LENOX — When is a rose not just a rose? When the Boston Symphony Orchestra is involved.
Whether worn by orchestra members or listeners in the audience, red flowers are being used to express support for departing music director Andris Nelsons and the musicians who love him, a silent but unmissable symbol of the ongoing crisis at the BSO.
The public display seems to have perturbed orchestra officials enough that they are now directing ushers and other staff at Tanglewood, the BSO’s summer home, to caution anyone in the audience seen with a bag of flowers.
According to a BSO document obtained by the Globe, the staffers have been instructed to preemptively tell those people that distributing materials isn’t allowed, advise them to stash the flowers out of sight, and then also alert public safety staff. If the person is subsequently caught handing out a flower, they are to be issued a formal warning and asked to leave if deemed necessary.
A BSO spokesperson verified those instructions, and later clarified it was standard practice for staffers to inform public safety if someone is observed breaching any Tanglewood policy.
The red flowers first emerged shortly after Nelsons’ forced exit was announced this spring, with most BSO musicians, as well as the conductor himself, wearing cloth red flower boutonnieres on stage. It has broadened since then, the blossoms a unifying icon for musicians and patrons who believe the decisions by BSO administrators and directors concerning programming, strategic planning, and artistic direction are hurting the orchestra.
One of those who got caught up in the policy is a retired BSO member, Richard Ranti, a bassoonist for more than three decades. During intermission in the Koussevitzky Music Shed this past Sunday, Ranti was approached by someone in the crowd who asked for one of the flowers he was carrying. When he handed one over, a nearby staff usher quickly informed him of the rule against distributing materials.
“The policy is ridiculous,” said Ranti. “They’re punishing people for loving the orchestra. That doesn’t seem like a good way to build audience.”
When asked about the interaction on Sunday between Ranti and the usher, a BSO spokesperson initially referred the Globe to its policy against distribution. On Wednesday, Tanglewood senior vice president of operations P. Eric Krauss said a staff member had been subjected to “aggressive behavior by a patron while simply doing his job and enforcing a longstanding policy.”
Ranti admitted he reacted to the usher in anger on Sunday. “I said, ‘Lookit. I’m a retired musician. I’ve been here 37 years. Don’t do this.’ ”
However, he maintained that the atmosphere at Tanglewood has become newly and unpleasantly tense.
“I love Tanglewood more than any other place on the planet. I really do. I want to be buried there. It’s really upsetting, what’s happening,” Ranti said.
It’s impossible to walk around Tanglewood for too long without seeing at least a bouquet’s worth of roses.
Many of the roses can be traced to the Boston-based Red Flower Campaign, which sprouted in mid-March as a grass-roots effort to reverse the impending termination of Nelsons’ contract. Others have been acquiring or giving out flowers independently.
George Whiting and Quinn MacKenzie, who founded the Red Flower Campaign and manage its online presence, said they are intentionally being visible at and around Tanglewood this summer. They often wear T-shirts featuring Nelsons’ face and the word “REINSTATE,” in the style of Shepard Fairey’s “HOPE” poster for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. A storefront in nearby Stockbridge they rented for the summer displays several additional full-length posters promoting the cause.
However, they’ve “made it a point” to not actively offer people flowers at Tanglewood, in order to comply with the venue’s policies, Whiting said, and they’ve likewise instructed their network of volunteers to wait to be approached by a flower-seeking patron.
It seems that hasn’t reduced demand. Before an evening concert on July 10, the pair brought around 25 flowers and a few T-shirts into Tanglewood, and made it “a third of the way across the lawn” before they ran out, said MacKenzie. Students from the Boston University Tanglewood Institute have flagged down the pair on the street in downtown Lenox and asked for roses, knowing who they are already.
Whiting surmised the campaign has spent roughly $10,000 so far to rent the Stockbridge storefront, print posters, and buy the various merchandise the campaign offers — including Frisbees, decks of cards, and picnic blankets bearing Nelsons’ likeness. Most of that has been paid out of MacKenzie’s pockets.
MacKenzie, who works as a software engineer, added that he’d just ordered several thousand additional flowers, as half of his initial order of 3,400 for the Tanglewood season was already gone.
A swath of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra has also been captured in recent photos sporting roses during concerts at Ozawa Hall. Some Tanglewood fellows already knew about the campaign through social media prior to arrival in the Berkshires, and requested roses once they settled in, said one fellow who asked not to be identified by name for fear of retribution.
To the fellow’s knowledge, the BSO musicians have not had any role distributing roses to the TMC cohort. “It was our own choice, and a great majority have indulged in it,” the fellow said.
And around southern Berkshire County, some businesses are offering red flowers for patrons to take freely, including Great Barrington sushi spot Bizen, where proprietor Michael Marcus has had several diners “immediately ask, ‘Can I get my red flower?’ ” he said. “We have to keep refilling the basket.”
Marcus said he’s forged relationships with BSO musical and administrative personnel over many years of feeding them at Bizen and attending concerts at Tanglewood. He’s hopeful the red flowers will help sow a “seedling of communication” amid the conflict, which he said is “casting a giant shadow.”
“The doom and gloom is painful to my heart,” Marcus said. “All these people are genuinely good people, and they want the best for the orchestra. That’s what this red flower means to me.”
While anti-solicitation policies are par for the course at many performing arts venues, and the Tanglewood code of conduct specifically prohibits “unauthorized ticket resellers, solicitation, and distribution of materials,” the new guidelines take things a step further.
The orchestra spokesperson broadly compared the rules concerning flowers to Tanglewood’s longstanding policy toward patrons seen taking photographs during concerts: staffers will request they stop and put the camera away, issuing warnings later if needed. Asked how holding a bag of rose pins was comparable to taking unauthorized photos, the spokesperson declined to comment.
A.Z. Madonna can be reached at az.madonna@globe.com. Follow her @knitandlisten.