Evening Entertainment

NICK DANLAG – STAFF WRITER

Despite playing relatively older genres, like vintage pop and Dixieland jazz, The Hot Sardines first came to be in a very modern way: a Craigslist ad. Elizabeth Bougerol, a singer and co-leader of the band, and Evan Palazzo, a pianist and bandleader, both separately answered the call for jazz players, hit it off, and started playing.

But they didn’t have a name when signing up for their first performance. The group knew they wanted the word “hot” because their backbone was their love of hot jazz from the 1920s and ‘30s. Then, at the venue, Bougerol saw a tin of sardines packed in cayenne pepper with the label “Hot Sardines.”

“When I heard her suggest this,” Palazzo said, “I thought, ‘Hot Sardines, that’s perfect.’ ”

At 8:15 p.m. Friday, July 9 in the Amphitheater, Palazzo and the group will be playing songs off of their newest album, Welcome Home, Bon Voyage, plus an album they are currently working on, as well as many classics from vintage pop, swing and Dixieland jazz.

“This music was the Top 40 of the day, so it is kind of pop music — but then it has grown,” Palazzo said. “The songs are so strong and so enduring that it really spread.”

He said that tonight’s set list is a nod to Django Reinhardt. The band, which includes a tap dancer and a three-piece horn section, will also play “Won’t You Please Come Home,” by Bill Bailey.

Part of the reason Palazzo loves what he does, he said, is because the language of music is very precise. The slightest pitch change in singing a word like “love” drastically changes the meaning. 

“Humans are totally sensitive to that, so it really gives us an emotional experience that is hard to get from language,” Palazzo said. “It can be done in great works of literature and plays and poetry, but I think (music) really is a shot in the arm of that kind of emotional experience, the panoply of emotions — and we try to cover them all.”

And it is no easy task to cover these emotions and effectively collaborate as musicians.

“At the heart of what we do is a collaboration,” Palazzo said. “(We’re) more than a team — because a collaboration means you have to be adding, not just fulfilling, to make the music as good as it can be.”

The Hot Sardines have played with numerous guest musicians, and Palazzo said the group is lucky to work with great players who know how to be flexible. He said for the genre of jazz they play, they do not have musical notes in front of them, and the arrangements are mostly memorized.

“It’s a joyful one when it goes well — and when it doesn’t go well, that’s cool,” Palazzo said. “It’s not like, ‘Oh what a horrible disappointment,’ because it doesn’t always go well, even with great people … so you have to be patient and flexible.”

ANNALEE HUBBS – COPY & DIGITAL EDITOR

The Acrobats of Cirque-tacular are among the last remaining American circuses, and they’re coming to Chautauqua Institution this week by way of aerial tricks and contortion.

At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 8 in the Amphitheater, the Acrobats will be performing a variety show for the third time at Chautauqua, and the first time since 2016.

Tad Emptage, producer and director of the company, said along with aerial acrobatics and contortion, the audience can expect to see ground acrobatics and a variety of circus specialty skills.

“We’re very much looking forward to having live people in the audience,” Emptage said. “It is the thing that performers miss the most. It’s not just a job — it’s most assuredly a passion and a calling to share these moments in time with people.”

Founded in 2007, the company has multiple touring stage productions — including an all-purpose variety show that is scalable in size and content that does most of the touring to accommodate different venues. They have performed in all 50 states and in over 70 countries.

All but two of the cast members are new to Chautauqua, so there will be plenty of surprises, high energy and new things to see for those who came to the 2016 show, Emptage said.

“The beautiful thing about the circus is that it’s something that appeals to all age groups and all interests, because it’s visual and fast-paced,” he said.

Each act tends to be three to four minutes long. If one act isn’t appealing, Emptage said, there will be something new to experience in no time.

Emptage has always been a performer. Growing up in rural Ohio and Michigan, he found an interest in musical theater. Around 15 years ago, he befriended a few circus performers in New York City. His time to hang out was their training time, so pretty soon he was learning tricks just for fun.

“Well, after a couple years touring with them I had learned enough tricks that I was a bona fide circus performer myself,” he said.

Emptage eventually decided that circus performing was more fun than musical theater, so from that point forward he changed his path.

It was never his intention to start a company — that sort of happened on a whim.

“Once I decided to be in the circus, I started combing the streets of New York looking for venues that had enough ceiling height to be able to accommodate us,” he said. “I would walk right in and tell them, ‘Hey, you don’t have a circus, but this is why you need it.’ Eventually, I landed a couple gigs.”

After finding more performers to join him and snagging regular gigs, Emptage slowly began informally managing his performers. People would ask for someone who could do aerial work, and he would point them in the right direction. Eventually, he needed to make things a bit more formal. So, he got a contract, and the company was born.

“It was quite by accident,” Emptage said, “but it was organic.”

COVID-19’s hit on the performing arts industry was a huge hurdle Emptage and his company had to vault.

“I didn’t expect that it was going to be as bad as it was,” he said. “As the eternal optimist, I was thinking it was just going to be a couple of months. I didn’t expect to have to furlough or lay off the artists to get them on unemployment.”

The unemployment was a lifesaver. Emptage said the Acrobats make 100% of their living from touring and performing live, which they could no longer do. A year and a half of shows were canceled within the span of six weeks.

The company has been open for a few months now, slowly coming back to life.

The biggest challenge has been that most of the circus training facilities in the New York area did not survive the economic challenges of COVID-19, so the Acrobats haven’t had a place to train. The few shows they’ve had in the past couple of months have allowed enough opportunities that the performers are getting back into physical shape.

“But we’re happy and optimistic that this is going to be a good rest of the year, and a great performance at Chautauqua,” Emptage said.

When the company came to Chautauqua Institution for the first time in 2011, they were in development for a show called “Art of Circus,” and they used Chautauqua to do a soft premiere at the end of their original variety show.

“People stayed,” Emptage said. “They were our first audience and our first feedback as we were in development. That was really special.”

The Acrobats plan to do the same thing this year, performing a three-act sneak peak of an entirely new show called “Vivaldi and Vaudeville” at the end of their variety show on July 8. The new show follows the theme of envisioning a new future that’s connected to the past.

“The show is about rethinking what was common knowledge in the past in a way that pertains to today and tomorrow,” Emptage said. “Rethinking things that are both familiar and not familiar. It’s about collapsing time and allowing contemporary minds to merge with minds of the past.”

ANNALEE HUBBS – COPY & DIGITAL EDITOR

Alicia Olatuja grew up singing in the church, listening to the jazz stylings of Ella Fitzgerald, Dianne Reeves and the like. She’s always loved gospel and R&B, but her sound now is a combination of all the musical experiences she’s been able to absorb as a woman in the industry. 

At 8:15 p.m. Wednesday, July 7 in the Amphitheater, Olatuja will perform, for the first time at Chautauqua, songs from her newest album, Intuition — Songs from the Minds of Women. 

“There are many ways in which you can show up and support the movement of female empowerment, and as a woman, just using your voice and being present is its own political statement,” Olatuja said. 

Intuition is an album full of reimagined compositions, originally done by legendary female composers, as well as more obscure works, Olatuja said. During her performance Wednesday night, the audience will hear tunes they might recognize from composers like Joni Mitchell, Tracey Chapman and Linda Creed — but some will be less recognizable.

The album touches on powerful issues such as love, friendship, self-love and “rising up from the society that will cram beauty ideals down our throat at any given moment,” she said. But it will also touch on deeper issues, such as the loss of relationships and the #MeToo movement.

“It’s a huge rainbow of the female experience — it’s so complicated and nuanced that, obviously, just one album couldn’t possibly do it all, but I just didn’t want an album that was one note of what a woman’s experience is,” Olatuja said. 

A St. Louis native, Olatuja got her bachelor’s degree at the University of Missouri and her master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music. She didn’t choose to study music originally, though. 

“I was too scared to say ‘I’m gonna do music,’ ” Olatuja said.

Many of her friends as a kid were great singers, but they sang so much that they all experienced degrees of vocal damage. Olatuja went to school for veterinary medicine instead, trying not to go down the same path. 

The idea of seriously exploring her voice was always there, though. So, Olatuja eventually decided to give it a shot and train classically. 

“I switched my major on a whim and as a self-bet,” she said. “I gave myself two years for anything positive to come about, and if it didn’t, then I would act like it never happened.”

Opportunities began to come her way, and she stuck with music through two degrees. She graduated in 2007, and in 2013 she performed with the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration. 

Olatuja is a mezzo-soprano, and she said her classical training influences her singing in terms of the immediacy of pitch and the way in which she treats phrasing. 

“I’m really just squeezing out all the colors of vowels that I can find and just fully allowing the voice to be free,” she said. “It’s an unencumbered instrument, unaffected, not trying to impersonate anybody or twist the voice sound in any way than what it is naturally.”

Olatuja uses singing to connect her inner voice, the part of her that’s truly her, to her outer voice: how she “speaks, sings and shows up in the world.”

Those jazz singers she grew up listening to influenced not only her singing style, but they also shaped who she is as a person — someone who champions women.

“It’s important to share our experiences and let other women know they’re not alone,” Olatuja said. “That moment of sharing can be an empowering experience for a performer’s audience.” 

She recognizes that a woman’s existence in this world can be empowering, but that it can also be discouraging and heartbreaking; the heartbreak provides an opportunity to come back stronger. She said both experiences are present within her music.

Intuition also includes work by some of Olatuja’s students from Vocal Breakthrough Academy, an online singing course she piloted. She said the tunes her students wrote were so powerful that she had to feature them on her album. The song “Transform” was written by her student Molly Pease. 

Olatuja said she doesn’t have any specific plans for her performance Wednesday night because she believes the audience is “the new member of the band,” and so much of how the audience responds will affect the flow of the show.

With each show Olatuja brings a storytelling element, and she hopes that the message the audience absorbs during the show will “take root, bloom and blossom, and be able to feed their needs in life over time.” 

DAVID KWIATKOWSKI – STAFF WRITER

Alexander Kobrin has taught and learned the art of piano all over the world. He’s played venues across Europe and Asia and has won some of the world’s most prestigious piano competitions. He’s taught in Russia and in America, and at the Institution. And he can still bring the house down at Chautauqua.

Kobrin, a world-renowned pianist and Chautauqua Piano Program faculty member, will perform at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday, July 6 in the Amphitheater. 

Since his first time at the Institution a few years back, Kobrin has returned many times to perform for — and teach — Chautauquans. 

“I think it has a very special atmosphere, thanks to the organizers of piano school, John Milbauer and Nikki Melville, and everybody who is involved in (the Piano Program),” Kobrin said. “Their passion and expertise help students really get the most of everything that Chautauqua has to offer. Recruitment has been fantastic, and I really appreciate their friendship. And, of course, it has been a special treat to perform for the Chautauqua audience. I am very much looking forward to my visit.”

He will be performing Frédéric Chopin’s “Four Mazurkas,” op. 24, Franz Schubert’s “Piano Sonata in C minor, ” D. 958, and Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.”

“These composers have always been in my repertoire and whose music I enjoy performing,” Kobrin said. “Performance is a very emotional and psychologically engaging experience, and these works are dragging you into their intimate and dramatic world.”

When Kobrin creates a setlist for a performance, he takes many facets into consideration.

“It depends on many factors: the mood, the concept inside the program, and often it’s just music which I wanted to play for some time,” Kobrin said.

For Kobrin, the most challenging piece in his  repertoire is Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff’s third piano concerto. 

Kobrin wants the audience to think of tonight’s performance as a sign of a return to normalcy.

“I think these days we should appreciate the fact that we are able to go back to live performances and to value them even more,” said Kobrin, who in 2005 won the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. “The spirit of a live concert can never be replaced by anything remote, and I am happy that I can share my musical thoughts with a live audience. I hope the audience (will) be able to share them with me.”

SARA TOTH – EDITOR

Over the course of his career, Michael W. Smith has won more than 40 Dove Awards, three Grammy Awards and an American Music Award. He’s been inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. He’s released more than 20 albums; 14 have gone gold and five have gone platinum. He’s an actor, an author, a humanitarian and — perhaps most importantly — a father and a grandfather.

“I put family first,” Smith told Maina Mwaura in a conversation last month on fatherhood and faith for Religion News Service. “(My wife) and I talked about this extensively in the early days, especially when …  things really began to take off, you know, when I was opening up for Amy (Grant) and all of a sudden you got 18,000 people showing up. … It can suck you into this whole thing of entitlement, and you’re a rock star — and all that kind of stuff can take you for a ride. And then I just made some rules and said I’d never be away from my family more than two weeks. That’s just the rules.”

Smith, a celebrated contemporary Christian artist who has experienced success on both Christian and mainstream charts, last performed at Chautauqua in 2005; he returns to the grounds for a show at 8:15 p.m. Friday, July 2 in the Amphitheater. He’ll be joined by opening act Nathan Tasker, another contemporary Christian performer, who will start the evening with a brief set and a short discussion on Compassion International, a humanitarian aid organization that both he and Smith are involved in.

“The writer of the Book of Hebrews speaks of a hope so sure, and so certain, that it holds the soul like an anchor holds a boat in the midst of even the most powerful of life’s storms,” Tasker wrote in a blog post for Compassion International. “This is a hope that brings light to the bleakest of situations, pushing back against darkness wherever it is found — be it Honduras, Nashville or Sydney.”

Since his first album in 1983, Smith has recorded 32 No. 1 hit songs, including “Place in This World,” “Here I Am to Worship,” “Friends,” “Awesome God” and “Great is the Lord.” His 2018 album A Million Lights includes the song “Conversation.” Smith told American Songwriter last year that he “always knew it was a special song,” and was inspired to re-release it in 2020, accompanied by a new music video, filled with images of protests and historical footage of moments from the civil rights movement.  

“I think the urgency of what has happened in 2020, on so many levels, made me rethink about how to actually re-release the song,” Smith told Tess Schoonhoven of American Songwriter. “(I wanted to) strip away the production, make it raw, and hopefully people really hear the song and what it’s really saying, and it would resonate with people’s hearts in the midst of all the chaos and division.”

Looking to the season, Deborah Sunya Moore’s desire to bring Smith back to Chautauqua was about “his larger mission to bring people together.”

“Having sold over 15 million albums, he could sit back and sit pretty, but I was moved when he re-released his song ‘Conversation,’ ” said Moore, the Institution’s senior vice president and chief program officer (interim) and vice president of performing and visual arts. “He did this at a time of racial tension because he wanted to encourage us all to enter into a conversation with someone that thinks completely differently.”

Coupled with his work in helping more than 70,000 children through Compassion International, Moore said, Smith’s work encouraging conversations through his music made him a perfect fit for the summer.

“This is what Chautauqua hopes to do each day, and it’s not easy,” she said. “I appreciate that Smith felt the urgency to be a part of healing division that is so deep.”

Reflecting on the meaning of “Conversation” with Schoonhoven, Smith said it was simple: “that you can sit down and have a conversation with anybody.”

“Especially a conversation with someone who believes completely differently than you do, and you leave with respect for the other that believes differently,” he said. “In the end, love rules the day.”

SARA TOTH – EDITOR

The Glenn Miller Orchestra typically tours 11 months out of the year — 10 weeks on the road, one week off, repeat, playing more than 200 shows along the way. One of those shows came on March 11, 2020, at the University of California, Los Angeles. 

And then the world shut down.

“(That show) felt somewhat normal, even though we knew that COVID was approaching,” Erik Stabnau said. “But in that week, that one week where everything shut down, we went on break, thinking ‘We’ll be back in a week.’ ”

One week became two weeks, became a month, became two months. The orchestra played only one show in the summer of 2020 and tried one or two small virtual programs. But now, with restrictions lifting, the Glenn Miller Orchestra is on the road again. Their next stop is Chautauqua Institution, where the band will play at 8:15 p.m. July 1 in the Amphitheater — good news, Stabnau said, as he would say the Glenn Miller Orchestra is “an experience best had in person.”

“It’s exciting for me,” said Stabnau, the orchestra’s music director for tonight’s show. “It’s been a bit strange to have had this past year, and we’re looking forward to getting back to the grind.”

The Glenn Miller Orchestra, as it currently exists, was formed in honor of Miller, a celebrated big-band trombonist and bandleader, and his original, eponymous Glenn Miller Orchestra. 

Miller volunteered to join the U.S. military to entertain troops in World War II, but on Dec. 15, 1944, his aircraft en route to Paris disappeared over the English Channel. His band was reconstituted following his disappearance and has been playing his hits — “Moonlight Serenade,” “In the Mood,” “Chattanooga Choo-Choo,” to name a few — ever since. It’s those hits that Chautauquans can expect to hear tonight, Stabnau said, in addition to some of Miller’s lesser-known works, and other songs from the big band era. That way, there’s something for nearly everyone.

“We have a lot of fans that know and love the music, and they come to hear Glenn Miller’s big hits and big band music, but we have an equal number of fans that are coming to hear the orchestra for the first time, maybe not knowing what to expect,” Stabnau said. “There’s something special about this band, being a jazz big band. … There’s an acoustic sound to the orchestra that most people, and especially people that listen to more modern music, aren’t going to be used to hearing, especially in a live setting.”

That almost-entirely acoustic sound, he said, “is a very neat thing for people to hear. … Sonically, it’s an interesting group to listen to in that regard.”

At the height of the genre’s popularity in the 1930s and ‘40s, Stabnau said, there were dozens of big bands touring the country. They were extremely popular, but because of changing interests and the costs associated with keeping such acts on the road, the numbers dwindled. Now, he thinks the Glenn Miller Orchestra is the last full-time touring big band.

“It’s a rare opportunity to get to play big band music professionally every night for that reason,” he said. “It’s the kind of music that I love. I grew up loving big band music. People will often ask me, ‘Do you get tired playing the same stuff every night?’ And the answer is no. I love it. I really genuinely love this music. … It never gets old. It’s great stuff.”

Stabnau was with the Glenn Miller Orchestra the last time the band played Chautauqua, in 2017. He remembers how large the Amp is, and the size of the stage itself — “It’s massive, so it’s nice to spread out,” he said — and he is looking forward to being back.

“Chautauqua is awesome,” Stabnau said. “That kind of feel is so perfect for the summer, and it’s what a lot of people in the band look forward to. The feel is just right.” 

Especially, he said, coming out of the pandemic. 

“Everyone is excited about getting back together for live events,” he said. “… I think that’s going to be a very therapeutic, very exciting thing for people, to be able to come out and hear live music. That’s going to be a big moment.”

NICHOLE JIANG – STAFF WRITER

Wu Fei plays the guzheng, a 21-string Chinese zither with over 2,000 years of history. She has traveled and played all over the world — Beijing, New York City, Belgium, Tennessee — and her next stop is Chautauqua. 

Amid a week of morning and afternoon lectures, the Chinese-American composer, musician and singer will address this week’s theme of “China and the World” through music. Fei is set to perform at 8:15 p.m. Wednesday, June 30 in the Amphitheater. 

What makes Fei’s musical style unique is her mixing of traditional Chinese and Western sounds with a contemporary spin. She will perform some original pieces tonight as she dives into Week One’s theme. 

Even though Fei loves playing the guzheng, she didn’t choose this instrument — her parents did.

“It was a typical Chinese kid thing,” Fei said. “You didn’t really get to choose what to study.” 

“My mom was in a music store and by chance found a big guzheng that was much bigger than the standard size,” she continued. “It was nearly twice as big as me when I first started. I really liked it. I thought it was really beautiful, with all of it’s strings. It’s easy to start, but it’s never easy to play it well.”

Fei began pursuing her musical dreams over 20 years ago when she moved from her hometown of Beijing, China, to Texas as an undergrad student studying music composition. From there, Fei began traveling the world to satisfy her curiosity and desire to experience new cultures.

“In China, people make it to their destination in a big city, and then they’re just there for their entire life,” Fei said. 

To avoid this, Fei moved from Texas to the Bay Area of California for her master’s degree. From there, she found herself in Boulder, Colorado, and traveling to France and Italy to record her first album.

“I was shocked to see how different cultures can be after just a couple of hours on a small train ride,” Fei said. “As a composer and a creator, I wanted to have that drama and tragedy. Shakespeare wrote his plays because he was struggling, not because he was comfortable. During those 10 years of living in the States and living part-time in Europe, and still traveling to Beijing to visit my family, it was the most exciting time of my life.”

However, even though Fei was traveling the world playing her music, she felt as if something was missing. 

“I was feeling tired and quite lonely,” she said. “I felt like I needed to recharge myself culturally and to just be grounded. My routine was traveling, venue, soundcheck and then getting on the next flight. I felt like I didn’t have a real story. I needed to have real emotions to let the natural sound come out instead of pretending. I thought about Beijing, my home city. I wanted to reconnect with my parents. I felt like I needed to get to know them again. I gained more appreciation for traditional Chinese art. Just seeing the ancient sites, the beauty and the people, I was very moved.”

Fei now lives in Nashville, Tennessee with her husband and two kids. 

“Without living in a new environment, you’re just a tourist,” Fei said. “Not staying in my comfort zone is what led me to be able to travel to all of these places. You just have to want to do it. I slept in my car, I talked to people in gas stations and pulled out my guzheng to show people.” 

“I felt like I didn’t have a real story. I needed to have real emotions to let the natural sound come out instead of pretending … I gained more appreciation for traditional Chinese art. Just seeing the ancient sites, the beauty and the people, I was very moved.”

Wu Fei, musician and composer

Fei has been performing in big concert halls since she was 9 years old. With her life filled with concerts at such a young age, over time, Fei found herself disliking this aspect of her life. 

“However, rediscovering improvisation and learning composition, I think liberated myself,” Fei said. “When I play my own music and tell my own story, it’s effortless. I have endless things to share and tell. I’m so excited to be playing for Chautauqua, and it’s also my first performance since the pandemic.”

Fei hopes to inspire people through her music and has a strong message to send to any young musicians. 

“Just play your own story, and that will give life to whatever it is you’re playing,” she said. “Don’t let the instrument control you, but be the master of that instrument. I feel very lucky to be playing this ancient instrument from Chinese culture. Life is all about improvisation. From the moment you wake up in your bedroom you are improvising. Every time you brush your teeth it’s different from the last time you brushed your teeth. It’s the same with music.”

Tonight, Fei will be performing traditional old school repertoire on the guzheng from the Shandong and Hunan provinces. She will also be including contemporary compositions of her own and singing Peking and Kunqu opera, which are the oldest extant forms of Chinese opera. 

“I will utilize those elements to create new improvisation pieces on stage,” Fei said. “I will make my own Chautauqua story right there on stage. I’m so excited to share these personal emotions that have been brewing inside of me this past year and a half.”

NICK DANLAG – STAFF WRITER

Sterling Elliott was born into music. While he was in the womb, his mother had a cello waiting for him. She wanted to have a quartet, so his two older siblings held a violin by the time they were 3, and she decided that Elliott, the youngest, would have the cello.

But Elliott didn’t want to play the cello. He wanted to play the violin like his siblings. Within a week of picking the violin, Elliott managed to accidentally break the neck off of the instrument. So he reconsidered the cello.

“What initially got me going was what my mom told me, that cellos made more money,” Elliott said. “So that really got little me rolling with it.” 

From there, his passion and career sprouted. At 7, Elliott became the first-place Junior Division winner of the Peninsula Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition and has since soloed with the New York Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra and many others. 

Now, a little over a month after his 22nd birthday and graduating from The Juilliard School, Elliott has been named a “Rising Star” of ChamberFest Cleveland, a classical music festival that for three weeks every summer brings world-class chamber music to Cleveland. 

At 8:15 p.m. Tuesday June 29 in the Amphitheater, Elliott and ChamberFest Cleveland will perform a lively set incorporating Schubert, Dvořák, Brahms and the Beatles.

Elliott can’t wait to see the audience’s reaction to their performance. He said the pieces will be an eclectic mix and that the performers will be “making grooves and making vibes.”

“It’s magic,” Elliott said. “They’re some of the funnest pieces I’ve ever played. We’re having a blast. We can’t stop laughing over playing these pieces. And I just can’t wait to see how that translates across the stage.” 

Playing with new people is something Elliott enjoys immensely.

“I guess feeding off of their amazing energy and personality with who they are specifically, but also in musicianship, as well, is really just about something I could do all day,” Elliott said.

He has always loved playing music with friends and grew up playing alongside his family. Elliott said that despite her aspirations for a family quartet, his mother never intended for her children to be professional musicians. She was introduced to music in middle school, and it became an escape for her. His mother wanted Elliott and her other children to enjoy music as much as she did.

Now, Elliott listens to a lot of rap and rhythm and blues. One of his favorite artists is Foreign Exchange, a hip-hop duo that performs everything from rap to slow acoustics. 

“I was playing a playlist for someone,” Elliott said, “and an hour later, he was like, ‘This is all one person?’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ ”

As Elliott recently posted on Instagram, “Music has the power to give people faith and hope. It can cheer people up and completely change their mood.”

Yet, music is often taken for granted. Elliott said that for him, music is as essential as breathing or eating.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to just be when we’re turning on a song like on an iPhone,” Elliott said. “It can just be if we’re just sitting on a beach, listening to waves, sitting in the park or any atmospheric noise.”

The Music School Festival Orchestra will perform onstage for the first time in over a year at 8:15 p.m. Monday, June 28 in the Amphitheater. Musical and Artistic Director Timothy Muffitt will lead the orchestra with help from this year’s David Effron Conducting Fellow, Joshua Hong. 

“A lot of us are super-excited to be playing with a full orchestra for the first time in a year and a half,” said violinist Natasha Kubit. “Even though we have to sit 3-6 feet apart from each other, it’s just so exciting to be able to hear woodwinds and brass again.”

The MSFO usually has over 80 students, but due to COVID-19 regulations, this year’s orchestra has just over 60 students. However, the orchestra will still fill the Amp tonight with the sounds of pieces by Weber, Harlin and Schumann. 

“We have a smaller orchestra than we normally do,” Muffitt said. “Smaller orchestras are typically associated with music from the 17th and 18th centuries. But typically, the bulk of what we do in MSFO comes from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. So finding pieces that would give us a broad variety of musical style, as much as possible and fully engage all the members of the orchestra, was a bit of a challenge.”

The performance will open with Hong conducting Carl Maria von Weber’s Overture to Der Freischütz. From the 18th century, this three-act piece was considered one of the first German Romantic operas. The title, which translates to “Free Shooter,” tells the story of seven magical bullets provided by the devil, six of which are guaranteed to hit its mark and the seventh under the devil’s control. 

“I think it’s such a good piece to open up the concert with,” said violist Sydney Link. “It starts off quiet and then just grows into this loud sound throughout the orchestra. There’s this really awesome horn quartet at the beginning. With our great horn section, it’s just such a great way to start our season off.”

The piece is not that long, hitting just around 10 minutes, but students said it’s full of energy. 

“It’s very dramatic and has a lot of character and color,” said clarinetist Elle Crowhurst. 

The next piece, “River of Doubt,” by American composer Patrick Harlin is not only a new style but uses unique sounds and instruments. Harlin will also be present in the audience tonight. 

“This will be the first time that this piece will be performed in this capacity,” Harlin said. “It’s the first live performance that I’ve been able to attend after the pandemic, so that’s exciting.”

Harlin’s inspiration for this piece came from his expedition to the Amazon for his doctorate. 

“I actually use recordings from the Amazon that I gathered when I was down there,” Harlin said. “It’s something exceptionally rare. I give each of the woodwinds and percussion bird calls that you would hear if you were down there. I give them the liberty to decide when they want to come in. As a unit, they create the Amazon bird calls while there’s conducted music going on. This gives you the sense of being down there.”

Harlin said “River of Doubt” is unique because of the deviation from the orchestra’s usual performance of romantic era and classical pieces. 

“This piece blends soundscapes I recorded from the natural world with orchestral music, and I use some of those sounds as the musical material to make up the piece,” Harlin said. 

This piece is something new — not just for the audience, but for the students, as well. 

“I’m most excited for (“River of Doubt”) because it’s technically challenging, but it’s different from the classical standard sound that everyone’s used to hearing and what we’re used to playing,” Link said. “There’s something called a waterphone in this piece. It’s this round instrument that’s placed by percussion and you bow it with a bass bow. It makes this ethereal sound that’s like birds and animals that makes you feel like you’re in the rainforest.”

This new instrument depicts Harlin’s experience in the Amazon and seemingly transports the audience to the rainforest.

“The waterphone has a sort of haunting sound,” Harlin said. “What’s really interesting is that when you’re in the Amazon, oftentimes you hear one call and you hear it just once and then you never hear it again. I wanted to play off this idea of something that is a little bit haunting.”

The final piece of the concert is Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, op. 97, Rhenish. Schumann captures his feelings about the Rhineland and its atmosphere through this exuberant, relaxing and lyrical piece. Each movement captures different moods and scenes through blaring horns and gentle winds. 

“The Schumann is a piece that really suits the size of our orchestra well,” Muffitt said. 

For students, this return to the stage marks the beginning of an incredible season to come. 

“After the first rehearsal, everyone was just giddy with the feeling of being able to play with a full orchestra again,” Crowhurst said. 

LAURA PHILION – COPY & DIGITAL EDITOR

Chautauqua is kicking off its 2021 season with a familiar face: Chris Thile, mandolinist, singer and songwriter. Thile, who last performed at the Institution alongside his group Punch Brothers, is appearing solo at 8:15 p.m. Saturday on the Amphitheater stage.

Thile, who has been hailed by NPR as a “genre-defying musical genius,” has won four Grammy Awards and was a 2012 recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, the coveted “Genius Grant.” His new album Laysongs, released June 4 on Nonesuch Records, is his first truly solo effort in 30-odd years of professional musicianship. 

“I’ve always prioritized collaborative recording,” said Thile, who until last summer was the keystone in “Live From Here,” the NPR successor to “A Prairie Home Companion’’ with Garrison Keillor. As showrunner, Thile played on air with acts like Aoife O’Donovan and Sarah Jarosz. “But when I realized I had an opportunity to make a solo record,” Thile reflected, “I didn’t want it to be because I had to. I needed a deeper reason.” 

Thile first picked up a mandolin at age 5. At 8, he helped form Nickel Creek, a Grammy-winning bluegrass group composed of Thile, Sean Watkins and Sara Watkins. Thile’s adolescence was spent performing, recording and being surrounded by conservative Christian teaching in Murray, Kentucky. Thile said COVID-19 brought up familiar emotions. 

“It felt like being 14 or 15 in church, trying to sing a hymn, staving off doubt,” he said. 

Thile decided to lean into those feelings and built his new record around a three-part work, “Salt in the Wounds of the Earth,” written for a residency at Carnegie Hall. Thile called it the “dysfunctional soul of this record.”

Performing live again, for Thile, is another big change. Thile has been making music “nonstop” since age 8. COVID-19, he said, was “the first time I’ve taken this much time away. … It was an opportunity to be forced to take a step back.” 

“Thile represents an important American voice,” said Deborah Sunya Moore, Chautauqua’s senior vice president and chief program officer (interim) and vice president of performing and visual arts. “He is carrying on the folk tradition, but he is also a songwriter and composer focused on making great music.” 

Now that New York has lifted virtually all COVID-19 guidelines for the vaccinated, venues are able to welcome even more patrons. Moore said the season is beginning with solo acts like Thile and working up to larger group performances like those coming to the Amp stage in August. The solo acts like Thile would “delight audiences” and welcome them back to live music, she said. 

“In the middle of the pandemic, it was impossible to know what the guidelines would be — but we planned with purpose and hope,” Moore said.

Moore said Thile will be by himself on the stage, but that it would be a communal experience nonetheless. She said it will be a beautiful and inspirational way to open the season.

Though COVID-19 has been traumatic for everyone, Thile said, every musician he knows has been “chomping at the bit” to get back onstage. 

“It has felt like improvising — but a magical improv session,” Thile said of planning live sets. 

He isn’t just going back to a routine, either: Thile described the “catalyzing newness” of returning to performing in person. “There’s an aspect that’s so beautifully alien.”

“When I pulled up last time, the setting felt like a dream. The performance felt like a dream,” he said. “(The Amp) feels inextricably woven into the community where we can come together in good company and take part in a rare and righteous form of community.”

Max Zambrano – Staff writer

Away from the rigid corners of a computer screen and toward the open air space of the classic Amphitheater is the return of the Chautauqua Vespers and Sacred Song Services.

At 8 p.m. Sunday in the Amp, the Vespers will conclude the day at Chautauqua with classic hymns, prayers and blessings and will include acoustics from the congregation, quartets and the 5,640-pipe Massey Memorial Organ. 

Chautauqua Vespers and Sacred Song will then alternate weeks, with Sacred Song being Weeks Two, Four, Six, Eight and the final Sunday of the season, and Vespers being Weeks Three, Five, Seven and Nine. 

In past years, Vespers was held at 5 p.m. in the Hall of Philosophy, but Director of Religion Maureen Rovegno said 8 p.m. is closer to the traditional time of the vespers prayer in Christianity. 

Rovegno described three of the hymns, “Day is Dying in the West,” “Now the Day is Over” and “Largo” as long-standing, beloved traditions at Chautauqua. 

“It’s not so much performed as it is experienced,” Rovegno said about the services. “It’s very experiential for people and consists of all the beloved elements that Sacred Song has had for many decades.” 

Week One’s Vespers is based on a 1903 Vespers program, said Joshua Stafford, the Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organist and director of sacred music, who found the liturgy from 1903 with the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, vice president of religion and senior pastor at Chautauqua.

Services will open with “Day is Dying in the West.” The lights will begin dimly lit and will be slowly turned on as the lyrics indicate light is coming, Robinson said.

“Largo,” the final hymn, will be repeated multiple times. Showcasing the organ’s vast reach, it keeps building and building to a powerful crescendo until, all of a sudden, it stops, Robinson said. As is tradition at Chautauqua, the crowd will then silently disperse, concluding the service.

“People who never experienced it before just find it extremely moving, and those who have keep coming back because they love it,” Robinson said. 

Although the two will be similar services, Vespers will average 30 minutes in length, and Sacred Song will run about 45 minutes, which is much shorter than in previous years. 

“At the end of a very intense, wonderful day here at Chautauqua, I think people will appreciate a less lengthy experience,” Rovegno said.

Shortened services will also allow people time to move to the Chapel of the Good Shepherd for the 9:30 p.m. Service of Compline, she said. 

The longer Sacred Song Service will include added prayers from Robinson focused on Chautauqua, the nation and the world, Robinson said. The longer services will also occasionally follow a theme that the music and readings will reflect, such as the July 4 Sunday service following a patriotic theme.

Stafford, born and raised at the southern end of Chautauqua Lake in Jamestown, is in his first in-person year as organist and conductor for the Sunday night services. 

“It feels pretty amazing,” he said about being in this position. “It’s something I always dreamed of as a kid, so it feels sort of surreal to be here.”

Stafford is filling the shoes of Jared Jacobsen, who spent 65 of his 70 summers at Chautauqua, including 23 years as the organist. Jacobsen died in a car accident on Aug. 27, 2019, two days after his final service in the Amp. 

Rovegno is looking forward to welcoming Stafford.

“We are all thrilled to have him because he knows and loves Chautauqua so much, and he is a virtuoso on the organ,” she said. “We could have never found a more talented person.” 

Stafford was in this position last year, but for a much more condensed, online-only version of the service as all in-person events at Chautauqua were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I’m probably most excited about the return of congregational singing,” Stafford said. “To actually hear hymns sung in the Amphitheater by hundreds or thousands of people is pretty exciting. There’s no feeling quite like that.” 

Although the service will look different than pre-COVID-19 years — two quartets will perform separately or together rather than a full choir for at least the first several weeks — New York State’s recent lifting of COVID-19 restrictions eliminated several obstacles. 

Stafford said they considered masking singers. Robinson said they needed to follow social distancing guidelines for singing, which meant keeping people 12 feet apart, in accordance with New York guidelines. Before that restriction was lifted, he said options were sparsely filling the 4,000-seat Amp or telling the congregation not to sing. 

“We were all just wincing at the notion we would gather all these people and tell them not to sing,” Robinson said. “It just seemed crazy.”

Although Stafford said it was strange to feel excited about quartets replacing a choir, he is grateful they can at least have that given the previous expectations. 

“It’s such a relief to be able to relax some of that now and look forward to maybe returning to something that looks like the normal Chautauqua Choir later in the season,” Stafford said. 

Robinson is expecting a return full of high energy, appreciation and increased gratefulness. 

“If you do the same thing year after year, you begin to take it for granted,” he said. “The privilege of being able to come here and gather each summer, I think, is no longer going to be taken for granted because, as we saw last year, even something with a 145-plus year tradition can be halted by something like a pandemic.”

Stafford is hopeful it will feel like a proper return to Chautauqua.

“I just want people to feel like they’re back at home,” he said.

JORDYN RUSSELL – STAFF WRITER

Movies at Chautauqua have long been a staple of the summer season, from the daily operations of the Chautauqua Cinema to more recent programs showcasing movies in the Amphitheater alongside the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. Even Bestor Plaza has transformed into a movie theater of sorts on occasion over the past few years, with movies like “Inside Out” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” drawing families and their picnic blankets to the fountain. 

This summer, a new experimental initiative expands on the Institution’s movie offerings, with Cinema Under the Stars. The movie series premieres at approximately 9:45 p.m. (depending on the arrival of dusk) Saturday night on the Athenaeum Hotel lawn, weather permitting. The movies every week — except for the beginning of Weeks Four and Five — will rotate between Sharpe Field, Bestor Plaza and the Athenaeum lawn.

The first film being showcased in-season is “Gravity,” a riveting survival tale set in outer space that follows the spiritual journey of Dr. Ryan Stone (played by Sandra Bullock), accompanied by veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (played by George Clooney).

Chautauquans got a sneak peek of the giant movie screen late Friday night, with the screening of the 2008 movie musical “Mamma Mia!” When developing the lineup of movies for the new program, Chautauqua Institution Manager of Strategic Initiatives Sam Nelson had a clear vision in mind. 

“We wanted to choose movies that engaged the community in civil dialogue throughout the experience,” Nelson said. “By expanding movies outside on our 30-foot screen, we hope to create a sense of community and normalcy, while also building upon Chautauqua’s themed weeks by developing a lineup of fan favorites such as ‘Mamma Mia!,’ ‘Monsters, Inc.,’ and of course, ‘Gravity.’ ”  

Nelson said he aspires for this cinematic experience to create a sense of familiarity, as watching movies in a group setting has been highly anticipated following the COVID-19 pandemic. Chautauqua Cinema has also once again opened its doors and will this summer screen feature, independent and artistic films every day. The Cinema’s owner, Billy Schmidt, is serving as adviser to the Under the Stars presentations as part of the first phase of integrating the Institution’s and Cinema’s operations.

For Cinema Under the Stars, Chautauquans can reserve a porch table at the Heirloom Restaurant or bring personal blankets and lawn chairs. People are also encouraged to bring along earbuds and a personal FM radio, as sound will be transmitted via FM radio signal, although they will be available on-site for a nominal fee. 

Joshua Bell is usually rushing. 

With a career spanning more than 30 years as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, conductor and director, Bell is one of the most celebrated violinists of his era. And it shows in his annual schedule, performing in more than 150 concerts a year.

“I love the adrenaline, and I do it joyously,” Bell said. “But (the COVID-19 pandemic) has given me a new sense of time and a new chance for reflection. I think that affects the music-making in positive ways, and allows me to explore repertoire that has been on my bucket list. I believe we will come out of this with a new sense of inspiration.” 

Instead of Carnegie Hall or even the Amphitheater stage, where Bell performed with trumpet player Chris Botti in 2016, and as a soloist with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra in 2018, Bell and his wife, Larisa Martínez, will record their virtual performance from their Westchester country home, which fortunately includes a living room concert hall. 

“We have always thought it would be the perfect place to have home concerts for friends and family,” he said. “It’s a house salon in the old-fashioned style — it’s a very intimate setting.” 

Bell and Martínez will perform at 5 p.m. EDT Friday, Aug. 21 on the CHQ Assembly Video Platform. A Sony Classical artist, Bell has recorded more than 40 albums, garnering Grammy, Mercury, Gramophone, and Opus Klassik awards. Named the music director of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in 2011, he is the only person to hold this post since Sir Neville Marriner formed the orchestra in 1958. Martínez is an artistic resident of Turnaround Arts, led by the Presidential Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. For the last two years, she has toured with Andrea Bocelli, debuting at Madison Square Garden and throughout North America, South America and Europe. 

The “intimate program” begins with Felix Mendelssohn’s “Ah, ritorna età dell’oro.” Bell said Mendelssohn is one of his favorite composers, and this 1834 aria is “beautiful, yet not often played.”

“Larisa and I had plans for next summer to do a whole tour together, but when we started exploring violin and voice repertoire, we found there is not a lot written natively for that pairing, so we have had to rely on arrangements when putting this together,” Bell said. 

Following Mendelssohn is Fritz Kreisler’s “Liebesfreud” and Franz Schubert’s “Ave Maria.” According to Bell, “Ave Maria” is particularly fitting for this concert, given that it’s music “meant for the home space.”

“The song was meant for small spaces, as in it wasn’t written originally as the big, bold concert piece we know it as today,” Bell said. “Like most of the songs Schubert wrote, it wasn’t published during his lifetime because it was created for the soirées in his home.”

Next is Georges Bizet’s “Carmen Fantasy,” Op. 25, Heitor Villa-Lobos’ “Bachianas Brasileiras,” No. 5, and a West Side Story Medley, arranged by William David Brohn and Charles Czarnecki. Bell said it highlights the “best pieces from the musical.” 

“West Side Story is one of the greatest American pieces of the 20th century,” he said. “It’s a masterpiece, something everyone knows so well. Larisa is from Puerto Rico, and I think of her as just the perfect Maria. I guess that means I play Tony, in a way, on the violin.”

To close out the evening, Bell and Martínez chose an encore: Manuel Ponce’s “Estrellita.”

“‘Estrellita’ is Ponce’s most famous melody, and an iconic one at that,” Bell said. “I have played it on the violin many times, but we both love this song so much, we came up with an arrangement where we hear the melodies from both of us. There is not even a piano, it’s just me and the voice. That’s as intimate as we can get.”  

This program is made possible by Bruce W. and Sarah Hagen McWilliams.

As beautiful as Beethoven’s music is, violist Nick Revel has never been able to find himself in the notes. 

“I will never feel a personal connection while performing Beethoven’s music,” Revel said. “He had his set of ideas and his set of feelings, and the most we can do is relate to them. Playing music that is our creation gets rid of that barrier. We are no longer relating to it — we are it.”

As a part of the world-renowned PUBLIQuartet, Revel, joined by violinist Curtis Stewart, violinist Jannina Norpoth and cellist Hamilton Berry, has dedicated his career to presenting new works for string quartet, breaking the mold for “accepted string repertoire.”  

“I have learned, and learned to love, that the only rules in place are made up, they are fabrications that have been acquired,” he said. “It feels really freeing to be able to play music beyond that. It’s my own personal statement.”

The PUBLIQuartet rose in the music scene after winning the 2013 Concert Artists Guild’s New Music/New Places award. In 2019, they garnered Chamber Music America’s prestigious Visionary Award for outstanding and innovative approaches to contemporary classical, jazz and world chamber music. The quartet will perform their program “Freedom and Faith” at 4 p.m. EDT Monday, Aug. 10, on the CHQ Assembly Video Platform.

We have been picking these composers based on who has been kicking ass, going against the grain and not taking ‘no’ for an answer,” Revel said.

PUBLIQuartet’s genre-bending programs range from 20th-century masterworks to newly commissioned pieces, alongside re-imaginations of classical works featuring open-form improvisations that expand the techniques and aesthetic of the traditional string quartet. 

“It’s really effective as a program to make a concept and to have a line through all of the pieces that bring them together,” Revel said. “Sometimes it’s literal storytelling and sometimes it’s just references to certain eras or genres in history. Both bring meaning to an audience.” 

“Freedom and Faith” highlights works written by female composers whose music represents “resilience, resistance, and subversion,” including Jessie Montgomery’s 2008 “Voodoo Dolls,” Jessica Meyer’s 2017 “Get into the Now” and two PUBLIQuartet compositions including their 2017 “Sancta Femina” and 2018 “Nina!”

“We have been picking these composers based on who has been kicking ass, going against the grain and not taking ‘no’ for an answer,” Revel said.

Montgomery is a founding member of the PUBLIQuartet and Revel said her 2008 “Voodoo Dolls” has been a “staple” in their sets for more than 10 years. The piece was commissioned and choreographed by the JUMP! Dance Company in Rhode Island — the choreography is a suite of dances, each one representing a different traditional children’s doll: marionettes, Russian dolls, rag dolls, Barbie dolls and voodoo dolls. The piece is influenced by west African drumming patterns and lyrical chant motives, all of which feature highlights of improvisation within the ensemble.

“We literally play it from memory,” he said. “When we put the music out for it, it’s almost distracting.” 

Meyer dedicated her 2017 “Get into the NOW” to the PUBLIQuartet. According to Stewart, the piece was inspired by the rhythms of funk, tango and bluegrass music, in addition to the expressive ways of playing that are “inherent to each of these genres.” 

“Her music is very groove- and loop-oriented,” Stewart said. “Jess uses extended techniques to emulate electronics and to expand the feeling a string quartet can create. She filled this work with moments that allow all of us to put our own personal twist on it.” 

“Nina!” and “Sancta Femina” are both part of PUBLIQuartet’s “MIND THE GAP” series in which the quartet takes music of different styles, genres and eras and “reimagines” them with group improvisation and composition. 

“Nina!” honors Nina Simone, a Black musician who aspired to be a concert pianist. In 1950, she enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New York City before applying for a scholarship to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she was denied admission despite a well-received audition. Stewart said she attributed the rejection to racial discrimination.

In 1963, Simone’s solo debut at Carnegie Hall took place the same day Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and jailed with a group of protestors in Birmingham — and 1963 was the year Simone began to craft protest songs in earnest, spurred by the March on Washington for civil rights, and persistent violence against Black citizens in the South. 

Growing up, I always had to wonder if my musical feelings were valid, but when I hear someone play the blues on a string instrument I feel a way that is more than, ‘Oh, that’s beautiful,’” Stewart said. “It’s also, ‘Wow, I am beautiful, and I am powerful, and I am worth being on that stage.’”

Stewart said Simone’s only regret about her Carnegie Hall performance was she was “billed as a jazz singer” instead of a classical musician. PUBLIQuartet made it their mission to honor both sides. 

“We really connected with her as an artist, as she was using the techniques of both a jazz and classical idiom and was making money while doing it,” he said. “Let’s be real, a ton of people were doing it, but those you hear about, you hear about for a reason. Artistically, Nina is a hero of this music.” 

Revel can’t find himself in Beethoven’s notes; he can only relate to them. But Stewart, a Black musician, finds himself in both the image of Simone and the sounds of her strains. It’s a “lofty goal, that reimagining,” but they strive for it in every composition, not only for themselves, but for the next generation of string players.

“Growing up, I always had to wonder if my musical feelings were valid, but when I hear someone play the blues on a string instrument I feel a way that is more than, ‘Oh, that’s beautiful,’” Stewart said. “It’s also, ‘Wow, I am beautiful, and I am powerful, and I am worth being on that stage.’”

This series is made possible by Bruce W. and Sarah Hagen McWilliams.

Sometimes, cyberspace just doesn’t cut it. 

In the months since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Rossen Milanov has found himself teetering between the loss of what he knows and the possibilities of what he doesn’t. But he’s pushing forward anyway, as the internet may be the closest thing he has to bringing his beloved symphony orchestra back where it belongs: “The hands of those who need the music the most.” 

Milanov, conductor and music director of the CSO, is keeping the sounds of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra alive through his “Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra Rebroadcasts” series on select Thursday evenings throughout the remainder of the season. 

When the Chautauqua Institution Board of Trustees unanimously decided to suspend any in-person programs on the grounds on May 1, Milanov said he was “instantly determined” to find a place for the orchestra in the virtual programming. After searching through video archives, Milanov settled on five concerts from the 2019 season.  

Although the content of the selections will be familiar to returning Chautauquans, Milanov said some aspects of the rebroadcasts will appear to be “brand new.”

We always like to bring that kind of access to the artistic platforms,” he said. “I think it’s very important to not only share our artistic ideas with an audience, but to also make sure we have a moment of reflection in which we hear how it was received from the other side of the stage. It’s not a one-way street.”

“I think what is so special about these videos is they will allow people to experience what they can’t from the audience, whether those are close-ups of the musicians’ facial expressions or how I communicate with them,” he said. “It’s bringing us closer.”

The series begins with Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Alexander Gavrylyuk at 8:15 p.m. EDT Thursday, July 16, on the CHQ Assembly Video Platform. Subsequent performances include: “Wagner and Rachmaninoff” on July 30, Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” in collaboration with the Music School Festival Orchestra on Aug. 13, and Strauss’s “Don Quixote” on Aug. 27. One additional rebroadcast has yet to be confirmed. 

Some rebroadcasts will also include live conversations with featured musicians, Milanov said.

“We always like to bring that kind of access to the artistic platforms,” he said. “I think it’s very important to not only share our artistic ideas with an audience, but to also make sure we have a moment of reflection in which we hear how it was received from the other side of the stage. It’s not a one-way street.”

Gavrylyuk’s performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1 was originally performed on July 2, 2019, opening night for the CSO. Gavrylyuk, Chautauqua Institution’s Heintzelman Family Artistic Adviser for the School of Music Piano Program, said after returning to the Institution for 14 consecutive years, he couldn’t “imagine a summer without Chautauqua.”

“Chautauqua, for me, is very near and dear to my heart,” Gavrylyuk said. “It’s been a personal journey that has reflected my own personal philosophy with art and music in its open-mindedness and acceptance of differences. If there is a good way to continue that journey, whatever the circumstances, it would be a privilege to take part.”  

Rachmaninoff wrote his opening piano concerto — the first of four — when he was just 19 years old. The concerto was his first serious attempt at composition as a student and, according to Gavrylyuk, the first he “deemed worthy of release.” Gavrylyuk said it is the perfect performance to start the series with because it’s a “message of a new beginning.”

“It’s a piece with a youthful and optimistic energy,” he said. “It’s very appropriate for the time we are in now because even though it’s a challenging year, it’s also the beginning of a new chapter, just as it was for Rachmaninoff when he finished it. I think it’s just the right piece to lift our spirits.”

Ultimately, Milanov said he is grateful for the newfound “exposure and longevity” past CSO performances will have on the digital platform.

“I feel good about the fact that someone who may have never been to Chautauqua before can now be exposed to this kind of programming and can, hopefully, feel the depth and closeness to the music returning Chautauquans felt seeing it live,” Milanov said. “For the first time, these performances have the chance to live past the moment they are played.”

It was a casual affair. 

Dressed in a black Miller High Life tee paired with a blazer and flat cap, Ben Folds sat at his keyboard. Beside him, a table, cluttered with headphones, water and various pens and pieces of paper. Among them, a blue one, where he sketched out a rundown of his program, which was left entirely up to him.

In an attempt to soundproof the room, a mattress stood against the back wall. With a few notes of introduction, Folds began sharing his music with the world via Skype — all the way from Sydney, Australia, where it was 7 a.m. 

For “An Evening with Ben Folds,” Folds, musician, composer and record producer, performed at 5 p.m. EDT Friday, July 10, on CHQ Assembly’s Video Platform hosted by Vice President of Performing and Visual Arts Deborah Sunya Moore. The performance is available on-demand. 

Folds’ 2015 album So There consists of eight chamber pop songs in collaboration with yMusic Ensemble and a piano concerto performed with the Nashville Symphony. It’s also his most recent, so he started there with “Capable of Anything,” a pocket symphony of sorts. 

Amid piano riffs and chords, Folds sang “We are capable of anything / But you don’t seem to think / That you are / Capable of anything.” As he hit the last note of the song, Folds thanked and bowed to his metaphorical audience. 

“I made them all up — that’s why I play them,” Folds said as he began the next piece, “Jesusland.”

“Jesusland,” a piece including analytical commentary on America, is from his 2005 Songs for Silverman album. Folds sings about the use of Jesus’ name to push consumerism, lamenting through lyrics such as “Town to town / broadcast to each house / they drop your name but no one knows your face / Billboards quoting things you’d never say / You hang your head and pray for Jesusland.” Folds’ voice, under rolling piano phrases, grew fainter and fainter with each repeated chorus. 

While in quarantine in Australia, Folds’ newfound free time has been spent working on a new album, and the release of his first single in two years, “2020.” Folds said he wrote the ballad using the year’s events, pairing an upbeat tone with somber lyrics. Folds let his keyboard rise and swell with gentle pentatonic chords.

“It is really difficult to write in an era where the news cycle is so fast,” Folds said. “I thought, ‘Waltzes are timeless’ and it should be about this year, but it has to be specific to the middle of the year because the song will be old news in a few days.”

“Don’t it seem like decades ago / Back in 2019 / Back when life was slow,” he sings on the track released on June 25. “We’re just halfway done / 2020, hey are we having fun? / How many years will we try to cram into one?”

The next four songs stretched across the past two decades, weaving in and out of his era in his band, Ben Folds Five. First was “Zak and Sara,” a pop song on his 2001 album Rockin’ the Suburbs, his first solo album after leaving the band. The song’s intricate piano riffs shook his plastic keyboard, mirroring the ethos of the J.D. Salinger short story collection, Franny and Zooey, from which he drew inspiration. Folds’ right hand played bluesy rhythms, while his left anchored the piece with root chords. It was followed by “Don’t Change your Plans,” released in 1999 on his rock album, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. “Landed,” the title track of the 2005 Landed album, came next, bringing the energy down, as Folds said the lyrics were written about a friend who went through a bad relationship. The song accentuated beats two and four in each measure, saturating it with a groovy sense of rhythm reminiscent of jazz. The next song was the most recent, 2013’s “One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces.” The song was so raucous, Moore and Folds joked that if Folds’ neighbors were not awake before, they were by the time he finished. 

Folds, who has composed original music live with the National Symphony Orchestra, is renowned for his musical improvisation skills, which Moore put to the test with an audience member’s request on Twitter. The request was for an impromptu cover of a popular artist’s song. The example was Post Malone, who Folds admitted he doesn’t listen to, but made up a tune on the spot to honor the pop artist anyway. 

“Post Malone / I don’t know / Never heard your goddamn music / I’m sure it’s good / It makes a lot of people happy / Post Malone / here is a song from some old fucker back in Australia,” he said. Using vibrato and deliberatemusical phrasing and placement, Folds carved a Beatles-like tune seemingly out of thin air. 

The music had an intermission with the mention of his memoir A Dream About Lightning Bugs, which was published in 2019. According to Moore, the first 10 pages introduce his philosophy about “light and about a moment,” which she said would be “great to hear right now.” Folds proceeded to read the closing paragraph aloud. 

The last song on the program was “The Luckiest,” a love song originally written for a kissing scene in the 2000 movie “Loser,” directed by Amy Heckerling. Folds struggled to recall the opening chords, which flowed well with the starting lyrics, “I don’t get many things right the first time.” Ratcheting up the drama in this last piece, Folds’ eyes squeezed shut and let his hands roam free across the black and white keys — every muscle in his body appeared to tense with the concentration of a consummate musician.