Instrumental Solo (Wed., Aug. 19, 8 p.m.). 

The Ozawa Hall recital program concludes with the Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens, celebrating the ensemble’s 25th anniversary. Their program Sanctuary: The Power of Resonance and Ritual explores how we can experience music to better understand our world, find comfort, process loss and a changing environment, and rebuild community (Thurs., Aug. 20, 8 p.m.). 

Popular Artist Series & Other Special Events 

Since 1968, the Popular Artist Series (PAS) at Tanglewood has brought many of the most celebrated contemporary pop artists and groups across all genres to perform in the Shed, including: Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell, Janis Joplin, The Who, B.B. King, Chicago, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, Seals and Crofts, Gordon Lightfoot, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Joan Baez, Jimmy Buffet, The Beach Boys, Peter, Paul and Mary, Neil Young, Diana Ross, Whitney Houston, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Lyle Lovett, Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan, Herbie Hancock, Wilco, Carol King, Earth, Wind & Fire, Indigo Girls, Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga, Audra McDonald, Sting, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Bonnie Raitt, Brandi Carlile, Barenaked Ladies, Pretenders, John Legend, Nas, and Jon Batiste. James Taylor first performed in 1974 and has returned almost every year since. (History of the PAS at Tanglewood) 

As previously announced, James Taylor and his All-Star Band return to celebrate Independence Day on July 3 and 4 with fireworks to follow the Independence Day show. The six-time Grammy winner and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee is marking his 52nd season at the festival (Fri., July 3 and Sat., July 4, 8 p.m.). 

Other previously announced Popular Artist Series events include: “Weird Al” Yankovic with guest Puddles Pity Party (Tues., July 21, 7 p.m.), Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit with guest Patty Griffin (Tues., July 28, 7 p.m.), and Carrie Underwood (Sat., Aug. 29, 7 p.m.). 

New Popular Artist Additions 

Yacht Rock Revue, which Rolling Stone called the “world’s premier soft-rock party band,” opens the Shed’s 2026 season. With “dy-no-mite" renditions of hits by Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Steely Dan, Christopher Cross, and more, Yacht Rock Revue is widely recognized as the driving force behind the yacht rock resurgence, sharing stages with icons and garnering a devoted following of "Anchorheads." 2026 marks their most ambitious production yet, but with the intimacy and interactive touch that harkens back to their days as a club band, making this Sunday afternoon concert a perfect way to launch the summer (Sun., June 21, 2:30 p.m.). 

The following week brings the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra to the Shed with Wynton Marsalis for the first time since 2015. Comprised of 15 of the finest jazz soloists and ensemble players today, the group has been the Jazz at Lincoln Center resident orchestra since 1988. Under Music Director and Grammy-winning trumpeter and composer Marsalis, the JLCO performs a vast repertoire of jazz standards and new commissions. Note: This event follows standard ticketing policies and is not subject to Popular Artist Series restrictions (Fri., June 26, 7 p.m.). 

Celebrate the revolutionary spirit of Bastille Day with Ziggy Marley and Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue in a rollicking evening of high-energy reggae, funk, blues, and jazz. A nine-time Grammy winner, Emmy winner, and humanitarian activist, Marley extends his father’s reggae legacy to new frontiers, fusing its traditional sound with other genres, modern sounds, and new recording techniques. He is making his first appearance at the festival. A Grammy-winning NOLA icon, Trombone Shorty performed America the Beautiful at the 2025 Super Bowl in New Orleans, leads his own Mardi Gras parade atop a giant float crafted in his likeness, was part of the inaugural class inducted in the NOLA Walk of Fame, and has taken over the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival's hallowed final set (Tues., July 14, 7 p.m.). 

Known for its electrifying blend of rock, blues, jazz, and country and regarded as one of the best live acts touring today, Grammy Award-winning Tedeschi Trucks Band keeps the Tanglewood party going into September as part of their Future Soul 2026 tour behind their forthcoming sixth studio album of the same name, out March 20 (the infectious single “I Got You” is out now). Making their Tanglewood debut, the 12-piece band is led by wife-and-husband duo Susan Tedeschi (vocals/guitar) and Derek Trucks (guitar), whom NPR has called “two of the best roots rock musicians of their generation.” The band won the Grammy for Best Blues Album in 2012 and performed at the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in honor of Joe Cocker, one of their biggest influences. Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Lukas Nelson opens as special guest (Wed., Sept. 2, 7 p.m.).  

Tickets to the newly announced dates above go on sale March 5 at 10 a.m. at tanglewood.org. 

Additional dates in the Popular Artist Series are expected and will be announced in the coming weeks. 

Humanities Programs by the Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI) & Tanglewood Music Center (TMC) 

Showcasing Tanglewood’s prominence as a music and learning campus, the Tanglewood Learning Institute’s expanded schedule of humanities-inspired programs offers a rich array of events, some in partnership with the Tanglewood Music Center, including: 

TLI and TMC Event Series: 

New this season! A special weekly course, Art and the Rule of Law with Julliard’s Lesley Rosenthal, exploring the Rule of Law through musical and visual works (weekly 10:30 a.m., July 3 through Aug. 14, Volpe Studio at the Linde Center) 

New this season! The TLI 101 series featuring presentations on dance, classical, jazz, and opera led by renowned experts (weekly 4:00 p.m., July 9 through 31, Studio E at Linde) 

Spotlight Series, which brings prominent speakers and luminaries from the humanities to dive into some of the big ideas of our time, returns this summer: 

Historian Heather Cox Richardson and founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative Bryan Stevenson, as part of Yo-Yo Ma's We the People week (Sat., Aug. 8, 5 p.m., Ozawa Hall) 

Writer, director, composer, visual artist, musician, and vocalist Laurie Anderson (Sat., Aug. 15, 2 p.m., Studio E at Linde) 

Guests to be announced for additional Spotlight Series events.

Audubon Tours, “Time Traveling with Tanglewood’s Trees and the Lenox Landscape” (Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m., July 1 through Aug. 19, meet at Main Gate) 

Focal Point workshops offer hands-on instruction in smartphone and DSLR photography. (Saturdays at 11 a.m., July 11 through Aug. 22, meet at Main Gate) 

The Art of Conducting series offers two-hour open workshops with the TMC Conducting Fellows led by Music Director Andris Nelsons, appointed head of conducting at Tanglewood in 2024, and guest conductors. Scheduled workshops include one led by Nelsons (Sun, July 12, 11 a.m.) and Marin Alsop (Thurs., Aug. 13, 1:30 p.m.). Both take place in Studio E at Linde). Other dates may be added. 

Weekly Open Workshops featuring BSO musicians and guest artists leading public classes for TMC Instrumental and Vocal Fellows (Wednesdays at 1:30 p.m., July 1 through Aug. 19, Studio E at Linde) 

Talks and Walks BSO’s VP of Artistic Planning Anthony (Tony) Fogg talks with a guest artist drawn from that week’s BSO programs (Thursdays at 1 p.m., July 2 through August 20, Tent Club). Boston Symphony Association Volunteers lead a tour of the Tanglewood grounds following each talk. 

Featured Performances and Events: 

The New Fromm Players, a select group composed of current and recent alumni TMC Fellows focused on new music, perform works by the TMC Composition Fellows (Mon., July 13, 1:30 p.m., Studio E at Linde) 

“I am alive because of music” with Fulbright Holocaust music scholar Mark Ludwig, exploring the lives and works of composers imprisoned in the Terezín concentration camp through archival materials and live chamber music (Sat., July 18, 2 p.m., Studio E at Linde) 

The return of acclaimed tenor Nicholas Phan to present his signature recital program Fellow Citizens, a wide-ranging collection of songs with narratives of immigration and migration in the United States, followed by a Meet the Makers conversation with the performers (Sat., July 25, 2 p.m., Studio E at Linde) 

The year-round TLI Jazz series brings the Ted Rosenthal Quintet with special guests Ingrid Jensen (trumpet) and Jimmy Greene (saxophone) to present 100 Years of Miles and Coltrane (Sun., July 26, 7 p.m., Ozawa Hall). 

Shaping Sound: The Future of Orchestras, conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen and BSO President and CEO Chad Smith in conversation (Tues., July 28, 12 p.m.) 

Documentary photographer Peter van Agtmael, a Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, gives a talk on his acclaimed book Look at the USA, a powerful photographic exploration of America’s contradictions, complexities, and everyday realities (Thurs., July 30, 2:30 p.m., Studio E at Linde). 

A world premiere reading with music of an adaptation of Uwe Wittstock’s February 1933: The Winter of Literature, which traces the swift collapse of Weimar Germany’s literary world (Sat., Aug. 1, 2 p.m., Studio E at Linde) 

Innovative flutist Claire Chase performs Marcos Balter’s Pan, a musical drama for solo flute, live electronics, and an ensemble of musicians from the Berkshires community (Sat., Aug. 8, 2 p.m., Studio E at Linde). 

TMC Composition Fellows and musicians again collaborate on two presentations of the ever-popular TLI Silent Film Project (Sun. Aug. 9, 7 & 9 p.m., Studio E at Linde). 

Pianist Adam Tendler makes his Tanglewood debut with Inheritances, a Grammy-nominated collection of 16 commissioned works exploring memory, grief, and renewal (Wed., Aug. 12, 8 p.m., Studio E at Linde). 

John Luther Adams: Crossing Open Ground, a collaborative performance of the environmentalist composer’s outdoor work for winds, brass, and percussion on the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI) campus. Conductor Christopher Rountree and director Dimitri Chamblas lead 40 BUTI and guest musicians in the original and immersive work. (Thurs, Aug. 13, 5 p.m. and Fri., Aug. 14, 4 p.m. at BUTI, 45 West Street in Lenox) 

A Meet the Makers conversation with the Martha Graham Dance Company creative team ahead of the evening BSO performance of Christopher Rountree’s For Martha and Copland’s Appalachian Spring (Fri., Aug. 14, Studio E at Linde) 

A Movement Workshop on the Tappan Lawn led by Dimitri Chamblas, choreographer and co-director of Crossing Open Ground, with live music by pianist Adam Tendler (Sun., Aug. 16, 12:30 p.m., Tappan Manor House Lawn) 

Lou Reed Drone, a drone-based sonic installation curated by Laurie Anderson using guitars from her late husband Lou Reed’s collection, performed by his former guitar tech Stewart Hurwood and a roster of rotating guest artists (Sun., Aug. 16, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., Studio E at Linde) 

Laurie Anderson — The Republic of Love, an evening of music and storytelling reflecting on America’s past and present, featuring the genre-defying ensemble Sexmob in their Tanglewood debut along with special guests (Sun., Aug. 16, 7 p.m., Ozawa Hall) 

The Goldberg Variations Reimagined with pianist Simone Dinnerstein and Boston-based chamber orchestra A Far Cry in their BSO debut. (Fri., Aug. 21, 1 p.m.) Join Dinnerstein and the group for an Open Workshop ahead of their performance (Wed., Aug. 19, 1:30 p.m.). Both events at Studio E at Linde. 

Saturday Morning Open Rehearsals & 

Pre-Concert Prelude Performances 

Ticketed Open Rehearsals for each Sunday’s BSO program are offered at the Shed on Saturday mornings at 10:30 a.m., from July 11 through August 22. Open Rehearsals offer audience members a unique perspective on the creative dynamic between orchestra and conductor and a more relaxed atmosphere. The Saturday morning ticket also includes a pre-concert talk at 9:30 a.m. and Yoga on the Lawn led by an instructor from Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health from 10:15 to 11:15 a.m. 

Throughout the season, Prelude Concerts are offered Fridays and Saturdays from 6:00 to 7:00 either in Ozawa Hall or Studio E at the Linde Center. Prelude Concerts are exclusively available to ticketholders for the 8 p.m. Shed concerts on those evenings at no additional charge. Seating is general admission. 

Programs & Activities for Families and Children 

Family-friendly fare includes the annual BSO Family Concert, an engaging morning matinee in the Shed, led by BSO Youth and Family Concerts Conductor and Artistic Partner Thomas Wilkins (Sun., July 19, 10:30 a.m.) and Tanglewood on Parade (Tues., Aug. 4, 2 p.m. through the evening), a full day of music and activities curated by Yo-Yo Ma, culminating in an evening concert with the BSO, Pops, and TMCO conducted by Keith Lockhart and Samy Rachid with soloist Lorna McGhee and capped by Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.  

Advanced musicians aged 14 through 20 studying at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI) perform weekend concerts in Ozawa Hall as the Young Artists Orchestra, Young Artists Chorus, and Young Artists Wind Ensemble (July 18, 19, Aug. 2, 3, 8, and 15, at 1:30 p.m.). 

TLI for Families events include: 

A Whale of a Tale led by Rebecca Sheir of WBUR’s Circle Round returns (Sun., July 5, 10:30 a.m., Studio E at Linde). 

Peter and the Wolf, Prokofiev’s beloved setting of a Russian folktale set to music, presented in collaboration with BUTI (Sun., July 26, 10:30 a.m., Studio E at Linde)

Music Moves, Stories Groove with rapper Baba Israel, multi-instrumentalist Sean Nowell, and dancers Audrey Thao Berger and B-Boy Spidey (Sun., Aug. 2, 10:30 a.m. Studio E at Linde) 

Since 1968, the BSO has offered Days in the Arts (DARTS), a summer arts immersion program at Tanglewood for middle school students from both the Berkshires and Boston. This year’s day program for students from the Berkshires will take place in July and is free for all students accepted into the program. For more information, please contact the BSO’s Education and External Engagement department at education@bso.org. 

Tanglewood welcomes families with children. Up to four free children's tickets are available per parent/legal guardian per concert at the Tanglewood Box Office on the day of the performance. Please note the following policies and restrictions:  

To minimize disruptions, children under 5 are not permitted in the Koussevitzky Music Shed during concerts, except for the BSO Family Concert on Sunday, July 19. 

Families with children under 5 may enjoy music on the lawn.  

All patrons, regardless of age, must have a ticket. 

Free children’s tickets are not valid for any Popular Artist Series event or Popular Artist Series featuring the Boston Pops, or any TLI event. 

Food and Dining at Tanglewood 

Tasting Notes, the Tanglewood Food and Wine Festival featuring the best local vendors, takes place under the Hawthorne Tent in the gardens behind Tappan Manor House (Sat., Aug. 15, 12–4 p.m.). Ages 21+. 

Need more Boston Theatre News in your life? Sign up for all the news on the Winter season, discounts & more...