Orchestra running wild

Just underway this afternoon!
On June 29, at 2 p.m., at the entrance to Symphony Hall at 301 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, BSO bassist Todd Seeber, along with 20 other musicians and staff members, as well as a life trustee, will begin a relay run, introduced by a brass fanfare and starter pistol, to the main gate of Tanglewood, to mark the opening of the 2009 season. The run will continue over 33 legs, each between 3.5 and 7 miles, and will arrive at the Tanglewood Main Gate at approximately 1:15 p.m. on June 30, in anticipation of the first BSO rehearsal at Tanglewood on July 1 and the opening night program on July 3, featuring an all-Tchaikovsky program led by BSO Music Director James Levine. Tanglewood is the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra located in Lenox, MA.
A group of 26 runners—fourteen Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops musicians, several of their family members, six staff members, and a life trustee—will run the 150 miles cross state relay. Each leg will be run by one to four participants. The average run pace will be 6 miles an hour or 10-minute miles. BSO bassist Todd Seeber and BSO violinist James Cooke, both longtime runners, conceived of the Run to Tanglewood. In addition to Seeber and Cooke, BSO musicians participating in the run include principal violist Steven Ansell, associate principal violist Cathy Basrak, violist Rachel Fagerberg (along with her two children), oboist John Ferrillo, bassist Benjamin Levy, cellist Alex LeCarme, horn player Jonathan Menkis, bassoonist Richard Ranti (with his wife and two children), and principal horn James Sommerville.
The Lenox community will be invited to Tanglewood to cheer the runners on the final leg of the run from the Tanglewood Main Gate to the Tappan House on the Tanglewood grounds. For further information about the run or to sponsor a runner, visit tanglewood.org/relay.