Quarter Notes

The Carrie Peace Spirit of Volunteering Award honors an individual each year who exhibits unique devotion to Tanglewood through exceptional leadership, and many hours of hard work over the years. The award reflects the spirit and creativity of Carrie Peace, a local Berkshires resident who would sit at the Main Gate and answer many questions about the Tanglewood property from the many visitors. Carrie, along with her husband Arthur, took the initiative and instituted the practice of offering tours to visiting patrons. Carrie and Arthur Peace also wrote the first Guide’s Guide of Tanglewood.

Susan Price, this year’s honoree, reflects all the attributes of a successful volunteer, donating her personal time and effort to create the best possible experience for Tanglewood patrons. During her 20 years as a volunteer, Susan assumed many leadership roles across diverse Tanglewood projects, from exhibit docent to greeter, to Secretary of the BSAV, Co-Chair of Community Engagement and then Vice Chair of Tanglewood on the Executive Committee. She wrote the Greeters Training Guide, and also worked on launching our Coffee Talks events and volunteered for Tanglewood Family Fun Fest.

Susan’s journey with Tanglewood began as a teenager when she attended Tanglewood with “the Berkshires”, a summer camp. “Literally, that was the name of the camp,” says Susan, who says one of the highlights of the program was a day trip to attend a concert at Tanglewood. “Years later, I bought a summer home in the Berkshires, and the rest is history,” she adds. From attending hundreds of wonderful concerts to experiencing amazing fireworks over the Stockbridge Bowl to beginning as a volunteer working as a volunteer in the Visitor’s Center, she was hooked. “My ten years on the Executive Committee gave me the opportunity to not only learn a lot about the workings of this great volunteer organization but to attend meetings in Boston at the beautiful, historic Symphony Hall,” she says.

Because of her involvement as a Tanglewood volunteer, Susan can recount many wonderful concerts she heard, and many special relationships with other volunteers and staff that resulted in many lasting friendships. “These are invaluable experiences that you cannot replicate,” she says, and the experiences keep coming. This past summer, she can point to two- “The concert with Emmanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, and Leonidas Kavakos, because not only was their performance wonderful but you could see how much they enjoyed playing together by their facial expressions of joy, and the last concert, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, performed by the wonderful Fellows Orchestra, and a fantastic way to end the season!”