The Schmooze

Jews of Tanglewood

A Jewish Brahmin: Serge Koussevitsky was admired for his aristocratic bearing. Image by Photo By Egone, Courtesy BSO Archives

By Raphael Mostel August 10, 2012

• Aaron Copland owed much of his career to Serge Koussevitzky.

• Leonard Bernstein was in Tanglewood’s first class and became a Koussevitzky protégé and a worldwide symbol of Tanglewood.

A Jewish Brahmin: Serge Koussevitsky was admired for his aristocratic bearing. Image by Photo By Egone, Courtesy BSO Archives

• Paul Fromm was insired by Koussevitsky to create the Fromm Music Foundation to support new music.

• Erich Leinsdorf inaugurated Tanglewood’s Festival of Contemporary Music with funding from Fromm.

• James Levine, until recent ill health forced his resignation, presided over a new period of harmony following the rough transition caused by Ellen Highstein’s many changes when she took over directorship of the music center at the end of Seiji Ozawa’s long tenure.

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