Join us for a special opportunity to listen and learn from Native American artists visiting Tanglewood and the Berkshires on Sunday, August 2, 2026.

Passamaquoddy educator and singer Chris Newell joins renowned Vermont fiddler and teaching artist Ida Mae Specker for a new Tanglewood Learning Institute interactive family concert premiering this summer. Through songs, storytelling, rhythm games, and audience participation, the program invites families to experience how music connects people to community, culture, and the natural world.

In 2025, Specker and Newell began collaborating with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and others on projects exploring connections between music, community, and nature across the Northeast.

Tanglewood Studio E
Linde Center for Music and Learning
3 W Hawthorne Rd, Lenox, MA 01240
Sunday, August 2, 2026
10:30 am - 12 noon

Luncheon

The performance will be followed by a hosted luncheon featuring additional Passamaquoddy artists, elders and founding leaders from Cobscook Institute.  

Cobscook’s Indigenous Teaching and Learning (ITL)  division is part of the Wabanaki cultural revitalization efforts of the Passamaquoddy Tribe and greater Wabanaki communities in the region currently referred to as Maine. 

Through a blend of traditional and innovative artistry, basketry, music, storytelling, land stewardship, river protection, foraging, gardening, language preservation, and historic spiritual and healing practices, the authentic wisdom exemplified and taught by Indigenous leaders is inspiring a new generations’ pride and commitment to Passamaquoddy cultural identity. 

ITL is sparking excitement among both Wabanaki tribal members and other regional residents,  pointing the way toward restoring pathways of living in balanced relation to nature and neighbors.  

Improving personal, communal and the Earth’s wellbeing is vital in these times of great peril and promise.

Indra Indian Fusion
242 Pittsfield Rd
Lenox, MA 01240
Sunday, August 2, 2026
12:30 pm - 2:30 pm

RSVP to luncheon host:

Cobscook Institute Leaders

Director of Indigenous Teaching and Learning, Geo is a citizen of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, a basketmaker, performer, an activist, educator, and Two-Spirit—an Indigenous cultural, spiritual, and gender role that holds the sacred space between masculine and feminine energies; a carrier of tradition, and teacher of youth. A nationally recognized master artist, Geo’s basketry was featured in the Renwick Gallery’s 2023 invitational exhibition,  Sharing Honors and Burdens.

https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/invitational-2023/online/geo-neptune

Board Secretary. Wendy is a citizen of the Passamaquoddy Nation, the daughter of Wayne A Newell, a tribal and cultural leader and co-founder of Cobscook Institute. She is a freelance writer/photographer with published stories in Dawnland Voices, Chicken Soup for the Soul and Homeschooling Today. 

Board member and co-founder of Cobscook Institute, Alan is a social ecologist with a career dedicated to leveraging education in its broadest definition to contribute to personal, community, and environmental health. 

Co-executive director, Shaun is a nationally recognized movement leader in local empowerment, stewarding community initiatives for social, climate, and economic resilience and expertly facilitating collaborative conversations on youth empowerment, food sovereignty, and the sharing and gift economy.