American Composers and the Tanglewood Music Center
The Tanglewood Music Center has promoted American composers since its inception in 1940, when founder Serge Koussevitzky appointed Aaron Copland as Head of the Composition Department. Copland's music had been championed by Koussevitzky and the BSO since the early 1920s, helping him to become the most prominent American composer at the time of his Tanglewood appointment. Within a few years he was further recognized with a Pulitzer Prize for his Appalachian Spring. Copland held various roles with the Music Center for nearly 25 years, including Chairman of the Faculty. U.S.-born or naturalized composition students ranging from Leonard Bernstein, Lukas Foss, Ulysses Kay, Jacob Druckman, Julia Perry, George Crumb, David Del Tredici, Shulamit Ran, Michael Gandolfi, August Read Thomas, Han Lash, Anthony Cheung, and Kate Soper, to name a few, have studied on the Tanglewood campus during the center's 85-year history. In 1963, Gunther Schuller joined the Composition faculty and began a twenty-plus year relationship with the TMC, including serving as Artistic Director for 13 seasons (from 1970-1984, with two leaves of absence). Under his leadership, the Festival of Contemporary American Music (today's FCM) and the Contemporary Trends series (today's Popular Artist series) were born. Under subsequent leadership—Leon Fleisher, Ellen Highstein, and Ed Gazouleas—the Tanglewood Music Center continues to nurture the next generation of American (and other) talent.
Aaron Copland and Serge Koussevitzky
Ever the champion of American composers, Serge Koussevitzky selected Aaron Copland to be the Head of Composition at Koussevitzky’s fledging summer music school at Tanglewood.
Photograph by Viktor Kraft, courtesy of Library of Congress
The Copland Era: 1940-1965
1941 Brochure for the Berkshire Music Center
Information about the Composition Department during the Center’s second season.
Aaron Copland provides a harmonic analysis for TMC composition students, ca. 1949
Photograph by Howard S. Babbitt, Jr.
Julia Perry at Tanglewood, ca. 1949
Black composer Julia Perry would first attend Tanglewood in 1948 and 1949 as part of the vocal programs. In 1951, she returned as a composition student, the same year that Aaron Copland became chairman of the Tanglewood Music Center faculty board in the wake of founder Serge Koussevitzky's death.
Photograph by Irene Britton Smith, Helen Walker Hill Collection, Center for Black Music History, Columbia College, Chicago
Letter from TMC alumnus Lukas Foss to BSO program book annotator John Burk explaining how he identified as an American composer, October 1, 1943
Though born in Berlin, Foss immigrated with his Jewish family to the U.S. at the age of 15, and considered himself thoroughly American. He became a naturalized citizen in 1942. Prior to the BSO's premiere of his work The Prairie on October 15, 1943, Lukas Foss wrote to program annotator John Burk asking him to omit Foss’ birthplace from the program notes, because he felt the public would be confused. Although the program notes did ultimately mention Berlin, the composer's identity as an American was emphasized.
A meeting of two continents: Latin American students pose with American composers on faculty at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1946
Left to right, top row: Lukas Foss, Héctor Tosar, Juan Orrego-Salas, and Irving Fine. Bottom row: Raúl Spivak, Antonio Jose Estévez, Leonard Bernstein, Julián Orbón, Óscar Buenaventura and Alberto Ginastera.
Photographer unknown
Article by Aaron Copland highlighting young American composers, many of whom had ties to Tanglewood
Leonard Bernstein (’40, ’41, ‘42), Lukas Foss (’40, ’41, ‘42), Robert Palmer (’40), Harold Shapero (’40, ‘41) were all Tanglewood Music Center alumni by 1948, and Leonard Bernstein and Lukas Foss had even joined the Faculty back in 1946. To read the full article, click here.
New York Times Magazine, March 14, 1948
The Schuller Era: 1964-1984
Gunther Schuller and Erich Leinsdorf at Tanglewood, 1967
As a composition faculty member, Head of Contemporary Music Activities from 1966-1969, and TMC Artistic Director nearly continuously from 1970-1984, Gunther Schuller worked with BSO Music Director Erich Leinsdorf (1962-1969) to bring American contemporary music and composition students to Tanglewood. Schuller instituted and oversaw the fledging Festival of Contemporary American Music (which is now the present-day FCM) as well as the Contemporary Trends concerts (which became the present-day Popular Artist series), which often featured American rock, jazz, and folk musicians.
Photograph by Heinz Weissenstein (Whitestone Photo)
As the 1963 Associate Head of Composition at the Tanglewood Music Center, Lukas Foss analyses a score with composition fellows, including Shulamit Ran (far left, rear), David Del Tredici (center front, holding score), and William Thomas McKinley (hand on chin).
Photographer unknown
Erich Fromm, Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss and Gunther Schuller at Tanglewood, ca. 1964
Philanthropist Erich Fromm funded several contemporary music initiatives at the Tanglewood Music Center, including the 1964 Festival of Contemporary American Music, which would later become the Festival of Contemporary Music. Lukas Foss and Gunther Schuller were Composition faculty in 1964, with the latter serving as Acting Head.
Photograph by Heinz Weissenstein (Whitestone Photo)
Program book for August 15, 1965 Festival of Contemporary American Music
For its first two years, the Festival of Contemporary Music focused heavily on American music, often featuring works by recent alumni of the Music Center.
Listen: Excerpt from TMC alumnus Roger Reynolds' "Blind Men," performed as part of the Festival of Contemporary Music on August 15, 1966
Continuing the Legacy
Stefan Asbury conducts members of the TMC during the John Williams film composition seminar on August 18, 1998 as Richard Whalley's score to a scene from Fatal Attraction is performed.
John Williams sits in the front row with score in hand.
Photograph by Walter H. Scott
Program for the August 18, 1998 performance of music developed during the 1998 film composition seminar led by John Williams at the Tanglewood Music Center
To view the full program, please click here.
Listen: Excerpt from TMC Fellow Matthew Guerrieri conducting the TMC orchestra on August 18, 1998 in his own music for a segment of the film "Jaws"
First page and dedication of John Williams’ Just down West Street…on the left, composed in honor of the Tanglewood Music Center’s 75th anniversary in 2015
John Williams wrote the following about his work: "The prevailing wisdom has always stated, that for the aspiring young musician, there is only one successful path to Carnegie Hall. Similarly, the road to Tanglewood is quite clearly ... 'practice, practice, practice!' Having done that and more to earn their places here, the brilliant young members of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, on arriving in the Berkshires, might find themselves asking one of the locals ... 'how do you get to Tanglewood?'
'JUST DOWN WEST STREET... on the left' offers a simple directional guide from the monument in Lenox, and it is also the title of this little piece from which, I hope, the players of the TMC Orchestra might derive some small pleasure. It is also my hope that it might offer them a modest opportunity to remind us all of how lucky we are to have them."
A group of American composers pose together on the Tanglewood lawn in 2015
Left to right: Shulamit Ran (class of ’63, faculty), Yehudi Wyner (faculty), Eric Chasalow, James Primosch (class of ’84), and Augusta Read Thomas (class of ’89, faculty) at Tanglewood in 2015. The 75th anniversary of the Tanglewood Music Center brought together many alumni and former faculty of the music center.
Photographer unknown
Pianist Katherine Dowling bows with TMC composition alumnus Anthony Cheung (class of ‘05) following the performance of Cheung’s Roundabouts at Seiji Ozawa Hall, July 19, 2014
Photograph by Hilary Scott
A performance of Kate Soper's Helen Enfettered at the Festival of Contemporary Music on July 20, 2014
Photograph by Hilary Scott