Cynthia Erivo does not simply sing a song — she excavates it, finding the emotional bedrock under the melody and then building the whole performance back up from there. On Friday, August 21, 2026, that voice arrives at Tanglewood, where Erivo joins the Boston Pops for a single evening under the Koussevitzky Music Shed. It is the kind of pairing the Berkshires were made for: one of the most decorated performers of her generation, backed by a full pops orchestra, in a setting built for exactly this scale of music.
About Cynthia Erivo
Erivo’s résumé reads like a checklist for the rarest tier of performer. Her 2015 Broadway turn in the revival of The Color Purple earned her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical and the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album, and a Daytime Emmy followed in 2018. That leaves her famously one Oscar shy of an EGOT — a conversation that has trailed her through film roles including her Academy Award–nominated portrayal of Harriet Tubman in Harriet and, more recently, Wicked. She is a three-time Oscar nominee and, in 2025, hosted the Tony Awards herself.
What makes her live is harder to put on a list. The breath control and dynamic range are practically classical, but the phrasing comes straight out of gospel and R&B — a combination that lets her sit inside a ballad as easily as she can blow the roof off one. At Tanglewood, with conductor Anthony Parnther on the podium and Mark Meadows serving as music director, those instincts get the orchestral weight they deserve.
Venue Info
Tanglewood is the BSO’s summer home in Lenox, and the Koussevitzky Music Shed is its grand room — open at the sides, acoustically generous, with the lawn rolling back into the Berkshire dark behind it. Bring a blanket and a bottle of wine for the lawn, or take a Shed seat if you want every nuance of Erivo’s phrasing to land. There is no bad way to spend an August night here. Read our full Tanglewood guide before you go.
Tickets & Pricing
The show is on sale now for the 8 p.m. performance. Given the size of Erivo’s profile and the single-night booking, this is not one to leave to the week-of.
Check ticket availability and pricing here.
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