Sculpture of Seiji Ozawa joins tributes to legendary figures at Tanglewood | Berkshire Landscapes

LENOX — The spirit of Seiji Ozawa, the Boston Symphony’s longest-serving conductor and music director, is now enshrined in a sculpture overlooking Ozawa Hall on the Tanglewood campus.

It’s in a landscaped plaza, also lit up at night in an especially stunning display.

The dynamic conductor, widely admired for his flair and command of wide-ranging symphonic and operatic repertoire, served at the BSO from 1973 to 2002. He died in February 2024 at the age of 88.

The bust by sculptor Penelope Jencks was unveiled at a private ceremony Monday, July 28, that she attended along with invited guests, including members of Ozawa’s family.

Previously, she designed busts of three BSO and Tanglewood icons — composer Aaron Copland, dedicated in 2012 in the formal gardens behind the Tappan House; Leonard Bernstein, completed in 2014 and on display inside the Highwood Manor House, and BSO Music Director and Tanglewood founder Serge Koussevitzky, unveiled near the main gate in 2019.

All were commissioned and generously funded by John Williams and his wife Samantha.

Williams and his daughter Jenny, a BSO trustee, attended Monday’s dedication, along with Ozawa’s daughter Seira and her son Masaki; BSO Trustee and former public relations director Caroline “Kim” Taylor; current BSO President and CEO Chad Smith, and retired BSO President-CEO Mark Volpe, who worked with Ozawa from 1997 to 2002.

Smith, a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow in 1997, sang in an opera by Poulenc conducted by Ozawa that year. While a student at Tufts University and New England Conservatory, Smith had attended many BSO concerts at Symphony Hall led by Ozawa.

“Seiji defined, for me, what an orchestra sounds like,” Smith told the crowd at Monday’s event, according to a summary provided by the BSO press office. He also expressed gratitude to Williams for the “artist to artist recognition” of Ozawa’s profound impact and friendship, described by Smith as “a handshake across time and tradition.”

He also praised Jencks for capturing in the sculpture “the multiplicity of moments we all shared with Seiji … an artist wise beyond his years but a child at heart who never lost the spark and joy of making music, which endeared him to audiences around the world.”

Jencks is well known for her sculpture of Eleanor Roosevelt in Manhattan’s Riverside Park; the Samuel Eliot Morison “Sailor, Historian” at Commonwealth Avenue and Exeter Street in Boston, and the 2007 portrait of Robert Frost at Amherst College.

Other guests at the ceremony included Yo-Yo Ma, James Taylor and Emanuel Ax, who had performed the world premiere of Williams’ new Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with the BSO on Friday, July 26, in the Koussevitzky Music Shed. Several of the 39 current BSO musicians who joined during Ozawa’s tenure attended, including BSO assistant principal oboe Keisuke Wakao, hired in 1990.

After a brief musical program, Kim Taylor, who worked closely with both Ozawa and Williams, recalled how Williams first hatched the idea to place sculptures “like Easter eggs” on the grounds to honor the pantheon of Tanglewood’s spiritual leaders.

Seira Ozawa remembered fondly the 29 summers she spent at Tanglewood at the family’s summer home in West Stockbridge.

Expressing heartfelt gratitude for the tribute to her father, she described the look of surprise and joy on his face when she told him his good friend John Williams was planning the sculpture.

Then, with Jencks and Kim Taylor, Seira Ozawa removed the cloth covering the sculpture as Williams and the other guests applauded.

Later, Volpe, the former BSO chief executive, told The Eagle that “it was wonderful to have John and Penelope together, unveiling yet another bust of a Tanglewood legend, this time Seiji Ozawa. It was John’s vision to honor the individuals who made Tanglewood a spiritual home for music.”

Volpe cited the many hours Williams worked with Jencks, beginning in 2004, “to capture the essence of Koussevitzky, Copland, Bernstein and Ozawa and an equal amount of time working with the team at Tanglewood to find the most striking setting for each icon.”

At a June 2019 event dedicating the sculpture of Koussevitzky, Williams recalled his 1980 conducting debut at the BSO’s summer home: “From the very first day, it has taken my heart. I love this place deeply,” he said.