Gabriela Ortiz Curates Tanglewood’s Festival of Contemporary Music
Gabriela Ortiz curates six concerts of chamber and orchestral music as the 2025 director of Tanglewood’s Festival of Contemporary Music this July.
This summer, composer Gabriela Ortiz is the 2025 director of Tanglewood’s Festival of Contemporary Music (July 24–28) in Lenox, Massachusetts, presenting six chamber and orchestral concerts that explore themes of identity, tradition and ritual, and migration. She also will be in conversation with Anthony (Tony) Fogg, the BSO’s Vice President of Artistic Planning, as part of his weekly Talks and Walks series.
Founded in 1964, the Festival of Contemporary Music (FCM) is a cornerstone of Tanglewood’s summer season, showcasing today’s musical landscape alongside landmark 20th-century works, and fostering collaboration between living composers and Tanglewood Music Center Fellows.
Over the course of four days, Ortiz curates programs centered on topics such as percussion music from the Americas (featuring the Mexican ensemble Tambuco), migration and exile, and the natural world. Her own works appear throughout, alongside those of her contemporaries, including Ellen Reid, Gabriella Smith, and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon. Highlights include Altar de muertos, a virtuosic string quartet inspired by the Day of the Dead, and Liquid Borders, a percussion quartet meditating on the impact of territorial divisions in the world.
The festival closes on July 28 with Ortiz’s 2015 flute concerto Altar de Viento, performed by soloist Alejandro Escuer and the TMC Orchestra conducted by Thomas Wilkins. Written for Escuer, the concerto reflects on wind as an ancestral sound and invisible force. Ortiz explains: “For Alejandro, his true instrument is not the flute, but the wind. For me, the altar—a raised place—pays tribute to wind and sound. By listening before seeing, we arrive at a space of deepest intimacy.”
Altar de Viento is one of eight works in Ortiz’s series of “musical altars,” which also includes Altar de fuego for orchestra, Altar de piedra for three percussionists and orchestra, and Altar de cuerda for violin and orchestra (recently recorded by violinist María Dueñas, Gustavo Dudamel, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic on the GRAMMY-winning album Revolución diamantina).
TANGLEWOOD 2025 FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
July 24–28 | Lenox, Massachusetts
Events are free except those with an *
More info
Jul 24 at 1pm: Ortiz in conversation with Anthony Fogg, Talks and Walks*
* Part of Tanglewood Festival programming (requires ticket purchase)
Jul 24 at 8pm: Ortiz and the Mexican Tradition
ORTIZ Tin-Tan – Fanfarria y Mambo
ORTIZ Puzzle-Tocas
ORTIZ Tres Haikus
CHÁVEZ Cantos de Mexico
LAVISTA Reflejos de la noche
SYRSE Mi Canto
ORTIZ Río Bravo
Jul 25 at 2:30pm: Mexico, Cuba, the US, and one hundred years of percussion
Tambuco
ORTIZ Río de mariposas
LAVISTA Musicas de cristal
CHÁVEZ Xochipilli
ROLDÁN Ritmica V and VI
VARÈSE Ionisation
ORTIZ Pico-Bite-Beat
Jul 26 at 2:30pm: Music of Migration and Exile
Tambuco
ORTIZ Exilios
DERBEZ Transit
ZOHN-MULDOON Suite from Comala
ORTIZ Liquid Borders
Jul 26 at 6pm: Prelude Concert
SMITH Carrot Revolution
ORTIZ Altar de muertos
Jul 27 at 2:30pm: Boston Symphony Orchestra *
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Lang Lang, piano
ORTIZ La Calaca for string orchestra
SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto No. 2
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6, Pastoral
* Part of Tanglewood Festival programming (requires ticket purchase)
Jul 27 at 10am: The Natural World
ORTIZ Cedrus
ORTIZ Pigmentum
ORTIZ Trifolium
ORTIZ Vitrales de ambar
MÁRQUEZ Dibujos sobre un puerto
REID West Coast Sky Forever
Jul 28 at 8pm: TMC Orchestra Perform Ortiz, Reid, and Smith *
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Thomas Wilkins, conductor
Leonard Weiss, TMC Conducting Fellow, Yiran Zhao, TMC Conducting Fellow
Alejandro Escuer, flute
SMITH Bioluminescence Chaconne
ORTIZ Altar de Viento
REID When the World as You've Known It Doesn't Exist
ORTIZ Hominum—Concierto for Orchestra
* Part of Tanglewood Festival programming (requires ticket purchase)
Full program details and ticketing information for the 2025 Tanglewood season may be found at tanglewood.org.
Photo: Aram Boghosian