(LENOX, Mass.) – Tanglewood on Parade, a family-friendly highlight of every summer cultural season – a sort of show-and-tell of all that Tanglewood has to offer, including an easy-listening variety show of classical music greatest hits and a stunning display of fireworks, takes place on Tuesday, August 2, 2011.

One of the festival’s most beloved traditions, Tanglewood on Parade offers patrons the chance to see all of the festival’s orchestras perform in a single extended concert. Conductors Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Christoph Eschenbach, John Williams, and Stefan Asbury will share the podium for a program that will include John Williams’s Sound the Bells! and Suite from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (led by Mr. Williams), the Prelude to Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (led by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos), Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet (led by Christoph Eschenbach), and Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music (led by Stefan Asbury).

The performance of Serenade to Music will be in honor of soprano and long-time TMC Faculty member Phyllis Curtin, in anticipation of her 90th birthday this December. Curtin’s connection to the TMC dates back to 1946, when she came to Tanglewood to study with Boris Goldovsky in the Opera Department and performed in the American premiere of Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes. Curtin, who lives in Great Barrington, Mass., began her teaching career with the TMC in 1964, and more than 40 years later, has earned the reputation as one of America’s most successful teachers of singing.

As always, the evening will draw to a dramatic close with the traditional Tanglewood on Parade finale, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture (led by Mr. Frühbeck de Burgos), followed by fireworks over the Stockbridge Bowl.

The day’s festivities kick off at 2 p.m. at Tanglewood’s Main Gate with brass fanfares, heralding the start of a day of performances by the young musicians of the Tanglewood Music Center, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and members of the BSO, and culminates in an 8:30 p.m. gala evening concert.

Fellows from the Tanglewood Music Center (the BSO’s prestigious summer music academy for young professional musicians) and high school students from BUTI will be featured in performances throughout the day in Ozawa Hall, the Theatre, and the Chamber Music Hall. BSO violinist Bonnie Bewick, BSO bassist Benjamin Levy, and friends will present a program of folk music from around the world on the Manor House Lawn at 5:30 p.m. Fanfares led by Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellows will take place in the Shed at 8 p.m. leading up to the evening’s gala concert.

Full-day family activities include Bonaparte, Boston’s premier magician, who will roam the grounds providing impromptu family entertainment; and a team of face painters, who will be located near the main gate. Special guest Dr. Donald Lubowich, from Hofstra University’s Astronomy Outreach Program, will offer star-gazing for children and adults with telescope observations of the sun, moon, Jupiter, star clusters, and nebulae. An Instrument Playground for children and music lovers of all ages will be available on the porch of the Theatre from 2 to 4 p.m. Free tours of the Tanglewood grounds will be available from 3 to 7:30 p.m.

The Tanglewood Music Center Fellowship Program is the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer academy for advanced musical study, founded in 1940 by Serge Koussevitzky. The TMC offers an intensive schedule of study and performance for emerging professional instrumentalists, singers, conductors, and composers who have completed most of their formal training in music. The Tanglewood Music Center also offers programs for orchestral librarians, audio engineers, piano technicians, and publications professionals.

The Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI) is recognized internationally as the premiere summer training program for aspiring high school-age musicians and is the only program of its kind associated with one of the world’s great symphony orchestras. Since BUTI’s founding, many of its alumni have gone on to illustrious careers in classical music, including dozens that perform in the top orchestras in the country.

Tickets for Tanglewood on Parade range from $21-$102, and are available through Tanglewood’s website, Tanglewood, through SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200, or by visiting the Symphony Hall Box Office at 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA or the Tanglewood Box Office at Tanglewood’s Main Gate on West Street in Lenox, MA. Tanglewood’s Children’s Lawn Ticket Program provides free lawn seating to children and young adults aged 17 and under. Up to four free children’s tickets are available per parent/legal guardian per concert at the Tanglewood Box Office the day of the concert. The 2011 Tanglewood free lawn ticket program is supported by a generous gift from the Samuel Rapaporte, Jr. Family Foundation.