BSO Announces Party-Packed 2010 Tanglewood Season

BOSTON — 2010 will be a big party year at Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home in the Berkshires.

Musicians, composers, conductors and alumni will toast the 40th anniversary of the Tanglewood Chorus, the organization’s all-volunteer, 300-member choir.

And prolific Hollywood composer John Williams celebrates his 30th anniversary.

And the Tanglewood Music Center, which was started in 1940 by legendary BSO music director Serge Koussevitsky, turns 70 this summer.

Some of the upcoming summer’s highlights:

• Former BSO Music Director Seiji Ozawa returns to lead Ravels “Daphnis and Chloe” in July.

• James Taylor and Carole King return to Tanglewood to celebrate Independence Day.

• Some of the BSO’s favorite conductors are also on deck, including Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos and Christop von Dohnanyi.

• Health permitting, Maestro James Levine will deliver a fully-staged performance of the Strauss Opera, “Ariadne auf Naxos” in August.

• Also that month, pianist Richard Goode, known for his performances and recordings of Beethoven, will perform works by Mozart and Tchaikovsky.

For BSO Managing Director Mark Volpe, the return of Seiji Ozawa has special meaning.

Reached on the phone heading out to Tanglewood, he said: “For Seiji it’s a spiritual space. Beyond the fact that he came here in the 60s with Leonard Bernstein, he also was able to bring his wife and family along.”

Volpe added that Seiji Ozawa still owns a home in the Berkshires.