The Boston Symphony announced yesterday that its new 1,180-seat concert hall on the grounds of the Tanglewood Festival in Lenox, Mass., would be named after Seiji Ozawa, the orchestra's music director. The hall will be inaugurated on July 7 at a concert featuring such longtime Tanglewood artists as John Williams, Yo-Yo Ma, Peter Serkin and Jessye Norman.
The Seiji Ozawa Hall, which was designed by William Rawn Associates of Boston at a cost of $9.7 million, becomes Tanglewood's secondary venue after the Shed, which houses major orchestra concerts. The new space will house more intimate concerts, student presentations and rehearsals, and may also serve as a recording studio.
The Seiji Ozawa Hall is part of an expansion that began in 1987 with the Boston Symphony's purchase of an adjacent property known as the Highwood Estate. The acquisition adds 120 acres to Tanglewood's grounds. The educational arm of Tanglewood will occupy Highwood and will be known as the Leonard Bernstein Campus.