Times have changed, but the formula remains stuck in 1949. The wealth disparities between neighboring towns simply did not exist at anything like their current scale. The founders of the regional school system could not have foreseen the inequity their formula has imposed on most towns today.
I have never seen such a beautiful setup in my life. I’ve been conducting the orchestra every morning & I’m playing my first concert tomorrow night. Kousss gave me the hardest & longest number of all – the second symphony of Randall Thompson. 30 minutes long – a modern American work – as my first performance, and Kouss is so pleased with my work.
-- Leonard Bernstein
“We feel it our duty to hand down the old treasures of Musical Culture to American Youth. Enriched by this culture, the Young People of America will carry it further to new achievement.”
-- Serge Koussevitsky, upon the opening of Tanglewood Music Center in 1940