September 15, 2008 Tanglewood brings performances to the Web Play video

(Prat Thakkar, NECN) - Before a whisper quiet audience in western Massachusetts this July, trumpets heralded the American premiere of famed US composer Elliot Carter's "Reflexions".

The performance was part of the festival of contemporary music at Tanglewood, in Lenox Massachusetts, the summer home of the Boston symphony orchestra. It was also part of the beginning of a new movement for the BSO and Tanglewood.

More than 70 years after setting the rolling hills alive with music, Tanglewood is now also taking to the internet, with Tanglewood-web-tv.

A video stream of the summer's performances. Captured in all their acoustic complexity for an at home concert experience... It's the only initiative of its kind by any major orchestra in the world... Rich Bradway is the associate director for e commerce and new media at the BSO...

In addition to hours of concerts, the site lets users branch off music...to do things like take a behind the scenes tour of Tanglewood, watch documentaries on Elliott Carter, and listen to interviews with musicians.

Tanglewood has always been more than a performance venue... For decades it's been home to the Tanglewood music center, a celebrated training ground for promising professional musicians... Among its alumni, conductors Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta and Seiji Ozawa. Fittingly, Tanglewood web TV also has an educational component... With videos from performance workshops. And the BSO is planning to add conducting

Bob Lentz is the president of permission TV, the company that worked with the BSO to create the web TV site...

More than 300,000 people do make it to Tanglewood each year. The tickets almost always sell out. But with Tanglewood web TV the BSO can now captivate audiences around the world. Putting the centuries old orchestral tradition on a digital age platform also gives the BSO a chance to do what much of the classical music industry has been attempting. Reach new young listeners.

While new listeners may automatically bring new revenue, the BSO is also looking to see if web TV itself can become a sound business investment. But for now all the concerts online are free... And that has got to be sweet music to every listener's ears.