The Arts

The Wednesday-night voice concert series continues at 7:30 p.m. tonight in Fletcher Music Hall with a recital that is all about chamber music. This will be the first opportunity for students in the Voice Program, who up until now have performed in these recitals with only piano accompaniment, to enter the ensemble frame of mind. The singers will perform with various chamber groups from the School of Music.

Making art is a struggle. That’s a lesson Lisa Jakab has learned in her two summers as a School of Art student at Chautauqua. Last summer, Jakab’s first at the Institution, she had an inspiration the first day and ran with it. But this summer, she didn’t get so lucky.

A blue streak of artwork will take over the Strohl Art Center for the next five weeks. “Out of the Blue,” which will have its opening reception from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. today in the Strohl Art Center, features work from eight artists in all different shades of blue. Judy Barie, director of galleries and curator of the show, said this will be Chautauqua’s first monochromatic-themed show.

Denise Bibro has a case for the arts. Bibro, owner of Denise Bibro Fine Art in Chelsea, N.Y., will lecture at 7 p.m. tonight in the Hultquist Center. She will talk about the lessons she’s learned and experience she’s garnered from the 25-plus years she’s spent in the art business and the current art market — a market that, she admits, is difficult. Economic situations worldwide have changed what buyers and collectors are looking for and what types and quantities of pieces are selling.

Last year was the bicentennial celebration of two great classical composers, Frédéric Chopin and Robert Schumann. The pair, both born in 1810, left a legacy of some of the most masterful works in the piano repertoire.

Psalms is the book in the Bible containing 150 chapters of verse. Some sing to praise God and give thanks, while others lament misfortune and ask for guidance. Jacqueline Osherow said she sees the Psalms as some of the most beautiful poetry ever written.

Light is a part of everyone’s daily life, regardless of age, religion or location. Noah Craft sees the beauty and inspiration in this universality of light. This is what led him to enter and become a finalist in the Philips 2011 Light World Tour, a competition that allows one person with a passion for lighting to travel for three months finding new lighting inspirations.

Magic flutes, valkyries, rampant consumption — some themes in opera can be hard to relate to, and not just for the audience. Singers, like actors, perform best when they can lose themselves in a character — when they can find that common thread that connects them with their role. But how do you find something in common with a 13th-century family in Florence?

The Writers’ Center this week welcomes Jacqueline Osherow and Janice Eidus, two writers who will lead workshops into the cross-currents of culture and the center of writing. Both writers will read selections from their work at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall and later in the week as part of the Chautauqua Jewish Writers’ Festival.

Along with performing finished Anton Chekhov and William Shakespeare productions, Chautauqua Theater Company keeps busy taking an active role in new play development. This will be evident beginning July 21 with the start of the New Play Workshop Festival.

The Chautauqua School of Dance will perform the first of two Student Galas at 2:30 p.m. Sunday in the Amphitheater. The Workshop, Festival and Apprentice dancers had one to two weeks to rehearse both classical and new works. It’s a test of their ability, but Ballet Mistress Glenda Lucena said this group of students has already stood out from others.

The works of John Adams, Leonard Bernstein, Jonathan Dove, Benjamin Britten and Lee Hoiby, among many others, will be featured in the Opera Highlights concert, held at 8:15 p.m. Saturday in the Amphitheater. The performance will feature eight Apprentice Artists from the opera company’s Young Artists program and members of the CSO, under the baton of Steven Osgood.

Scholarship. It’s a concept that serves as a synonym of sorts for hope and opportunity, a chance for students who wish to expand their minds to study and learn in places they may not otherwise be able to afford.

Elaine King will deliver her lecture, “Artists, Nature and Environmental Change” at 7 p.m. tonight in the Hall of Christ. King, who is an art critic and historian and a professor in the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University, said her lecture will focus on artists’ portrayal of nature within a historical context. But the discussion will not focus strictly on paintings or pastel colors — it will be a broader dialogue about the evolution of the natural world and current environmental problems.

Writer-in-residence Ron MacLean has high hopes for art. It can open the imagination, expand our feelings and even make us better people, he said.

SLIDESHOW: Scenes of The North Carolina Dance Theatre in Residence performance with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.