August 24, 2012 
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A cappella is making a comeback.
In a world of the technically enhanced, society still has a fondness for purity. Raw talent takes the Amphitheater stage tonight in the form of 10 male voices who make up the a cappella group Straight No Chaser.
“I love seeing audience reactions,” said tenor Ryan Ahlwardt. “I love providing something that, in a way, allows an escape from daily realities.”
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August 23, 2012 1 Comment
In almost 50 years of performances with The Lettermen, Tony Butala has received a standing ovation every single show. But when the popular vocal group was formed in 1958, the members were paid $125 a week for 14 performances, and nobody knew their name.
“We could have been called The Three Ashtrays,” Butala said. “It meant nothing, absolutely nothing.”
Having recently completed their 76th album, The Lettermen are certainly more than nothing. The group became a hit in the 1960s, known for its love ballads such as “The Way You Look Tonight,” “When I Fall In Love,” and “Goin’ Out of My Head / Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.” Overall, the group has 16 Top 10 singles and five Grammy nominations.
The Lettermen will perform at 8:15 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater as part of the evening entertainment series.
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August 21, 2012 0 Comments
During a safari in South Africa, guest conductor Noam Zur sat helplessly in a Jeep when a rhinoceros came hurtling toward the vehicle. In that moment, he knew the next time he told an orchestra to play dangerously, he would draw on that moment to remember how real danger felt.
The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra will perform its last concert of the season tonight at 8:15 p.m. in the Amphitheater. The concert will feature Zur conducting and guest pianist Daniil Trifonov performing Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Trifonov won the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in 2011, the only first-prize winner since Alexander Gavrylyuk in 2005.
Zur and Trifonov worked together last year, performing the same Chopin concerto, which they chose again for tonight because of the CSO’s notoriously fast rehearsal time.
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August 21, 2012 0 Comments
Have you ever wondered how the speaker’s voice gets from the microphone into your ears when you use the Amphitheater’s hearing enhancement system?
The sound travels on infrared waves sent out from two panels above the podium, written into the electromagnetic waves by modulating their frequency. Two “eyes” on the front of the hearing enhancement devices catch the waves from the panels, or from bouncing off the reflective yellow paint of the Amp, and turn the waves back into words.
Infrared waves are the standard for hearing enhancement systems because of their many benefits.
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August 18, 2012 0 Comments
High above the platform for world-renowned lecturers, resounding symphonies and graceful ballets, two men — armed with a device that looks like an old-fashioned transistor radio — investigate a dark, sweltering area of the Amphitheater few people aside from stagehands ever see.
A musty scent lingers in the dusty air, and the worn, wooden floor is wrought with holes that could send someone through with one miscalculated step. Light peeks in through the holes, revealing a small glimpse of the programs below, a stage for more than a century of Chautauqua tradition.
John Shedd, Chautauqua’s administrator of architecture and land use regulations and capital projects manager, is joined by John Hermanson, a professor of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University.
They are on a hunt. Their target: bats.
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August 18, 2012 0 Comments
Saturday night, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra will perform the world premiere of Michael Colina’s “Baba Yaga: Fantasia for Violin and Orchestra.” It will be guest conductor Ira Levin’s American debut, and violinist Anastasia Khitruk’s first time performing on the Amphitheater stage.
The piece is a product of a rare three-part collaboration, in which Colina did most of the creative heavy-lifting, but Levin offered suggestions on orchestration, and Khitruk was given a voice in the violin part, especially the cadenzas. The three also collaborated together on the recording of Colina’s “Three Cabinets of Wonder,” a violin concerto recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra in 2010. “Baba Yaga” has also been recorded with the London Symphony and is due to release this fall.
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August 16, 2012 0 Comments
Mozart is quoted as saying that he despised writing for the flute. Today, his Flute Concerto in G Major is perhaps the most performed piece in the advanced flute repertoire.
“We’re not sure whether he disliked the guys that were playing it, or he didn’t like the sound of the instrument, or didn’t like that he had to write something in order to survive,” said guest flutist James Walker. “Nobody knows.”
The Mozart concerto in tonight’s Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra concert at 8:15 p.m. in the Amphitheater, featuring Walker and conducted by Constantine, will be performed between Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28, and Elgar’s Enigma Variations, Op. 36.
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August 15, 2012 0 Comments
Jim Walker has played the flute in more than 750 motion pictures. He spent eight years as the principal flutist in the Los Angeles Philharmonic. But, he enjoys himself most when he’s onstage with his golden Burkart flute, dazzling an audience alongside his band, Free Flight.
“Free Flight is still by far the most fun thing I ever did,” Walker said.
“You’ll see me smiling all night, because I truly love the music we play, and I love the connection we inevitably get with an audience.”
Tonight, Walker and Free Flight will take over the Amphitheater stage at 8:15 p.m. and delight the audience with a setlist that draws inspiration from classical works, jazz numbers and pop hits from the past 80 years.
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Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities. Over the course of nine weeks, more than 170,000 visitors will participate in programs, classes and community events for all ages—all within the beautiful setting of a historic lakeside village. Learn more →
