The Chautauquan Daily

Mac, Jolie and Tom McShane. Photo by Lauren Rock.

In Chautauqua, pair of rising stars find a place to find themselves

August 25, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

“There is just something about Chautauqua at 6 a.m. that cannot be described,” said Mac McShane, 16-year-old circulation manager of The Chautauquan Daily. “My route is my way to relax. It’s just me, the cool morning air, and a list of houses.”

The kid everyone calls Mac spends his summers working at the Daily, along with waiting tables at Intermezzo at Chautauqua.

En route, he delivers the paper on his scooter to people all throughout the grounds, including to Institution President Tom Becker.

Community, School of Music

Batia Lieberman, Bernard Lieberman, Featured, Jolie McShane, lauren rock, Mac McShane, Matt Ewalt, Michelle Kanaar, school of music, Talya Lieberman, Thomas M. Becker, Tom Becker, Tom McShane, Yemi Falodun

Scholarships help voice student Ashcroft further career

August 14, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

There is a video of Sarah Ashcroft when she was 2 years old belting out “The Little Mermaid” from the confines of her stroller.

Now 22, the Chautauqua School of Music student working toward her master’s degree at the Eastman School of Music realizes singing was meant for her all along.

Through the Chautauqua Connections program, a community volunteer organization that links Chautauqua families with School of Music, dance and art students, Ashcroft was paired with Hale and Judy Oliver, who invited her and their other Connections students to dinner each Sunday. The students all bring a piece to play or sing.

As it turns out, the Olivers also provided scholarship support for Ashcroft to study at Chautauqua this summer. The Chautauqua Foundation reaches out to scholarship donors in the spring, inviting them to contact the scholarship recipient and connect during the season.

School of Music

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David Effron Conducting Fellow Roderick Cox leads the MSFO during a performance in July. Photo by Adam Birkan.

Cox, Muffitt, MSFO close ‘beyond fantastic’ season tonight

August 13, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

“These pieces are the blockbuster pieces for the Romantic period,” said David Effron Conducting Fellow Roderick Cox about the Music School Festival Orchestra’s finale at 8:15 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater.

The program highlights Wagner’s “Overture and Venusburg Music,” from the opera Tannhäuser, and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2, Op. 27 in E Minor.

Cox will lead off the concert’s direction with a composer and piece he deeply admires.

“Wagner has a great deal of passion, beauty and intelligence,” he said. “It’s just all around a wonderful masterpiece that I am very honored to get to do with these musicians.”

School of Music

Adam Birkan, music school festival orchestra, Richard Wagner, Roderick Cox, school of music, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Timothy Muffitt, Yemi Falodun

Five years after renovations, School of Music is finally at home

August 12, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

Chautauquans often speak about how much the presence of young artists and musicians contributes to the atmosphere on the grounds. It seems as though creativity walks up and down the avenues all day and far into the night, with music drifting out of this hall or that.

Five years ago, the Chautauqua Foundation’s Idea Campaign sought to improve the halls from which the music flows at Chautauqua. The generosity of many dedicated Chautauquans made possible an expansion and renovation to the School of Music.

The renovations and new facilities have earned Chautauqua, among other things, the endorsement of Steinway and Sons and the increased ability to recruit the highest-caliber students, as well as a reputation for environmental consciousness.

School of Music

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Recital features ‘beast of an instrument’ double bass

August 11, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

Standing as one of the tallest instruments in music, the 6-foot double bass still knows how to get low — in pitch.

Distinguished bassist Curtis Burris, the School of Music’s strings chair, leads the Music School Festival Orchestra’s bass section in its student recital from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Saturday in McKnight Hall.

“They’re the basis of the orchestra,” Burris said about his seven bassists. “They’re the foundation.”

School of Music

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Jake Casey is the choreographer for “Red Silence,” starring Ryan Clawson, James Ferguson, Gabriel Berger, Benjamin Kay, Tyler Haritan and Morgan Stillman. Photo by Michelle Kanaar.

Dance students create new works for choreographic workshop

August 10, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

Dancers in the Chautauqua School of Dance get the opportunity to take a leap in choreographers’ ballet slippers.

Apprentice and festival dancers are accustomed to dancing in others’ pieces, but the Choreographic Workshop gives the students an opportunity to create their own works.

Students interested in creating a piece for the workshop went through a selection process with dance faculty. The faculty chose 12 pieces to be shown at the free public 4 p.m. Choreographic Performance today in Carnahan-Jackson Dance Studio.

Dance

Arie Lipsky conducts the Music School Festival Orchestra cello section in rehearsal at Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall. Photo by Adam Birkan.

Arie’s Angels show the cello has a voice, too

August 10, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

Ten cellists and a singer transform into “Arie’s Angels” in the season-ending student recital from 2 to 3:30 p.m. today in McKnight Hall.

“It’s a cello party,” said chamber music chair Arie Lipsky.

The program features pieces from Heitor Villa-Lobos and Richard Strauss.

Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 is Villa-Lobos’s way of giving Bach to Brazil.

“It’s an homage to Bach,” Lipsky said. “If Villa-Lobos has a cellphone, he’d probably have Bach as his ringtone.”

School of Music

Adam Birkan, Arie Lipsky, cello, recital, school of music, Yemi Falodun

Sigo and Jean Falk with Amy Pikler. Photo by Lauren Rock.

Through scholarships to arts students, Falks help keep music in the mix

August 9, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

It’s no secret — though the outside world may think classical music is dying, those on the grounds know it is alive and well at Chautauqua.

The Falk family certainly believes so. Each year, the Falk Scholarship Fund supports one of the many students studying the arts at Chautauqua. This year, the scholarship was awarded to Amy Pikler, a violist in the School of Music.

“I had heard about the program through other people who have gone here,” she said. “I was looking for a program that provided merit scholarships for music study, and Chautauqua offered that.”

Community

Amy Pikler, chautauqua foundation, chautauqua fund, classical music, Falk Foundation, Falk Scholarship Fund, Jean Falk, planned giving, school of music, Sigo Falk, sydney maltese

In Chautauqua, pair of rising stars find a place to find themselves

Scholarships help voice student Ashcroft further career

Cox, Muffitt, MSFO close ‘beyond fantastic’ season tonight

Five years after renovations, School of Music is finally at home

Recital features ‘beast of an instrument’ double bass

Dance students create new works for choreographic workshop

Arie’s Angels show the cello has a voice, too

Through scholarships to arts students, Falks help keep music in the mix

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