August 25, 2012 
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The Athenaeum Hotel boasts Duke Ellington as one of its many famed visitors. In late September, Ellington will return to the Athenaeum in musical form.
From Sept. 20 to 23, the Athenaeum will host the 15th annual “Jazz at Chautauqua,” a party featuring world-renowned jazz musicians focusing on jazz standards from the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s. For the first time in its history, this jazz party will be prefaced with a traditional jazz workshop from Sept. 16–20.
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August 21, 2012 0 Comments
Will Glover has made the journey to the Chautauqua Institution since 1998, but this year’s trip was punctuated with a number of special events. Adorned in white, he graduated from the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, and on July 30, he presented Chautauqua’s Archives with a copy of Gerard Noel’s The Journey of the English-Speaking Union, a book chronicling the 90-year history of the organization responsible for his introduction to Chautauqua.
An economist, writer and teacher, Glover was the recipient of the Bell Tower Scholarship in 1998, an award presented to a teacher from the ESU for professional development. The award includes tuition and boarding for up to four weeks at Chautauqua and a stipend for travel expenses. Chautauquan Carol Duhme funds the annual scholarship.
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August 20, 2012 0 Comments
While the Beatles were making their American television debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964, The New Christy Minstrels were performing in the White House.
Forty-eight years later, the folk group will hold another presidential audience, performing during Chautauqua’s “Presidents Club”-themed week at 8:15 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater.
Reminiscent of a band out of Christopher Guest’s A Mighty Wind, The New Christy Minstrels under the direction of Randy Sparks had great success as a folk ensemble in the 1960s, went through several restructured phases, and now resemble their original group again. Randy Sparks founded the group in 1961 in order to perform his music, following the example of composer Stephen Foster in the 19th century, who, when having trouble getting his music played, handed his repertoire over to the Christy Minstrels.
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August 20, 2012 0 Comments
After eight weeks of fun, Children’s School wraps up its season with tents, hikes, insects and s’mores. Children ages 3, 4 and 5 will participate in activities more closely related to summer camp this week with a “Let’s Go Camping” theme.
Teachers Kathie Szabo, Sandi Holden, JoAnne Borg, Laura Vasisko and Kelly Fox will take the 3-year-olds camping. They will learn how to pitch tents, go for hikes around the Institution grounds, make binoculars and use them to investigate from a distance. They will also have a chance to make friendship bracelets and macaroni noodle necklaces with their new Children’s School buddies, to use sidewalk chalk to draw, and to make everyone’s favorite camping treat from marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate.
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August 20, 2012 0 Comments
Some people plan the dates of their Chautauqua visit around the morning lectures, and others around the opera or symphony schedule. But for the past decade, some Chautauquans have been sure their time spent at the Institution coincides with Sandy D’Andradé’s trunk show.
D’Andradé’s handmade knitwear exhibits craft and skill uncommon in today’s mass-produced culture, and with a more than 30-year career under her belt, D’Andradé still feels the demand for unique, intricate separates. For the first time in her 10-year presence at Chautauqua, she and her husband, Matt Alperin, have sold their clothing throughout the whole season, alternating between a showroom in the Athenaeum Hotel and the Main Gate Welcome Center.
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August 18, 2012 0 Comments
In an event following the Chautauqua Opera Company’s pops concert on Aug. 4, the Chautauqua Opera Guild awarded 11 monetary prizes to members of the Young Artists Program.
Through several fundraisers held earlier this season, including the July 22 and Aug. 2 galas, the Opera Guild was able to disperse merit-based awards totaling $16,000.
As young professionals, recipients of the awards are often responsible for the price of lessons, coaching and any acting or movement classes they wish to take to further their craft. When musicians graduate from academic programs, the costs of keeping up their professional development can be overwhelming. The guild’s Young Artists Awards help with those expenses.
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August 17, 2012 0 Comments
To kick off this season’s penultimate weekend, country music prince Vince Gill will return to the Chautauqua Institution at 8:15 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater.
With a record 20 Grammy awards and 17 Country Music Association honors, including four “Song of the Year” titles, Gill is a legend far beyond his Nashville home. His more than 30-year career has traversed several genres, including a substantial tryst in bluegrass. Though his voice is not quite as high or lonesome as so many bluegrass stars, his tenor range and gentle but impressive talent with the guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle and dobro make him an ample partner for the genre’s royalty, including Ricky Skaggs, Patty Loveless and newcomer Sarah Jarosz, who he performed with in June.
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August 15, 2012 0 Comments
As the former director general of MI5, Stella Rimington has dealt with two types of radicals: those who threaten England’s security and those from her imagination.
In her 29-year career at MI5, Rimington dealt with several categories of radical extremists, a topic she will unfold in her 10:45 a.m. lecture Thursday in the Amphitheater. She will compare and contrast her experiences with spies, radical protesters and terrorists.
The point at which Rimington became involved with radicals is when their thoughts and writings turned to action, when their radicalism turned to extremism. She stepped in when individuals “have a grievance against the society they live in and decide to take action against people who represent that grievance.”
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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 →
