Music Inn

Tucked away amidst the gently rolling Berkshire Mountains, in Lenox, Massachusetts, something magical happened between 1951 and 1960 at a place called Music Inn. Under the stewardship of Stephanie and Philip Barber, Music Inn marked a turning point in the history of music in America. Virtually next door to the Boston Symphony's Tanglewood Music Festival, the Inn evolved from a midsummer haven for some of America's greatest jazz and folk musicians and performers, through a period of jazz and folk "Roundtables" and then "Workshops" including scholars and critics, culminating in the first School of Jazz -- where earnest and talented students learned from and performed with accomplished masters. Frequent participation of students and performers from Tanglewood stimulated cross-fertilization between classical music and jazz. Music Inn was an undeniable force in the emergence of jazz from crowded and smoky urban clubs into concert halls