What began as a casual local history inquiry ended as a mutual tribute between Maestro John Williams and the Town of Lenox in commemoration of his 90th birthday.
Lenox Select Board Member Marybeth Mitts presents a resolution on behalf of the Town of Lenox to John Williams, celebrating his 90th birthday
It was the fall of 2019. Lenox Library Director Amy Lafave had just announced that she was stepping down to fill the newly created position of local history librarian. Her curiosity was piqued by an claim made by the new owner of Blantyre that some of the music for the Harry Potter franchise written by Williams had been composed at the Lenox resort.
Unable to verify this assertion, at a subsequent board meeting, Lafave asked the Lenox Library Association Trustees if anyone had a personal connection to the composer. Yes, said Danielle Stern. After much back and forth, we were able to corroborate the story.
Resolution presented to Serge Koussevitzky on his 70th birthday in 1944. Part of the Tanglewood Collection at the Lenox Library
Going through this process of discovery made us want to honor this man for his many accomplishments. But how should we do that? We had a model in our Special Collections – a Resolution granted by the Town of Lenox in 1944 to Dr. Serge Koussevitzky, director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, in honor of his 70th birthday. We created a similar document for Maestro Williams (adding a score of years), and made arrangements with his team to have a brief ceremony, held in the Sedgwick Reading Room. We were joined by Rep. Smitty Pignatelli, representing the 4th Berkshire District, who presented his own resolution on behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Both resolutions included references to Williams composing during his summer sojourns in Lenox. In doing so, he joins a select group of creators including Herman Melville and Edith Wharton, who were inspired by their Berkshire surroundings. In his response, Williams said, “I’ve always felt inspired by this magical place which clearly has a great place in American literary history…and the town of Lenox…I love it very dearly.”
After the presentation, we gave Williams a tour of the Music Department. He marveled at the size of the score collection and the liveliness of the acoustics in the Dome Room. He was mildly disappointed that the weather was too humid to open the cover of Lucy Walker’s 1829 pianoforte – when told that it hadn’t been tuned since 1960, he said wryly, “Oh, I didn’t expect it to be in tune.”
The maestro joined us for a reception in the Welles Gallery, complete with birthday cake, arranged by a team led by Development Director Maria Lynch. Williams promised, “If you’re going to treat me like this when I’m 90, I will come back and see you when I’m 100.”
Watch the presentation here: