Tanglewood Learning Institute

Franz Schubert’s devastating masterpiece Winterreise (“Winter’s Journey”), arguably the greatest of all Lieder cycles, traces the psychological and imagistic path of a lonely man setting off on his own after rejection by his hoped-for love, and in that rejection in turn rejects the company of society altogether. Based on poems by Wilhelm Müller (1794-1827)—whose texts Schubert had set for his great 1823 cycle Die schöne Müllerin—Winterreise was one of Schubert’s final works, and like his late chamber music, solo piano works, and symphonies, is as innovative and powerful a work as we find in all the aesthetic exploration and heightened individuality of the European Romantic century.

An ice slab hangs by a singer and pianist as they embark on Franz Schubert's Winterreise. As they venture into the cycle’s twenty-four songs, the music begins to dissolve. Nearly imperceptible at first, it fragments at a rate correlated to two hundred years of glacial ice melt. Momentary gaps widen into chasms, bridged only by orphaned pitch and timbral material. Rare bursts of intact music emerge like stands of old-growth forest — memories of a nature, a winter, that once was. 

Between the remains of Schubert's score, the sounds of glaciers, traffic-clogged highways, electricity’s hum, rushing water, trees in wind, birdsong, human words. Field recordings and the disintegrating music weave together and reverberate through the melting ice. 

In postWinterreise, music, sound, ice, and water are cyclically linked in a dramaturgy of environmental and physical transformation — asking who we will become in a world where winter itself is becoming a memory.

Hub New Music performs Daniel Wohl's UFO-inspired piece, Mirage. Wohl has been noted as one of his generation's most “imaginative, skillful creators” (New York Times) for works that seamlessly merge electronic and acoustic sounds to create immersive experiences for listeners. In Mirage, the composer asks, “Are UFOs just products of our imagination, projections of our hopes, or something truly alien?” Wohl will also join Hub New Music on piano and electronics for the premiere performance of specially made arrangements from his 2019 album, État.

“I am alive because of music,” a phrase echoed by many composers and artists living under Nazi tyranny — captures how faith and music became deeply intertwined sources of resistance, comfort, and survival. Figures such as Olivier Messiaen, Arnold Schoenberg, and the composers imprisoned in the Terezín concentration camp drew on these forces to create works of remarkable resilience. Fulbright Holocaust music scholar Mark Ludwig explores several of these inspiring compositions, presented alongside live performances of piano and vocal music.

Tenor and frequent TLI collaborator Nicholas Phan’s signature recital program Fellow Citizens delves into stories of immigration and migration through compositional voices ranging from Schubert and Dvořák to Errollyn Wallen and Mohammed Fairouz. Opening with “God Bless America,” Irving Berlin’s musical prayer of thanksgiving to the nation that gave him refuge as a child fleeing pogroms in Russia, Fellow Citizens reflects on two competing narratives about U.S. history: one that asserts that America is for Americans and another that celebrates the country as a nation of immigrants.

This performance will be followed by a Meet the Makers conversation with the performers.

Join Magnum photographer Peter van Agtmael for a talk centered on his acclaimed book Look at the USA, a powerful photographic exploration of America’s contradictions, complexities, and everyday realities. Van Agtmael will discuss the stories behind the images and reflect on his personal ties to the Berkshires and Tanglewood, where his family history deepens his long engagement with place and memory. An afternoon of images, insight, and conversation about how we see America today.

World Premiere. A reading, with music, of Uwe Wittstock’s February 1933: The Winter of Literature, abridged by acclaimed German novelist-playwright Daniel Kehlmann. Directed by Tony-nominated Knud Adams and featuring music supervised by composer/pianist Dan Schlosberg, the piece traces the swift collapse of Weimar Germany’s literary world — following figures like Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht — as Hitler’s rise forces choices of flight, complicity, or defiance. February 1933 resonates powerfully with the perils of present-day American democracy and the ongoing fight to preserve the freedoms to read and write.

This performance will be followed by a Meet the Makers conversation with the creative team.

Pianist Adam Tendler transforms personal loss into luminous art with Inheritances, a collection of 16 commissioned works exploring memory, grief, and renewal. What began as an unexpected inheritance became a bold act of generosity when Tendler invited composers including Laurie Anderson, Devonté Hynes, Nico Muhly, and Missy Mazzoli to create new pieces in dialogue with his own reflections. Recently featured on CBS Sunday Morning and a 2026 GRAMMY-nominee for Best Classical Instrumental Solo, the result is a deeply human meditation on what we carry and what we release.

Laurie Anderson presents a drone-based sonic experience utilizing guitars from her late husband Lou Reed’s collection. The installation, performed by Reed's former guitar tech, Stewart Hurwood, places the instruments in an arrangement against a group of amplifiers so that their tuned feedback creates an enveloping drone of harmonics that shifts and changes, depending on the audience's location. A roster of guest artists, curated by Anderson, will rotate every hour.

Visionary artist Laurie Anderson brings her incisive voice and boundless imagination to Tanglewood in The Republic of Love, an evening of music and storytelling that reflects on America’s past and present. Reexamining works such as “Big Science” and “Language Is a Virus,” and weaving in the words of Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, John Cage, Gertrude Stein, and others, Anderson — joined by the genre-defying ensemble Sexmob and other special guests — creates a concert that is provocative, intimate, and ultimately a celebration of artistic freedom.

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein and Boston’s self-conducted chamber orchestra A Far Cry present the Goldberg Variations, reimagining Bach’s iconic keyboard masterpiece in revelatory, unexpected ways as a living dialogue for piano and string orchestra. Created by Criers Alex Fortes and Sarah Darling with Dinnerstein, who is famous for her solo recording of the work, the collaboration explores each variation and the worlds within to reveal new facets of the Goldbergs renowned mathematical structure and emotional journey. The culmination of a four-day residency at TLI, this performance and Meet the Makers talkback with the creators features their newly cemented arrangement of the Goldbergs in anticipation of recording together in Fall of 2026.