Fall/Winter 2016/2017 LB: the Tanglewood Rituals © RUTH ORKIN RUTH © by Richard Ortner
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News for Friends of Leonard Bernstein Fall/Winter 2016/2017 LB: The Tanglewood Rituals © RUTH ORKIN by Richard Ortner ne magnificent shrug of the shoulders, eyebrows raised -- and they were off! The Tanglewood OMusic Center Orchestra was again playing beyond its years, as if their lives depended on it. A singular moment, poised in time? Yes, but – miraculously – that singu- lar moment was repeated every summer, as Leonard Bernstein made his yearly visit to Tanglewood. Tanglewood! What a complicated place for him. His personal history there; his complex relationships with Tangelwood founder, Serge Koussevitzky; with friend and mentor Aaron Copland; with Gunther Schuller and Seiji Ozawa; with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, some of whom he’d known for fifty years – and the place itself: surely a numinous, sometimes fraught, presence in his life. The Theater- Concert Hall, the Shed, the lake, the lawn, Seranak – memories everywhere, but the living energy of the place seeming always to revive and exhaust him at the same time. So much was asked of him. How much could he give in those short weeks? He needed to touch it all, to give everything, and so, across many years, his time at Tanglewood came to seem an enactment of rituals. RITUAL #1: Planning the Season. It always began with a relaxed, cordial win- ter meeting at Mr. B’s New York apartment Leonard Bernstein and Serge Koussevitzky, Tanglewood, 1947. in the Dakota building. His repertoire for the BSO would have been settled well before young Fellows of the Music Center? How ly fitted into the other activities that paved that, of course, but what repertoire was would we fit the students’ rehearsals into his the students’ Tanglewood summer. There he carrying that was right for the student BSO schedule? Decisions were made: rep- were the chamber music coachings, the sec- orchestra? And what pieces would fill out ertoire chosen, rehearsal schedules laid out, tionals, the classes, the concert attendance their other programs, conducted by the time allotted for each work – and all careful- (continued on page 2) 3 Artful Learning 5 Violeta Parra 8 In The News Inside... 4 Lenny’s Legacy 7 Remembering Gordon 11 Some Performances Davidson FW1617_PFR_art(16)_draft.indd 1 11/16/16 1:41 PM The Tanglewood Rituals, continued (continued from page 1) notes, the music-making was electric, – and especially Gunther Schuller’s transformational. White hot Berlioz; myriad rehearsals for the Fromm celestial, wrenching Tchaikovsky – Festival, Tanglewood’s annual week insisting that the orchestra live the of contemporary music. We fitted all passions of Romeo and Juliet, right eonard Bernstein’s Centennial the pieces together and left New York there, in that moment! Lwon’t kick off for another six happy. It was a beautiful, fragile thing, RITUAL #4: Meeting the Young months or so, but the festive that schedule... Conductors. Late afternoon, driving drumbeat is already audible. RITUAL #2: The Arrival. up the hill to Seranak, Koussevitzky’s Orchestras as well as opera, For many years LB’s preferred dwell- stately home above Tanglewood – a theatre and ballet companies are ing was the Aviary at Wheatleigh, place he had been so many times programming Bernstein works a romantic three-story tower near before, as student and teacher... tak- all over the world; universities are the Tanglewood campus (although ing his seat, he would meet that sum- planning symposia; museums are sheer hell on piano movers). Upon mer’s four Fellows and the fifteen- preparing exhibitions; screenings, arrival, Dan Gustin, Manager of or-so Seminar members. He truly books, and much more are all in Tanglewood, and I would present loved his one-on-one meetings with preparation. So stay tuned! ourselves to the Maestro and his busi- the Fellows, plumbing the depths of In this issue, we’re looking back ness manager, Harry Kraut. (Kraut at some of Bernstein’s high points – had been a Tanglewood manager There was something including memories of his beloved and, at one time, was Dan’s boss.) Tanglewood – while also seeing We had the required measure of good Puckish in his casual how his legacy presses ever forward: scotch in hand, for a wonderful long from the gifted young musician disruption – a hint evening – during which, infuriatingly, winning the Bernstein Award at the invariably, the entire rehearsal sched- Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, of a smile, a small glint ule so painstakingly worked out six to the growing achievements of the months earlier would be upended. Artful Learning model inspired by in his eye as we tore Days before launching into the most Bernstein’s own philosophies of complex weeks of the summer, things our hair… education. just had to change. (There was some- To conclude on a minor note: thing Puckish in his casual disruption their repertoire for the concert – but it is nearly unimaginable to wish – a hint of a smile, a small glint in his he didn’t love those classes. Hard- for Leonard Bernstein’s absence, eye as we tore our hair...) working, over-eager young talents in but the outcome of the recent U.S. the Seminar: terrified, awe-struck, elections would have so horrified RITUAL #3: The First Rehearsal. mesmerized, knowing he would catch him that one is almost grateful The Tanglewood Fellows had been every technical error... it was frankly he didn’t live to see it. All his life, waiting for this moment the entire boring for him. They wanted tech- Bernstein advocated fearlessly for summer (perhaps their entire lives). nical critique, and he was far more human rights of every kind – even The Maestro’s habit was to drive right interested in the music itself. as it earned him an 800-page FBI through the Main Gate (an activity file. Were he with us today, his voice forbidden to mere mortals) in a cham- RITUAL #5: Meeting the Young would be raised up in alarm. At least pagne-colored, vintage Mercedes con- Composers. In those years they were there is his music to comfort the vertible: a tank of a thing, top down, either writing impenetrably Boulezian rest of us -- and we would strongly assistants rampant, and going just a serial music or, increasingly, in the suggest to the incoming President little too fast. (There’s Puck again, 80s, departing from 12-tone ortho- that he pay careful attention to the courting the scandalized looks of his doxy into some pretty punk-inspired Prelude, Fugue & Riffs Prelude, song from Bernstein’s musical 1600 contemporaries: had enough time brutalisms. To that brash, self-confi- Pennsylvania Avenue, with lyrics by passed? Was it actually OK for a Jew dent group of twenty-somethings, LB Alan Jay Lerner: to drive a Mercedes?) represented a determinedly old fash- Take care of this house, The TMC Orchestra was on ioned compositional voice. Worse Be always on call. stage, tuned. Backstage, the stage yet, his career regularly transgressed Care for this house; crew, staff, student conductors, the bright line between art music and Fall/Winter 2016/2017 It’s the hope of us all. BSO principals, old Lenox friends “popular” music, and they were deep- lined up to greet him. With very ly suspicious of anyone who could J.B. ■ little fuss, up onto the podium, a succeed at both. And they simply had few kind words to the orchestra – no frame of reference for meeting about Tanglewood, about “Koussy,” the most glamorous conductor of the about the piece they were going to age. It was all too much – and yet they perform – and it began. From the first (continued on page 6) 2 FW1617_PFR_art(16)_draft.indd 2 11/16/16 1:41 PM Artful Learning: Full STEAM Ahead COURTESY PATRICK BOLEK COURTESY PATRICK by Patrick Bolek eonard Bernstein stated during Lthe Norton Lectures, “the best way to know a thing is in the context of another discipline.” That found- ing principle, initiated by the late maestro, led to the creation of Artful Learning – the transformative learn- ing model used by thousands of stu- dents every day. For over two decades now, the Artful Learning model has based its success on the concept that STEAM (science, technology, engi- neering, art and mathematics) is a more powerful approach to learning in the twenty-first century.Artful Learning professional development There was something has empowered teachers, leaders and ultimately students with a passion for Puckish in his casual critical thinking and creativity – mak- ing students ready for the changing disruption – a hint global landscape. of a smile, a small glint Case Study Meadow View Elementary BOLEK COURTESY PATRICK in his eye as we tore Learning framework can propel Award-winning School is an Artful Learning any STEAM initiative. The show- original LEGO our hair… Legacy School located in Castle case will be an immersive, one-day creations by Rock, CO. In two recent LEGO experience, moving participants Artful Learning Design Challenge events hosting 27 Legacy School through Artful Learning’s compo- schools throughout Colorado, both students at nents of experience, inquire, create Kindergarten and Grade 5 classes Meadow View and reflect. Highlights include from Meadow View took home First Elementary collaborative inquiry and investiga- Place honors. The teachers attribute School. tion at the Goddard Space Flight their students’ success to the daily Center, culminating with a group practice of collaboration through Original Creation demonstrating a the Artful Learning model – deriv- metaphoric representation of what ing multiple perspectives to solve any the children have absorbed from the problem. Judges commented on the experience. authenticity of the students’ critical thinking processes to arrive at their Arts Partnership original and creative outcomes. ArtsBridge – a division of the “An artistically holistic education Mondavi Performing Arts Center at the University of California at Davis out-thinks science-focused educa- Prelude, Fugue & Riffs Prelude, tion.