Tanglewood Festival Chorus

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The Tanglewood Festival Chorus is a chorus which performs with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops in major choral works. The Tanglewood Festival Chorus (TFC) was organized in the spring of 1970, when founding conductor John Oliver became director of vocal and choral activities at the Tanglewood Music Center, the summer home of the BSO. It comprises the voices of over 250 musicians who give their time and talents on a voluntary basis.

In February 1998, singing from the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations, the chorus represented the United States when Seiji Ozawa led the Winter Olympics Orchestra with six choruses on five continents, all linked by satellite, in the Ode to Joy from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony to close the Opening Ceremonies of the 1998 Winter Olympics. In December 1994 the chorus joined Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra for tour performances in Hong Kong and Japan, the chorus's first performance overseas.

Originally formed for performances at the BSO's summer home, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus is the official chorus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops Orchestra year-round, performing in Boston, New York and Tanglewood. The group has also collaborated with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra on numerous recordings, including Mahler's Second, Third, and Eighth symphonies, Strauss's Elektra, Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder, and Bartók's The Miraculous Mandarin, on Philips; Mendelssohn's complete incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream, on Deutsche Grammophon; and Berlioz's Requiem, Fauré's Requiem, and Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame, on RCA Victor Red Seal. Also for Philips, with the BSO under Bernard Haitink's direction, the chorus has recorded Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé and Brahms's Alto Rhapsody and Nänie. They can also be heard on the RCA Victor discs "A Splash of Pops" and "Holiday Pops" with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Orchestra, as well as on two Christmas albums--"Joy to the World," on Sony Classical, and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," on Philips--with John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra. The Tanglewood Festival Chorus can also be heard on the soundtracks of two movies, Saving Private Ryan and Mystic River. James Taylor's wife is a member of the chorus, some of whom can also be heard as a "virtual" backing group for his 2007 UK tour.