Tanglewood’s Winter Season Features Young Virtuosos of Classic Styles

As autumn settles into the Berkshires, Tanglewood’s Linde Center becomes a den of creativity and performance. The summer crowds are gone, but the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s year-round home doesn’t hibernate. Through the Tanglewood Learning Institute’s fall and winter series of programming, two young musicians steeped in tradition punctuate a slate of off-season activity. 

Raphaël Feuillâtre strums his award-winning classical guitar November 1, and vocalist Stella Cole saunters into town December 13 for a holiday ride through the American songbook. They both represent a new generation finding new life in old forms.

Raphaël Feuillâtre: World Traveling Troubadour, November 1 

“It’s going to be my first time at Tanglewood,” Feuillâtre says via Zoom from France. “I’m looking forward to it.” 

At 29, Feuillâtre has already become one of the world’s most visible classical guitarists. After winning the Guitar Foundation of America’s top competition in 2018, he toured North America extensively, a 50-concert tour all over the US and Canada. 

Born in Djibouti and raised in France, he joined famed classical German music publisher Deutsche Grammophon’s roster in 2023. Feuillâtre’s albums offer a throwback elegance with sparkling modern clarity and playfulness. 

What keeps him engaged is the guitar’s reach. “Classical guitar’s (genre) is very large—you can play Latin music, Spanish, Balkan, whatever,” Feuillâtre says. “I’ve just found whatever I needed in this repertoire, and my interest has stayed—and it’s developing.” 

His Tanglewood performance will center on the Spanish and Latin American compositions that have been to his liking lately.

He described his Tanglewood program as one that “carries the soul of the guitar… it has passion (and) a theme of love.” 

When it comes to resurrecting historic songs Feuillâtre doesn’t think of himself as a preservationist. “Every artist has to choose what really interests him,” he says. “I don’t think the music needs my responsibility—it’s going to perpetuate itself. I’m not conservative in my repertoire.” 

Feuillâtre’s performance in TLI’s Studio E is emblematic of the off-season series as a whole: intimate, acoustic precision before an experienced audience that he expects will  “probably know a lot about the form and are really discerning.” 

Stella Cole: The Songbook’s Digital-Age Interpreter, December 13

Cole, 26, approaches another kind of canon. Her jazz-trio show at the Linde Center, part of TLI’s new Jazz Series, revives mid-century standards for audiences that increasingly discover her on TikTok.

“I’ve been obsessed with this music since I was about two years old,” she says. “My parents were playing the movies from this era a lot. They showed me The Wizard of Oz, Singin’ in the Rain, The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins. I was obsessed. I asked to watch Wizard of Oz every day for a year.” 

Cole grew up in Springfield, Illinois, studied theater at Northwestern University, and now lives in New York City. Her early self-released recordings led to a major-label debut this year with DECCA Records / Universal Music. “That’s been a big deal for me,” she says. “My first album was crowdfunded. Now to sign with a historic label that had Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, it’s amazing.” 

Cole attributes the endurance of the Songbook to craftsmanship. “The melodies are just sort of perfect—a mix of catchy but sophisticated, beautifully written songs,” she says “They’re mostly love songs, and I can personally relate to them completely today, being 26 in New York.” 

Cole’s audience often spans generations. “A lot of people bring their kids, or 20-year-olds who found me on TikTok will bring their grandmothers,” she says. “It’s always nice when a whole family comes, because this music links generations.” 

Onstage, she performs with piano, bass, and drums, aiming to “create a sort of jazz-club vibe— very romantic.” 

It might be a timeless vibe but Cole says she doesn’t put on a persona. “They’re definitely getting me,” she says. “Sometimes the way I sing these songs makes me sound a bit Mid-Atlantic—but I feel very much myself on stage.” 

Year-Round Tanglewood Keeps Traditions Alive

Feuillâtre’s and Cole’s concerts are part of a larger expansion at Tanglewood. The Tanglewood Learning Institute’s 2025-26 season runs through May 2026, with more than 30 programs that range from chamber music and jazz to community and educational events.

The TLI Presents series opens with Feuillâtre’s performance and goes on to feature Catalyst Quartet’s Cinematic Refuge on November 14 and violinist Joshua Brown on Jan 30. The TLI Jazz series rolls on this fall with drummer Ulysses Owens Jr. & Generation Y November 7, Cole in December, and trumpeter Jumaane Smith May 9. Chamber Concerts by BSO members continue through winter as well and Holiday Brass concerts return December 19-21. The complete program can be found at Tanglewood.org.

Cole and Feuillâtre are both bringing songs of the past into the future. While Feuillâtre feels he doesn’t feel a need to be an ambassador for his chosen genre, Cole does see herself as a kind of bridge: “Once young people hear this music, they often really like it,” she says. “I think I’m just introducing them to something they didn’t know existed.”