August 17, 2012 
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Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra principal timpanist and frequent guest conductor Stuart Chafetz will be the featured speaker for the Hebrew Congregation’s Shirley Lazarus Sunday Speakers Series at 8 p.m. Sunday in the Hurlbut Church sanctuary.
Chafetz has served as principal timpanist of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra since 1997. This year, he guest conducted the annual Independence Day concert, which he has done for the past nine years, as well as the Opera Pops concert in August.
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August 8, 2012 0 Comments
Though the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra welcomes guest artists every week, members of the CSO also travel across the United States to perform during the season.
Jeffrey Robinson, principal bassoon and member of the CSO for the past eight years, was absent the first half of the Chautauqua season, because he was subbing in the New York Philharmonic.
“I still thought about this place every day,” Robinson said. “I wish I could have been both places, but it just seemed like too good an opportunity and too interesting a thing to have happen to turn down.”
Robinson played with the NYPO for four months, which included a tour of the West Coast, a residency in the Vail Valley Music Festival, and concerts in Central Park.
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August 4, 2012 0 Comments
You might sit through an entire opera or Broadway show just to hear a favorite song. You buy a ticket for Carmen to hear the “Habanera” aria; you attend My Fair Lady for “I Could Have Danced All Night”; and when the orchestra swells with the introductory notes of your beloved piece, you are transported.
At 8:15 p.m. Saturday in the Amphitheater, Chautauqua Opera Company’s Apprentice Artists will sing only the favorites in their end-of-season pops concert, “Water Matters: Broadway — The Great Wet Way,” with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.
After programming the Opera Highlights concert to reflect Chautauqua’s “Water Matters” theme during Week Four, the opera staff had a long list of water-related music that did not fit in the July 14 concert. Keeping the water topic for the Apprentice Artists’ second symphony concert seemed like the obvious choice.
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August 4, 2012 0 Comments
“Two sticks down to one, I say,” said Stuart Chafetz, principal timpanist of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.
Saturday, he will set down his mallets and pick up his baton to conduct the Opera Young Artists Pops Concert with the CSO at 8:15 p.m. in the Amphitheater.
It has been a busy week for Chafetz. Between racing to CSO rehearsal in the morning, to opera rehearsal in the afternoon, and then back to the Amp for CSO concerts in the evening, he barely has time to breathe. But Chafetz does not let it show.
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July 4, 2012 0 Comments
Members of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra lead normal lives as part of the fabric of the Chautauqua community — when they aren’t performing three times a week.
They attend morning lectures, take walks by the lake and their kids even attend Boys’ and Girls’ Club.
The Symphony Partners will host a Meet the Principals Reception, a special event to meet the fellow members of the community, at 5-7 p.m. next Wednesday, July 11, at the Chautauqua Golf Club. The reception is a chance for devoted fans and audience members to meet the musicians, ask questions and connect names on the program with faces on the stage.
It is the first time Symphony Partners will sponsor this specific reception, in addition to their regular Brown Bag and post-concert Meet the Musician gatherings on the Amphitheater back porch.
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July 3, 2012 0 Comments
On July 3, the sound of 15,000 paper bags popping like cannons in the Amphitheater will rival the fireworks on July Fourth — not to mention the vocal cords of fiery Broadway soprano Michele Ragusa belting out “Don’t Rain on My Parade.”
The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra’s annual Independence Day Celebration concert will rip-roar to life at 8 p.m. tonight. Featuring CSO timpanist Stuart Chafetz as the guest conductor for the 10th consecutive year, the concert will also spotlight Ragusa on several Broadway selections, and the audience will play its traditional role as the cannons in Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.”
Chafetz buys the paper bags himself, after testing which size creates the best sound.
“They’re No. 4 bags — that’s the number. No. 5 is too heavy, No. 3 is not quite the right sound,” Chafetz said. “There I was (in Sam’s Club) practicing, trying the different bags, blowing them up and popping them to hear the kind of sound.”
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August 7, 2011 Comments Off
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears…
August 6, 2011 Comments Off
For the second time this season, Stuart Chafetz will step out from behind the timpani and onto the podium to conduct the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.
The orchestra will accompany Chautauqua Opera Young Artists in an evening of Broadway classics by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick. Hits from “Fiddler on the Roof,” “She Loves Me,” “Fiorello!” and many others will be performed at 8:15 p.m. Saturday in the Amphitheater.
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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 →
