From the genesis, the “advancement and material gain to the Berkshires” was the first concern of the Berkshire Symphonic Festival, with classical music a means rather than an end.
“Throughout my life I have envisioned the establishment of a great music and art center in the world. The United States of America can and are destined to have such a center. American freedom is the best soil for it.”
-- Serge Koussevitzky
Before the first white men settled in Berkshire County, the 500 acres in the northeast corner of Stockbridge that would one day be the Tanglewood Music Festival, were common ground -- land set aside by the Housatunnuck for the benefit of the whole tribe.
