Welcome to the final week of Chautauqua’s 150th anniversary Summer Assembly! This week, we are delighted to present the crescendo of our anniversary celebration: a week in partnership with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis.
Adding to what is already a very special series of events and opportunities for engagement this week is the invitation we offer to all Chautauquans to be part of history by supporting our partnership with PBS and JLCO with Wynton Marsalis that will result in the PBS documentary, “Chautauqua at 150: Wynton Marsalis’ All Rise,” set to air nationally in the spring of 2025. The documentary will show Chautauqua as an ideal place for artists, preachers and thought leaders to elevate and amplify their work and perspectives on important issues of the day. It will include elements of this week’s very special presentation of Wynton’s seminal work, “All Rise,” to convey the impact of Chautauqua itself, its history and its future promise.
Colleagues from PBS and Black Robin Media (the documentary producers hired by PBS) will be on the grounds all week capturing video and audio. Their presence will be seen most overtly in the Amphitheater on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, when they will record both performances of “All Rise” featuring JLCO with Wynton Marsalis alongside our own Music School Festival Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus, and other special guests. In addition to capturing the performance for inclusion in the documentary, they will also produce a full-length version of “All Rise” for presentation online.
We hope every Chautauquan on the grounds will attend one (or both!) of these performances so you can be part of this historic production. Prior to both performances, a PBS representative will participate in a pre-concert “behind the scenes” conversation at 7:15 p.m. in Smith Wilkes Hall, providing insights on the production process and the vision for the documentary. Christopher Farley, senior director, arts programming & development, will join us Wednesday; and Sylvia Bugg, chief programming executive and general manager of general audience programming will join us for Thursday’s pre-concert event.
We are especially proud that these evenings with JLCO with Wynton Marsalis will feature our MSFO, conducted by Timothy Muffitt, representing the best of Chautauqua and the future of symphonic music. We could not be more grateful to Maestro Muffitt and these musicians for the role they will play in our experience this week and the documentary that will follow.
Thank you for helping us show the world why Chautauqua remains one of our nation’s most cherished traditions — and, as President Theodore Roosevelt said, “Typical of America at its best.”
