Looking for that rare sign of economic health in the arts?  Consider the growth trajectory of the Boston Early Music Festival. Founded in 1980 by a band of stalwart devotees of music from the Medieval and Renaissance, the organization has expanded over the last 30 years into an international powerhouse that’s a unique combination of opera company, concert series, touring company, trade show and record producer. The most...

With his solo rendition of “Beowulf,” coming up on Wednesday at Ozawa Hall, Benjamin Bagby may be the only musician during the Tanglewood season who will perform an entire evening without any written music. It’s not that he’s memorized a composition and left the sheet music at home. Yet the essence of his material is more than 1,000 years old. “Nothing that I’m performing is notated. I’m...