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Star-crossed lovers will sing beneath the stars tonight when a classic operatic story of young romance, blood feuds and tragedy whirls across the Amphitheater stage.

At 8:15 Monday, August 5 in the Amp, the Music School Festival Orchestra will join forces with a cast of School of Music Voice Program students to put on Vincenzo Bellini’s opera I Capuleti e i Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues).

The opera is based on the story of Romeo and Juliet — not the Shakespeare version, but the original tale that both Shakespeare and Bellini were inspired by. As such, the core conflict of the story remains more or less the same, but the opera has some significant differences from the play most people know.

The opera is in Italian, but translations of the lyrics will be projected above the stage during the performance.

“It’s very exciting for (the students) to sing with orchestra, because at their age a lot of the students don’t get that opportunity — or at least not very much,” said Donna Gill, head voice coach and coordinator of voice scheduling. “And I think it’s good for the orchestra to do something like an opera — vocal music.”

One interesting aspect of the opera is that the part of Romeo is meant to be played by a woman in the lowest voice range; the part was originally cast this way because it was once common to cast women in the low range as young men, so that they sounded both masculine and youthful. In this production, mezzo-soprano Marie Engle has the role of Romeo — and it is not her first time playing a man.

“It’s a really, really tricky role because it’s very high, … but it also has a lot of low notes,” Engle said.

Though voice students have had many opportunities this summer to perform in recitals, doing a full opera presents the opportunity of singing as a character and following the evolution of that character throughout the entire story.

“You see this duality of (Romeo) in that he’s both a raging man who’s all about violence and bloodlust, and then you have that opposite side of him that is very tender and loving and caring and not afraid to cry,” Engle said.

For the vocalists, it is a rare chance to perform in a space as large as the Amp — which has over 2,500 more seats than the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City — and to sing with the force of a full orchestra in the pit.

“Singing with an orchestra compared to singing with a piano is infinitely different,” said tenor Matthew Pearce, who will be playing the role of Tebaldo. “To feel that amount of power behind you as you sing, … that helps supply so much to the singing.”

One of the biggest challenges this production has faced is the time crunch: The vocalists have only been rehearsing together for a couple of weeks, and the MSFO had less than a week to put together a program that has as much music as two of their regular concerts.

The MSFO played parts of Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet “Romeo and Juliet” at a performance earlier this season, but Timothy Muffitt, conductor of the MSFO and artistic director of the Instrumental Program, said that Bellini’s opera is “on the opposite end of the spectrum.” Whereas Prokofiev’s ballet puts the bulk of the emotional heavy-lifting in the orchestra, Bellini gives the vocalists that responsibility and it is the role of the orchestra to support that.

Because of those roles, Muffit said, the orchestra’s approach to an opera is different than an instrumental-only concert. When conducting, Muffitt has to remain flexible and react to what the singers are doing on stage; the orchestra is less precise and more focused on aligning with the vocalists’ musical decisions. This is something that is important for the students, as pre-professionals, to learn, Muffitt said.

“In this opera, the singers are given a lot of space to do what they want with the music,” Engle said.

I Capuleti e i Montecchi is a bel canto opera; this phrase translates to “beautiful song,” and is a type of singing that tends to be flowing, lyrical and focused on the beauty of the music. It is more about finesse and fluidity than, for example, the verismo style, which is more about the magnitude and power of the voice.

“The arias have a lot more showy aspects to them,” Pearce said. “(There is) lot of moving of the voice and a lot of singing of high notes and holding them forever, just because it’s a good chance to show off.”

There are a lot of long, colorful phrases for both the singers and the orchestra; several instruments, like cello and horn, get plenty of chances for solos, Muffitt said.

“Doing an opera is always exciting,” Muffit said.

Though in many ways it is a story that many have heard before, Engle said that the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet may still have something to teach modern audiences about the dangers of polarization and the importance of listening.

“I think one of the main points that we’re trying to get at is, if people just continue to fight and fight and violence is sort of the go-to solution, what love there is will die,” Engle said.

I Capuleti e i Montecchi is short for an opera — only about two hours. Still, it is a test of stamina and endurance for the students involved. Tonight’s show will be their only performance of this opera.

For Week Six’s Interfaith Friday Series in the Hall of Philosophy, the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, vice president of religion and senior pastor, posed a series of questions to Rabbi Saul Berman, who spoke on behalf of Modern Orthodox Judaism.

Berman attended Yeshiva University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree and was ordained. He then studied law at New York University, and earned a master’s degree in political science at the University of California, Berkeley. Now, Berman balances teaching as a professor at Stern College for Women at Yeshiva, and at the Columbia University School of Law.

What follows is an abridged version of Berman’s conversation. Berman and Robinson’s remarks have been condensed for clarity.

Robinson: Was the call to Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac — was that asking Abraham to bend over backwards for God?

Berman: No. The Jewish tradition views that as a divine test and the test to Abraham was two-fold. One, would he be obedient? Two, would he use his judgment at the final moment to turn away from such action and to know that neither he nor anyone else could claim the right to take life at the sound of God that only he heard? Different Jewish commentators place greater or lesser emphasis on one or the other of those sides in the Bible. I believe that was a dual test and that Abraham succeeded. He succeeded, first, in his expression of willingness to submit to the divine command. But he also succeeded in gaining the understanding out of that experience that one could not be justified in taking the life of another human being simply because he believed that he had heard God tell him to do that.

Was it a bad thing for Adam and Eve to want to eat of the tree? Was that just a test, or is there something inherent about the knowledge of good and evil that God wanted them to steer clear of?

There are centuries of discourse around that particular issue. My own sense is that was not a test, but rather a description of the process by which we became human. And, humans needed to understand that, in fact, we had to be able to hear God’s command; we had the freedom to choose to disobey; and there are consequences to disobedience. In order for us to be fully human and in order for us to ultimately achieve God’s will in this world, we need to know all three of those things: that God’s will can be known, that we have the capacity to either submit or reject and that there are consequences to that decision.

If I have a seriously ill friend and I want to pray for her, what do I have a right to ask God to do, and what might God do in response to that request? And then, what is my responsibility?

First of all, the rabbinic thought in fact identifies the notion of inappropriate or wrongful prayer; that is, we do not have the right to ask God to reverse what already is factual. So, as the tongue would express it, if someone is returning home and sort of sees a fire in the distance, he should not pray to God, “Let that not be my home.” There are two reasons for that. First of all because, if it’s not yours, it’s somebody else’s. So, you should not pray in a manner that would simply shift the burden to somebody else. Secondly, because there’s a fire there already, it’s burning in a particular home. So, if it’s already burning in your home, you can’t ask God to reverse that and make it be that the fire never existed in your home. What you can ask God in prayer is that those who can still be saved will be saved; that those who are not injured should not be injured; and that the fire should be extinguished rapidly.

You can pray for things that are still possible, even though some of those things also related to the future may appear to require miraculous intervention. It might take miraculous intervention for somebody who is at risk to be saved. But, so long as the event has not yet occurred, you can still pray for God to intervene to prevent a particular event from occurring. A part of that also requires a sense of awareness of one’s own responsibility in relation to that circumstance. So, the prayer needs to give you the strength to comfort, the strength to give hope, the strength to manifest empathy, the strength to call that person and say, “How are you? I’m praying for you.” Rabbis insist that visiting the sick relieves one-60th of the illness of the suffering.

There was no question in my mind that people visiting someone who is sick take away a little bit of that. Sometimes it’s momentary and sometimes it’s long-lasting, but it takes away a little bit of the pain because it takes away a little bit of the isolation. For any one of us who have experienced illness ourselves or of those we love, we know that one of the deepest feelings in such an experience is the experience of being alone. And the ability to alleviate that sense of loneliness is a critical element that we can contribute.

So, you can want God to change what is, but it’s not right to expect it?

Expecting God to respond to our individual prayers is, of course, an extraordinarily difficult challenge. I struggle with that all of the time. The text often appears to us to be sort of a script. It’s a monologue; it’s us talking to God and then we ask ourselves, “How come he hasn’t responded?” The more I study the Jewish prayer book, the siddur, the more I realize that implanted into the text of the siddur is really a dialogue, not a monologue. Every few paragraphs, there is a paragraph which quotes what God said, as it were, on the assumption that God’s words are eternal. If God’s words are eternal, then they continue, as it were, to reverberate throughout the universe continuously.

So, when the Prophet said in the name of God, “I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth and I will fill it,” those are in the text of the siddur. That’s not us speaking to God. That has to be our hearing God say to us that God hears our prayers, that he is responsive to our prayers, that he is with us. “I am with you,” says God, “in your times of trouble.” We have to be able to hear and know the truth of that because we believe that God is responsive in that way. So does that mean that God will cure every illness and prevent any disaster from occurring? No. It doesn’t mean that, because God created the natural order and grants it, as it were, the maximum possible liberty to act in accordance with its rules — as he gave us free will and enables us to act as fully as we choose to in consonance with our free will, even when that is against the will of God. He allows that to take place except in those moments when he intervenes. And, thank God we do not know the moments of intervention, but we continue to pray for them.

Jared Jacobsen is hitting the road on a musical journey.

“I decided that I’m going to pretend I’m a Baptist and that I’m going to travel the world,” said Jacobsen, Chautauqua’s organist and coordinator of worship and sacred music. “I’ll play pieces from different cultures, cultures that I may not have necessarily visited. I tried to pick six pieces that are representatives of very different musical traditions.”

At 12:15 p.m. Monday, August 5 in the Hall of Christ, Jacobsen will present his Tallman Tracker Organ concert, “A Baptist Hits the Road.”

This Tallman concert will take place today because of Tuesday’s Old First Night activities.

The title for this concert comes from the Tallman Tracker Organ having originally come from a Baptist church.

First up on this auditory excursion is Jean Sibelius’ “Finlandia,” a tribute to Nordic countries, especially Sweden.

“We sing it as a hymn sometimes,” Jacobsen said. “He was interesting because he was the summing up of an entire country’s traditions and music. Edvard Grieg did the same thing right next door, in Norway.”

Jacobsen said Grieg, a Norwegian composer and pianist, wrote a lot of music based on the folk traditions of his country.

“One of those pieces that I like a lot is ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King,’ because it sounds kind of scary, like there’s a monster in the cavern up ahead,” he said. “It feels very polar and very dark, and very much part of the Nordic part of the world.”

Next, Jacobsen said he’s dipping into Spain for a “heart-on-your-sleeve” song by the Cuban composer, Ernesto Lecuona.

“ ‘Malagueña’ is one of those tunes that you’ve heard if you’ve ever been to a Mexican restaurant,” he said, “often played badly by a trio of trumpets.”

After Spain, Jacobsen will travel to Egypt.

“This is an interesting little piece by René Becker,” he said. “Nobody has ever heard of René Becker, who’s French. But he wrote this piece called ‘Sur Le Nil: Sérénade orientale.’ It has kind of our Hollywood idea of what Egypt sounds like, which is not really the way it sounds in Egypt. By playing pentatonic scales and playing things on nasally oboes, you can give people the impression that they’ve gone to Egypt without having bought a ticket for it.”

The next song on the program will be concert organist Joyce Jones’ “Improvisation on ‘Aka Tombo,’ ” Jacobsen said.

“She was asked to do a concert tour in Japan, which was very unusual,” he said. “For a long time, nobody was interested in organ music in Japan, because it’s not in their tradition. But as Japan got to be more and more Westernized, they figured that pipe organs are part of the deal.”

Jacobsen said Jones’ playing and her compositions were both “the real deal,” and the perfect encapsulation of what he’d like today’s concert to represent.

“I love when you get on an airplane and the attendants talk about loss of cabin pressure,” said the Rev. Barbara K. Lundblad at the 10:45 a.m. Sunday Ecumenical Service of Worship and Sermon in the Amphitheater.

Her sermon title was “Talking to Yourself is Not Enough,” and the Scripture text was Luke 12:13-21.

“The attendants tell you to pull the mask down,” she said. “Tighten yours first, then take care of your children. Then breathe normally. Really? We have been trying hard to breathe normally for a long time.”

Her sermon could have been very short, she noted, because Jesus gave the punch line at the very beginning. He said, “Take care! Be on guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

“This is when we should have received the offering,” Lundblad said. “We expect the story to be about a bad man so we could distance ourselves from the story. But there is no evidence that he pushed peasants off their land or was mean to the hired help.”

The rich man had land that produced abundantly.

“I grew up on a farm in Iowa, and we all wanted our land to produce abundantly,” Lundblad said.

The rich man’s neighbors thought he was very devout, observing all the commandments, so as Deuteronomy 30:9 reads, “… the Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all your undertakings.”

While it was not a sin for the man’s land to be highly productive, for him to plan to store part of the harvest or plan to build larger stores, he was talking only to himself.

“The man says, ‘I will pull down my barns, I will build larger ones, I will store my crops,’ ” Lundblad said. “I, I, I, ay ay ay. He has no memory of God, no memory of the commandment to leave grain at the edge of the field. He never thinks to ask if there is anyone with no grain at all. He was not a bad man because he was productive, but because he was so egocentric that he thought only of his own life.”

Lundblad liked that the man talked to his soul.

The man said, “I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ ”  That very night, his life was demanded of him; he had no more years, let alone one more morning.

“God did not strike him down,” Lundblad said. “He died like I will die one day, but he thought only of himself. One of the people in my Bible study group this week found a note in her Bible that said, ‘It was like the rich man thought there would be a U-Haul behind the hearse to carry his possessions.’ ”

Following Jesus means to leave the self behind; following Jesus has economic ramifications.

“There is an odd economy with God,” Lundblad said. “Jesus said that where your treasure is, your heart will be. We say it the other way — where our heart is, our treasure will be. It is as if your heart is in the right place, you don’t have to worry about money or the poor. Jesus calls us beyond the ‘m’ word — my stocks, my church pension.”

Lundblad said it has always been hard to think that way.

“But it is harder now,” she said. “Let me make a confession. I preached on this text six years ago right here on this platform. It is the text for the lectionary today as it was six years ago. Who would remember?”

Lundblad recalled that in her sermon six years ago, she talked about Congress trying to establish a means test for SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The plan did not completely come to pass.

“Six years later, Congress is trying to get people kicked off food stamps,” she said. “The treasury department thought they should ship people boxes of food for half their rations. The treasurer said it would be like Blue Apron, with all the ingredients. They decided to ditch that plan when someone pointed out it would cost a lot of money to mail multiple millions of boxes of food, just to attack people’s eligibility.”

There might be better ways to balance the budget. Lundblad noted that our military spending in the United States is greater than the next nine countries combined.

This is the August recess in Congress.

“Why don’t they talk to people who are receiving food stamps, talk to the people most affected?” she asked. “Talking to yourself is not enough.”

Lundblad quoted “late night theologian, Stephen Colbert.”

Colbert said: “If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.”

Where is the grace in the sermon?

“Didn’t they tell you this is a week on grace?” Lundblad asked. “There is not a lot in the text or this sermon, but there is ‘anticipatory grace.’ Jesus shows us what grace is by showing us what it is not. It is not talking to yourself.”

She told the congregation the story of the rich man; Lazarus is another story that is not about grace, but a story that asks us to do the opposite of what is portrayed.

Lundblad retold the story from her text for Sunday. The rich man produced more than enough from his land, so he went and talked with his neighbors.

“He talked and listened,” she said. “He asked if anyone nearby was hungry.”

He invited his neighbors to take what they needed, and they did not take his part, just what they needed. Then they had a feast together and ate, drank and sang songs, and were very merry and those who were hungry had plenty.

“Not long afterward, as all of us will, he died; but he did not die alone,” Lundblad said. “If you can’t imagine grace, you will not see it. I hope God opens all our imaginations. So may it be.”

The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, vice president of religion and senior pastor, presided. Candy Littell Maxwell, chair-elect of the Chautauqua Institution Board of Trustees and the first woman to hold that position, read the Scripture. The responsorial Psalm was “Lord, You Have the Words,” by David Haas. The hymn-anthem was “Daa Naa Se,” a Ghanaian folk song written and sung in Twi, Ghana’s second official language. The Chautauqua Choir sang “Amazing Grace,” by John Newton, as the anthem. Mary Ellen Kimble was the soloist. The offertory anthem was “Be Thou My Vision,” arranged by Gwyneth Walker. The organ postlude, played by Jared Jacobsen, organist and coordinator of worship and sacred music, was “Toccata in D,” by Marcel Lanquetuit. The Robert D. Campbell Memorial Chaplaincy provides support for this week’s services.

Celebrating Chautauqua’s birthday, Old First Night is a time to honor traditions, welcome new ones and appreciate the philanthropic support that keeps the Institution at its best. In gratitude, the Chautauqua Foundation invites the community to its annual celebration.

The festivities will take place from noon to 2 p.m. Tuesday, August 6 on Bestor Plaza, providing Chautauquans with the opportunity to prepare for Old First Night by engaging in family-friendly activities, while also having the chance to make their birthday gift to Chautauqua.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for the community to gather together and celebrate Chautauqua’s birthday with games and activities for the kiddos, and to honor each of our family’s experiences on these grounds with a gift to further Chautauqua’s programs and the incredible joy they provide us each summer,” said Tina Downey, director of the Chautauqua Fund.

Chautauqua Fund volunteers will be accepting donations for the annual fund throughout the celebration, and the Community Band will perform at 12:15 p.m. Gifts of all sizes help to ensure a vital and successful future for the Institution, and volunteers and foundation staff will be on hand to discuss the importance of philanthropy at the Institution and the impact it makes on the overall Chautauqua experience.

This year, the afternoon birthday celebration is based on an “Incredibles” superhero theme, teeing up the movie, “The Incredibles 2,” which will be screened at 9:30 p.m. on Bestor Plaza. The movie will follow the Old First Night ceremonies at 6:45 p.m. in the Amphitheater, and the Family Entertainment Series performance by “Taikoza” at 7:30 p.m., all on Tuesday. Families and children are invited to partake in the afternoon activities to kick things off, including an obstacle course, bounce house where Chautauquans can test their superhero strength and speed, a craft table with materials to make your own shield, superhero face painting, yard games and a photo op station. There will also be paper lanterns for sale for those who want to light up their porches leading up to the evening celebration of Old First Night.

“Chautauqua’s birthday is a prime occasion to celebrate the relationships that have built this community and that unite us in our search for meaning, shared purpose and greater understanding,” Downey said. “We welcome gifts to honor friends and loved ones, and those who have invited us to be a part of this experience along the way.”

During the celebration, families and individuals are encouraged to bring a picnic lunch and enjoy a performance by the Chautauqua Community Band at 12:15 p.m. Herb Keyser will also be selling his famous lemon tarts with all proceeds benefiting the Chautauqua Fund. At movie night, to cap off the full day of birthday fun, the Foundation will provide free popcorn, luminaries and glow-in-the-dark bracelets.

For more information about the role of philanthropy at Chautauqua, or this family-friendly celebration of Chautauqua’s birthday, please contact the Foundation Office at 716-357-6465 or
foundation@chq.org.

After months of collecting graduation applications and organizing a deluge of diplomas, name tags and luncheon tickets, the staff at the CLSC Octagon are ready for Recognition Week.

The four days of festivities — starting with the Class of 2019 Baccalaureate at 10:45 a.m. Sunday in the Amphitheater, and concluding with Sarah Ruhl’s Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle Author Presentation at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, August 8 in the Hall of Philosophy — commemorates the Class of 2019, a group of 78 individuals graduating from the CLSC.   

The Class of 2019 Vigil Ceremony, which begins at 8:45 p.m. Sunday with the gathering of graduates on the porch of the Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall before the ceremony at 9 p.m. in the Hall of Philosophy, and the Recognition Day Ceremony, which marks the official initiation of the Class of 2019 at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the Hall of Philosophy, are two central events of a week requiring a careful attention to tradition. For the Vigil, a candle-lit night featuring graduates dressed in white, a designated committee assembled music and readings that emphasize the Class of 2019’s specific attributes. On Wednesday, the Alumni Parade and Richard Blanco’s 10:45 a.m. Recognition Day lecture bookends the Recognition Day Ceremony.   

“I really love all the work that goes into maintaining these traditions that are quirky, charming and really a spectacle to behold,” said Stephine Hunt, manager of the CLSC Octagon. “Both ceremonies are absolutely beautiful.”

At 7 p.m. Monday, August 5 in the Athenaeum Hotel Parlor, Chautauquans will honor My Tran, winner of the second Chautauqua Janus Prize for their experimental short prose piece “Tree rings, like concentric ghosts.” Members of the Class of 2019 who are in attendance Monday evening will be asked to stand and be recognized.

“I think that having innovation and tradition side by side in this week is also really exciting,” said Atom Atkinson, director of literary arts. “That’s something I’m really looking forward to.”

In the flurry of coordination and last-minute fixes that precede the week, Hunt is excited to watch the nearly 150-year-old tradition unfold.

“It’s all just a lot of pieces that somehow fit together,” she said.

In the final Chautauqua Opera Company performance of the season, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and the Chautauqua Opera Young Artists will join forces to perform beloved musical numbers — and a world premiere.

At 8:15 p.m. Saturday in the Amphitheater, the Young Artists will be joined by the CSO, led by guest conductor Stuart Chafetz, in the annual Opera Pops concert.

The concert will feature songs from well-known musicals like Man of La Mancha’s “The Impossible Dream” and Rent’s “Seasons of Love.” Also included are some less familiar musical numbers like “What more do I need?” from Stephen Sondheim’s musical Saturday Night and “Being alive” from another Sondheim musical, Company. The concert will begin with a medley of songs from French musical composer Michel Legrand.

Finally, the singers and musicians will give the world premiere of “When I’m away from you” by Gilda Lyons, Chautauqua Opera’s composer-in-residence, which will be performed by Young Artist Lauren Yokabaskas, soprano.

This eclectic blend of popular music, Chafetz said, will come to life on the shared stage.

“When the orchestra is involved, it adds a whole new dimension,” Chafetz said. “It becomes that much more intense for everybody — when you have the whole Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra behind you while singing these pops Broadway standards, it just adds so much more beautiful collaboration.”

Chafetz, known for his dynamic performances at the conductor’s podium, is the principal pops conductor of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. As a CSO timpanist and frequent guest conductor for pops concerts, he said he has a passion for popular music.

“When you hear music that you know and love, it adds that much more,” he said. “It puts smiles on people’s faces and brings back memories.”

For Chafetz, popular music brings more than smiles — he said it makes classical forms like opera and symphony accessible to a broad audience.

“To me, it’s so much fun and so relatable to the audience,” Chafetz said. “I just feel so much commitment to popular music and getting people excited about coming to the symphony orchestra who normally wouldn’t come. That has been a real passion of mine, to engage people that wouldn’t ordinarily come.”

Chafetz, the CSO and the Opera Young Artists have each been rehearsing for the collaborative concert this past week. Even in rehearsals, Chafetz said, the performances are powerful.

“When the entire opera department is singing, there’s nothing like it,” Chafetz said. “We had rehearsal … and I was amazed at the sheer volume and classical training. It’s just that much more in-tune, that much more projection. It just sounds so good.”

The Young Artists began rehearsing the music this week with stage director Andy Gale and choreographer Teddy Kern. Gale said the Young Artists worked diligently to prepare the music throughout the season, prior to working with himself and Kern.

“The singers have been coached in the repertoire while they are doing hundreds of other things, like art song recitals and three operas,” Gale said. “And then we come in and get to know them and put it on its feet.”

While the Young Artists are not in full costumes and makeup, they work on staging and movements. Kern said for some songs, the story requires dance and specific movements.

“Andy and I collaborate to prepare where the dancing movement will go,” Kern said.

This concert is in conjunction with Week Seven’s theme — “Grace: A Celebration of Extraordinary Gifts.” Gale said the concert program would be an excellent way to transition from Week Six to Week Seven.   

“We looked at that, and we liked thinking about grace,” Gale said. “We thought that was an interesting title that would allow us some flexibility with the song choices.”

He said the event involves teamwork from both Chautauqua Opera and the CSO.

“It is, by very definition, a collaborative event,” Gale said. “And we are a good team.”

Sunday’s Sacred Song Service will be rich in different kinds of music, language and tradition, according to Jared Jacobsen.

It will feature the three world religions, which originated from the prophet and patriarch Abraham: Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

“For some people, it’s the first time they ever hear Arabic in this space,” said Jacobsen, Chautauqua’s organist and coordinator of worship and sacred music. “For a surprising number of people, it’s the first time they hear Hebrew in this space.”

A highlight of the service will be five large paper banners representing the five members of Abraham’s family, designed by artist Nancy Chinn.

“I brought her to Chautauqua to be in residence and just walk around for a week, and I said, ‘We’re putting our toe in the water of this interfaith thing, and I want you to help me with some art,’ ” Jacobsen said. “She soaked up Chautauqua for an entire week, and then she went away and said, ‘Let me see what I can do.’ ”

At 8 p.m. Sunday in the Amphitheater, Jacobsen will present the Sacred Song Service, “The Family of Abraham Lives the Gift of Grace.” The concert will feature the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Chautauqua’s vice president of religion and senior pastor, the Chautauqua Choir and the Abrahamic Program for Young Adults coordinators.

“Another thing I came up with is the idea that light is common to all of us, and water is common to all of us,” Jacobsen said. “We are all an ‘oasis people.’ We come from fertile spots in the desert, where, if there’s water, there’s light. And where there’s light, there’s civilization. So I came up with the idea of having three huge candles on the stage, planted in a pool of water.”

Jacobsen said he bought the largest candles he could find for Sunday’s service, which are 6-feet-tall.

“In the beginning of the service, we ritualize the lighting of the candles,” he said. “Instead of a little dinky candle like a candle on a birthday cake, it’s a candle you actually walk up to. It’s a very powerful symbol to watch these Abrahamic kids standing up there together, lighting the candles.”

The coordinators from APYA representing two of the Abrahamic faiths are Anna Grace Glaize, Nikhat Noorani and Safwan Shaikh. Chautauqua’s own Rabbi Samuel Stahl will represent the Jewish faith.

“We have one Christian coordinator and two Muslim coordinators representing two Muslim traditions,” Jacobsen said. “Sam Stahl was the first scholar-in-residence here in the religion department. And not only was he the first scholar-in-residence, he was the first one who also was a rabbi. There is no one more passionate about interfaith relationships than Sam.”

The music to be performed by both the Chautauqua Choir and the congregation is intended to bring adherents of the three faiths together, Jacobsen said.

“There will be hymns for the congregation to sing, with texts that are inclusive and not exclusive,” he said. “A great part of the evening is hospitality, and reaching out.”

According to Jacobsen, “Psalm 133” by American composer Richard Proulx is a “great psalm of hospitality.”

Another song on the program is “The House of Faith Has Many Rooms,” by American organist Craig Phillips.

“I love the image (‘The House of Faith’) evokes,” Jacobsen said. “It’s a beautiful song, and it’s going to be a beautiful concert.”

In the little white and red chapel near Thunder Bridge, time reversed to 1894 — for about an hour last Sunday.

It was one of those peaceful, gray and drizzly mornings. Parishioners filed into the Episcopal Chapel of the Good Shepherd to celebrate its 125th year with a service that would have been similarly performed at the time of the building’s dedication.

With its doors closed most of the year, the chapel has served Chautauquans during the summer season for 125 years. Nestled in a cozy spot across from the Hall of Christ, the chapel is now a bright and pristine building, thanks to renovations in the 1990s, and again in 2015, to preserve it. The chapel is one of only two free-standing churches on the grounds.

“The greatest thing in terms of being able to celebrate 125 years is it is still here, and it is now in excellent condition and can hopefully endure for another 100 years,” said the Rev. Virginia Carr, who serves as the vicar of the chapel and the reverend at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Westfield.

A Late 1800s Service

Past and present came together last Sunday during the chapel’s celebratory service.

The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, led the service, reading out of the 1886 Book of Common Prayer.

At points, Sutton’s Sunday service resembled a stand-up routine, with jokes peppered throughout.

“For our latecomers and any who may still be at the door coming, this being an Episcopal chapel, undoubtedly, there are seats up front,” he said. “Why do Episcopalians fill up from the rear? Because there are no spaces left in the parking lot.”

The Rev. David Meyers served as the clerk of the service. In historical services, there were no bulletins for parishioners to follow along with the service. Instead, they would look to the clerk. When he spoke, they knew they were also supposed to speak. Sutton played off that idea at the beginning of his sermon.

“When he laughs, you are to laugh,” he said. “When he cries and weeps, you are to weep.”

Carr suggested that the chapel celebrate its 125th year with a historical service that would have been performed at the time of its dedication in 1894. The Episcopal service remained largely the same from 1662 to 1978, with slight changes in 1928.

“The essence of (the service) is very similar,” she said. “What is different is that the parts are arranged differently. The ‘Gloria’ that is sung at the end of the old service is now sung at the beginning of the service. We have far more music now than they did then.”

Additionally, Episcopal churches were decorated more simply than they are now.

“There were no candles, no adornments,” Carr said. “It was very plain and very simple.”

On Sunday, Sutton sat at the end of the altar to emulate how in the 1800s, the priest celebrated from the end of the table. During modern services, priests speak from the middle of the altar. He and Meyers wore plain, black and white vestments.

As a finishing touch, Chautauquans Angela James and Kim Meyers collected white and sky-blue flowers from their gardens to fill the vases on either side of the chancel, just as the original parishioners likely did. Nowadays, the chapel’s flowers get delivered by a florist in Westfield.

125 Years of History

Before the chapel was dedicated in July 1894, Episcopals at the Chautauqua Assembly met to worship in a tent where the Arts Quad is today, according to a booklet on the chapel’s 125-year history written by Daily staff writer and local historian, Mary Lee Talbot, and commissioned by the chapel for the anniversary. (Those interested in purchasing a copy of the book may email
chqchapelbooklet@gmail.com.)

The Chautauqua Assembly offered a free 40-by-50 foot plot of land to each religious denomination. The Episcopals felt the plot was too small, so they rented two adjacent lots to build the church on. The church was built and furnished for $1,726, Talbot wrote.

The June 23, 1894, edition of The Living Church, an Episcopal Church newsletter, described the new place of worship:

“The chapel will be in pleasing contrast with the majority of buildings at Chautauqua, being of the English rural chapel type, with long, sloping roofs of soft, mossy-brown shingles, projecting cowl with half-hidden bell and a gabled facade.”

St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Silver Creek, New York, which was built in 1892, has an identical design.

According to Talbot, the chapel was the center of Episcopal life at the Institution for years. The first Episcopal cottage, the current site of the Christian Science House, was not purchased until 1919. In 1955, the cottage moved to its current location on the brick walk at the corner of Peck Avenue.

The chapel started out under the care of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Mayville, Talbot wrote. It entered the purview of the bishop of the Diocese of Western New York in 1987.

At first, according to Talbot, services were only held on Wednesdays and Fridays. Now, they are held at 7:45 a.m. on weekdays, and 7:45 a.m. and 9 a.m. on Sundays. Carr leads a Compline at 9:30 p.m. on Sundays. Bible study is held at the Episcopal Cottage after the Wednesday morning services.

Weekday Catholic masses occur in the chapel at 8:45 a.m. and 12:10 p.m.

The 100th year in 1994 was celebrated with renovations of the chapel’s foundation, work on some of the stained-glass windows and the addition of eight new windows, each honoring an important religious or cultural figure, on the side walls of the chapel.

The windows honor people such as Pope John XXIII; Lewis Miller, co-founder of Chautauqua Institution; Florence Nightingale, founder of modern nursing; and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who worked as an anti-apartheid advocate in South Africa.

The 1994 renovations were crucial to the long-term success of the chapel, Carr said.

“The chapel itself, the building, in the mid-1990s was in great disrepair,” she said. “It was falling apart.”

In its 100th year, chapel members created a list of physical projects to accomplish, Carr said.

This included a revamping of the interior of the chapel, which was completed in 2015. James, a member of the chapel’s board, said the crew removed an ugly raspberry-red carpet to reveal the original pine flooring below the altar.

The ceiling was the same shade of red, James said. Now, it is white above the pews and blue above the altar, to signify the difference between Earth and heaven.

The pews were removed and repaired by an Amish craftsperson in Pennsylvania, to restore them after decades of use.

Carr said the last project from the 1994 list, a renovation of the sacristy — a room in the back right corner of the building used for storage and to prepare for the service — was just completed this past spring.

James and her husband, William James, who are both on the board of the chapel, led a project to install a columbarium in an underutilized space behind the organ. Dedicated in 2008, it is now the only place on the grounds where ashes can be interred.

Each niche costs $4,000. The money raised from the columbarium serves as the chapel’s entire endowment.

The James family has purchased four of the columbarium’s niches — one for Angela and William, and the others for their three children.

Nine people’s remains are currently in the columbarium, including those of Ron Hermance, which were interred last Saturday. As the first chairman of the chapel’s board, Hermance helped to finance the structural repairs of the chapel in the 1990s.

The ability for people to use the chapel as their final resting place is a continuation of its legacy and its mark on local history.

“It’s just a place of welcome and peace, and beauty and prayer, and for me, fellowship,” James said.

Very Much Alive

In a place so steeped in history, the gardens that surround three sides of the chapel provide a reminder that the chapel is still very much alive.

The flowers in the garden beds are exclusively red and white to match the colors of the chapel. The white comes from flowers like daisies and oakleaf hydrangea; the red from bee balm, cardinal flower and Lucifer flower.

At the Sunday service, a vase of Lucifer flowers rested on the top of the steps right outside the front door. No one would dare to bring the flowers, named for the devil, inside.

“We have adopted the idea that we’re trying to move toward native shrubs and perennials,” James said, as she readied the chapel July 25 for its morning service the next day.

James also serves as the president of the Chautauqua Bird, Tree & Garden Club, which advocates for environmentally friendly gardening practices through lectures and other programming.

The exterior plants are the first indication of the activity within the building. With eight Episcopal services and 10 Catholic masses each week, the chapel is frequently in use during the summer season.

The Episcopal services are run by a different chaplain each week. They apply and are selected by Carr.

“I look for a diversity of clergy so they’re not all from the same area or theologically the same,” she said. “Even within the Episcopal church, we have diversity. I have chaplains from all over the world who come.”

Sutton, the Week Six Episcopal chaplain, is the first African American bishop for the Diocese of Maryland. He has been to Chautauqua as chaplain-in-residence before, and on Aug. 21, he will give the 2 p.m. interfaith lecture in the Hall of Philosophy.

With about 60 to 80 people attending its Sunday services each week during the summer, the chapel is very much alive and well, 125 years later.

“There are services here; I had a burial on Saturday; I have done weddings here; we have baptized babies,” Carr said. “It is not just a building, but it is alive.”

Dear fellow Chautauquans,

Welcome to the seventh week of our 146th Assembly. I have been waiting for this week for more than a year. The broader concept of grace has been on my mind for some time now, and to explore the week with one of my favorite journalists and storytellers, the incomparable Krista Tippett, is a true joy.

This week, we look at “Grace: A Celebration of Extraordinary Gifts.” Be it emotional, physical or spiritual, grace takes many forms. It exists in the way we treat one another, the way in which we move through the world and the way in which we use our gifts, our grace, to lift up others. Grace, as defined by religious terms, is the means by which we receive an unearned gift, one we’re not worthy of. Beyond religion, what does grace look like in the secular world? When is grace difficult? In talking across differences? In compromise? In the face of adversity? We’ll look at the moments in which grace is most needed. How can we go out into the world, actively moving with more grace throughout our own lives? 

The mission of Chautauqua Institution is to explore the best in human values. I think this week is simply a perfect fit for that mission statement, and I couldn’t be happier that Krista will be our guide for the conversation each morning. Almost a year ago, as this week’s theme was percolating in our heads, I attended a major commemoration of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Krista was there interviewing Derek Black, a former heir apparent of the white nationalist movement, and Matthew Stevenson, one of the only Orthodox Jews on their shared college campus. When Derek’s family history and ideology were revealed, Matthew invited him to a Shabbat dinner. It would transform them both forever — you really must check out this story — and it clicked for me that Krista was the perfect one to bring stories of grace to our morning platform. I’m deeply excited to have her here (in case you couldn’t tell!).

In our companion Interfaith Lecture Series, we’ll look at the same theme. There are many ways of defining or explaining the idea of grace. Grace is thought to be something we receive, something we give, something we are and something we do. This week, we will hear stories from four traditions — Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Humanism — exploring how each tradition perceives, interprets and lives grace.

And if that isn’t enough grace for you, we’ve invited the Gracefully project to spend the week with us podcasting, capturing stories and engaging with our community. Gracefully is the brainchild of Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post dance critic Sarah Kaufman and a dear friend of mine, Brian Wesolowski, who serves as a senior officer at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Gracefully explores the very notion of grace and uncovers where it is embodied in our everyday life, both online and off. The project is looking at ways that thoughtful design, technology and personal choices can promote community and enhance civil engagement. Its ultimate goal is to humanize technology and empower everyone to live more gracefully in the digital age. Sarah is also the author of The Art of Grace: On Moving Well Through Life. Stay tuned for ways you can engage with the group.

One more personal note this week. Sarah Ruhl joins us as our featured Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle author with her book Letters from Max: A Book of Friendship. I first met Sarah when I worked at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., when we were staging her incredible theatrical work Passion Play. It remains one of the most riveting pieces of theater I’ve ever seen in my life. Sarah is an incredible playwright, author and a MacArthur Genius Award-winner. I’m so thrilled to welcome her to Chautauqua. 

You may have sensed by now that I’m beyond excited about this week. While our mission calls us to tackle some really difficult topics, it also calls us to celebrate the enrichment of life. What a blessing to move from comedy last week, to a week devoted to grace. I invite us all to spend these coming days exploring the topic of grace in its many manifestations, recognizing fully that spending a week at Chautauqua may be the purest manifestation of the word. Welcome to Week Seven.

Michael E. Hill

It takes courage to proclaim one’s innermost anxieties to complete strangers, but turning mental illness and existential despair into comically cathartic performances? That takes a lot more than courage; it requires evocative writing, eccentric characters and an abundance of voices. Maria Bamford has, reluctantly, mastered them all.

Bamford, stand-up comedian and actress, spoke at 10:45 a.m. Friday, August 2 in the Amphitheater, closing Week Six, “What’s Funny? In Partnership with the National Comedy Center.” She was interviewed by Ophira Eisenberg, comedian and host of NPR’s and WNYC’s weekly radio game show, “Ask Me Another.”

The first time Bamford hit the stage as a stand-up comedian, she had a violin and a shaved head. Her parents “forced” her to start playing the violin at just 3 years old and said she couldn’t quit until she turned 16.

“Oh boy, I could not wait to get that cock-block out of the way,” Bamford said. “I used it in my act when I started because it helped distract from the fact that people didn’t like my material.”

When she moved to Los Angeles, she was relieved to find two other female comedians who played the violin while performing stand-up, giving her an excuse to finally ditch the act and try something else.

However, the shaved head was there to stay. Bamford said she was bald for ease and because it helped her “blend in with the men.”

“Comedy, at that time, was mostly men,” she said. “When you shave your head, no one is interested in talking to you after your set to tell you what they find funny; they think you’re ill, or perhaps, very angry — both of which are true.”

In the early stages of her career, comedian Frank Conniff suggested Bamford read The Artist’s Way, a book she said taught her to own her craft.

“It very much helped me define what I wanted to do and to start saying ‘I am a comedian,’ ” she said. “I think that half the trick of doing anything is to say that you’re doing it.”

Throughout her career, Bamford’s characters have been inspired by her family. Her mother does it to herself, according to Bamford, as a transcription of her day-to-day comments alone could serve as stand-up material.

“She said to me, ‘Honey, when you don’t wear make-up you look mentally ill,’ ” she said. “That’s just tight, succinct.”

Instead of comedy clubs, Bamford initially preferred performing in arts venues and empty coffee shops.

“If you’re going to do it, go where the love is,” she said. “If you like to fight against the tide, if you like a strip club at 2 a.m. where everyone is angry that you’re there and the nude lady has stopped dancing, then go for it, I tell you, go for it.”

Even now, Bamford is willing to do a show at any time, anywhere.

“I love low expectations,” she said. “But just like any job, you get into it for a specific reason, and I love attention. I love to be amplified and lit.”

Bamford will occasionally tweet her location and offer to perform for anyone who wants to show up. She most recently did that when she was invited to Harvard University to be inducted into The Harvard Lampoon, an undergraduate humor publication and organization founded in 1876.

When she arrived at Harvard, she found out it was more of a party, occupied by young people with red cups and kegs who said “adorable things.”

“(They told me) ‘I just don’t know what I’m going to do after college,’ ” she said. “Do you know where you’re at? You’re at fucking Harvard. Yeah, you’re going to be fine.”

Bamford said Lampoon staff “hazed her” as part of her induction, demanding she tell them what the Lampoon is. Each time they asked, Bamford responded, “I don’t know,” until they eventually told her it was “nothing,” and gave her a medallion. She really just wanted a T-shirt.

“I’m sure someone who is more pleasant as a person would have enjoyed it,” she said. “I am irritable on the whole.”

Her induction was a great accomplishment, but her growth didn’t come without struggle, as Bamford said she has never had a solid mentor. Even Bamford’s parents were typically hands-off with respect to her comedic development — they just wanted her to be healthy.

“I was one of those kids who had mental health problems; I went in and out of the hospital for a little while, so they were just glad that I had a job,” she said.

Bamford has been open about her bipolar disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder for years. Her Netflix show, “Lady Dynamite,” is based on her time in a psychiatric hospital, and she was awarded the 2014 Illumination Award by the International OCD Foundation for her work spreading awareness about living with mental illness.

She started incorporating mental health into her stand-up after a “breakdown, bipolar episode” in 2011. Bamford said when she was released from treatment, it was “all she could talk about.”

“You have to fill the hour, the time,” she said. “Do everything you can with what you have.”

Bamford said she was never worried about including the personal material because she no longer cared what other people thought of her.

“I was so lonely in that experience that I thought, ‘At least if I tell someone about my own experience, maybe someone else wouldn’t feel as lonely,’ ” she said. “That’s something I love about the comedy community, it’s very generous and it’s a place where you can talk about anything.”

The more she joked about it, the more it became her “schtick.” Fans started bringing prescription bottles for her to sign, which was fitting for Bamford, who said medication changed her life. Currently, she’s on 750 mg of Depakote, an anticonvulsant; 50 mg of Seroquel, an antipsychotic; and 40 mg of Prozac a day.

“It is life-changing,” Bamford said. “Some people aren’t into this; some people are more into, I don’t know, positive thinking, iowaska, I’m not sure. I do have to say, laughter is not the best medicine — medicine is, in fact, the best medicine.”

When Bamford was in a psychiatric ward, one of the therapists recognized her, but said she would never tell anyone that Bamford was in treatment.

“I’m in a county-stamped gown, in a pair of electric green gripper socks that are not my own —  you tell whoever the fuck you want, because all is lost,” she said.

Happiness, on the other hand, doesn’t have enough “zing” to be funny. Bamford noted that there are not as many comedy clubs in tropical locations as there are in New York City because there’s “no need.”

As Bamford continued to open up in her career, criticism toward her stand-up became more personal. Bamford said she enjoys making the most of the “heckling” during her shows.

“To heckle passively is to be alive,” she said. “My response to that sometimes is, ‘I know it seems like this isn’t a show to you and it’s not, it’s actually not a comedy show, it’s an intervention — myself and members of the community have all come together to confront you about how you’re a real jackass.’ ”

Bamford said one of her greatest failures starting out was a performance at Tempe Improv in Arizona. At the time, she didn’t have the requested 45 minutes of material, but said yes anyways, because “that’s on them.”

Bamford performed to a silent crowd. Afterward, no one talked to her and she was so embarrassed, she walked along the freeway, violin in hand, to go back to her hotel room and buy a ticket home for that night.

Eisenberg had a similar experience when she went to perform at a college in Erie, Pennsylvania. A Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game was on, and right before the third period, they turned the game off to introduce her. The audience booed and everyone, but one person, left.

“But the check cleared,” Eisenberg said.

To the “irritation of her manager,” Bamford has always been transparent about her contracts and income.

According to her, the payments for opening acts has not increased since she started working. She is currently working on a special where she is earning $275,000. Her opener? $150. Bamford is going to pay her $2,500 for her five-minute set.

Bamford and her husband have $2.2 million in assets, and she makes roughly $250,000 a year.

“It’s kind of awful and I’m not sure how to fight it,” she joked. “My husband and I, we’re atheists, but we are ethically competitive. We heard in most religions, you’re supposed to give 10% of your income away; we’re giving 11%. We don’t even fucking believe in heaven, but we’re going.”

Her alma mater, the University of Minnesota, asked Bamford to deliver a commencement speech, and when she asked them how much she would make, they told her “nothing,” it was an “honor” just to be invited. Bamford countered that with a request for $20,000. Bamford didn’t feel bad — she knew the university had a recent, and very successful, fundraiser where they received $900 million for their new athletic facility, “presumably for the poets.”

“The University of Minnesota was trying to suggest that I could not get paid for the one thing I paid them to teach me how to get paid to do,” she said.

The university followed up with an offer of $10,000, even though she claimed she would’ve done it for $600. Bamford said she felt so guilty, she gave the money away to help some of the students pay off their loans.

“It sounds like a nice thing to do, but that’s the only way I am able to do kind things: if it is in public and it is grandiose,” she said.

Bamford’s candid style has inspired thousands to try stand-up for themselves, including “Sally Love.” Sally, 75, started her stand-up career in January. Bamford asked her to come on stage and perform her bit, which Sally did without hesitation.

In her set, Sally talked about the challenges of online dating, saying men at any age are all the same; they still lie about their age, send unwanted photos and have “chinks in the armor.”

“What we want to see are pictures of their garages, their closets and we want thread count — we really want thread count,” Sally said.

Sally said she wants to create a new dating app that is “a mix of Match and Yelp.”

“We need user reviews,” she said. “If I had known that Stan had 10 guns and watches Fox News on TV all day, I could have saved myself a lot of time.”

Sally did find her knight in shining — but still chinked — armor: Mike, who was in the audience, cheering her on the whole way through.

Bamford and Eisenberg then wrapped up their conversation, providing light commentary on Sally’s performance.

“Wow, I think I might have to tighten up my jokes,” Bamford said.

Editor’s note: Due to time constraints, the lecture did not feature a Q-and-A to close out the morning; not that anything was left unsaid, anyway.

After losing the first game Monday, the Arthritics stepped up and managed to win game two of the Chautauqua men’s softball league playoff series Wednesday at Sharpe Field.

With the Pounders securing a big win in game one, the Arthritics came back to take an 11-2 win in the second game.

While the Arthritics played well offensively, clocking big hits and strategic runs, it was on the defense where they shined. Despite some big hits, the Pounders couldn’t overcome the Arthritics’ outfielders. Brandon Keogh, Arthritics outfielder, had multiple  catches throughout the game, running across the field, or even to the fence.

Other major defensive plays included a catch in the outfield, which was thrown for an out on second base, then thrown to first for a near three-out play, but the runner made it safely to first.

Keogh impressed Arthritics captain Mike O’Brien with his strong game in the outfield. 

“We definitely got guys that can hit, but we’re at our best defensively,” O’Brien said.

As the 2019 season comes to a close, the Arthritics are in an interesting spot since some players, including O’Brien, are headed home. This doesn’t seem to faze the team at all; O’Brien said even without him, the momentum and skill the team currently has will carry them through to the championship game.

“Hopefully we’ll have a good line-up of guys, and hopefully it will be as good a game as this one,” O’Brien said. “We played really well, we hit around a few times and the whole field was played fantastic.”

This is a new system, however, as in previous years teams only needed to win one playoff game to reach the championship, but Chautauqua softball commissioner Mark Altschuler amended that this year. 

“We used to only play one-game playoffs,” Altschuler said. “Having a three-game series where you need to win at least two (games) makes it way more fun and exciting for everyone.”

The third and final game of the series, which was set for Friday evening, was postponed and will take place at 6:30 p.m. Monday, August 5 at Sharpe Field.

With a purple martin chick in one hand and a pair of specialized pliers in the other, Twan Leenders carefully closed a metal ring around the bird’s leg, so that it was on securely, but had a bit of wiggle room.

The purple martin’s new bling was issued by the Bird Banding Laboratory under the United States Geological Survey. It will remain on the bird’s leg for the rest of its life, with the hope that someone, somewhere along the bird’s migration path, will be able to temporarily catch the bird, read the number on the band and enter it into an online database.

The data, collected by a hodgepodge of dedicated scientists, can be used to improve biologists’ understanding of purple martins, including their life span and migration patterns.

“It’s the only way,” said Leenders, a conservation biologist and president of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute. “It’s a very low-tech science. For every bit of information we collect that is related to natural history traits or survivorship or breeder success, that’s the one tool we have.”

A light rain fell as he worked on the afternoon of July 19, but Leenders and his white folding table were mostly covered by a tree near the John R. Turney Sailing Center where three clusters of man-made purple martin clusters stand near the water’s edge.

The assembly line went like this: Jack Gulvin, who has been taking care of the purple martins at Chautauqua Institution for 20 years, removed nests — each with about three to five chicks — from their compartments. Then, Gulvin handed the nests to a high school-student intern in Leender’s Project Wild America youth ambassador program, who carried the nests to Leenders.

He then removed each of the chicks one-by-one, banding them, and measuring their lengths and weights. Another student intern to Leenders’ left recorded those measurements and the number on the band on a spreadsheet.

In all, Leenders banded 44 birds — 22 near the sailing center and 22 from a purple martin house near Miller Bell Tower.

Leenders banded about 20 purple martins last year, the first time the birds were marked at Chautauqua.

None of those 20 birds have yet been spotted and tagged in the online database. Banding birds is a bit like throwing a needle into a haystack and hoping to find it later; banding and monitoring is a labor-intensive, slow process that does not yield many recapture or re-count events, according to both Leenders and Gulvin.

“You just hope they’re going to show up somewhere else,” Leenders said. “You band thousands of birds, and you might get one record back.”

Over his 20-year career with purple martins, Gulvin has seen four banded birds at Chautauqua, all of whom were banded in Pennsylvania, where the Purple Martin Conservation Association is headquartered.

“It’s always exciting, regardless of where they came from, to get a band return,” Gulvin said. “You read the number and write the number down, even though you’re so excited your hands are kind of shaking.”

When someone finds a banded bird, they can upload the bird’s number into the online database. The person who bands the bird — who must be federally licensed — will be notified where the bird was found. People who find banded birds and record the bird’s number in the database are mailed a certificate of appreciation with details about the bird they found.

Leenders said there are plenty of bird banders in North America, but not so many in Central and South America, where many bird species migrate for the winter. Purple martins are known to make it as far south as Brazil.

“The chances of the birds being banded in North America being caught in the tropics are slim to none,” he said.

In the winter, Leenders bands birds in Costa Rica and Panama, in hopes that someone will notice them when they head up north again for the summer.

Chautauqua’s purple martins are at the perfect age for banding right now, Leenders said. They are young enough that they haven’t fledged yet, but developed enough so he can band them without worrying they will outgrow the band.

Adult purple martins are more difficult to band because they are difficult to catch. Leenders said he typically uses a net — that becomes nearly invisible in a wooded setting — to catch birds in forests. But purple martins tend to dwell in wide-open spaces such as large fields or near large bodies of water, so the net method does not work as well.

There is still a lot that is unknown about purple martins, including the species’ life span and migration routes.

“It would be helpful to know whether birds migrate straight through or stop over, to identify where they breed,” Leenders said.

Scientists know that purple martins return to the same region, but not necessarily the same colony. If banding data shows that purple martins are migrating farther north than usual, it could be an indication more purple martin housing would be needed. On the East Coast, purple martins are entirely dependent on man-made housing, Gulvin said.

“It gives indications of where we need to use our efforts and put our resources to protect the migrating population of these birds,” Leenders said.

After each bird was banded, they were placed back in their nests, which Gulvin inserted into their respective compartments.

Soon, the chicks will learn to fly, and by the end of the summer, they will begin their long migration south.

One day, some might make their way back to Chautauqua Institution, where they may breed the next generation of purple martins.

As Courtney Wigdahl-Perry controlled the motor on a small inflatable Zodiac on July 22, MaryAnn Mason sat on the edge of the boat and leaned down to read the screen on the depth-finder, looking for a deep spot in Chautauqua Lake.

From a bathymetric map of the lake, which shows how deep the water is in each spot, they knew there was a deep pocket offshore near Miller Bell Tower. But without the exact GPS coordinates, they had to zig-zag around the general area, watching the changing numbers on the depth-finder. It was more like following a treasure map — 50 paces forward, 10 to the right — than using directions on Google Maps.

Suddenly, “X” marked the spot, and the pair anchored their boat where the lake bottom stretched 12.7 meters, or 42 feet, below the surface.

The boat was laden with instruments used to take measurements and collect water samples — a mobile, floating science lab.

Wigdahl-Perry is a freshwater ecologist and an assistant professor of biology at the State University of New York at Fredonia. Mason is a graduate student pursuing her master’s degree in biology, and conducting research this summer through Wigdahl-Perry’s lab, thanks to a research fellowship supported by the SUNY Fredonia Falcone and Holmberg Endowments.

The data they collect will be used to analyze the stratification of the lake, the separation of layers of water with different temperatures and densities, with cooler water at the bottom and warmer water at the top.

They hope to learn how stable these layers are, how storm events may mix them up and whether any mixing might disturb nutrients embedded in the lake bed and bring them up to the surface, where they feed algal blooms — one of the biggest concerns on Chautauqua Lake.

“Typically, if you have a system that does stratify and those temperature layers are different enough to keep the density strong enough so they can’t mix with one another, you don’t typically have an issue,” Mason said. “But if that stratification isn’t strong enough, you may have a strong wind or storm come through that allows those two layers to mix more freely, and then you can have these surface blooms access these necessary nutrients and basically take off from there.”

Algal blooms, commonly known as “pond scum,” form when there is a rapid growth of algae. These blooms often contain cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, which sometimes produce toxins that are harmful to humans and animals. Not all blooms are harmful, though, and it is not possible to tell just by looking at them.

Four Harmful Algal Blooms in the southern basin of the lake were confirmed in late July. Long Point State Park’s swimming beach has been closed for about a week due to a minor algal bloom that officials are keeping an eye on. Results on the toxicity of the bloom are being processed.   

Wigdahl-Perry said there is still a lot to learn about how and why algal blooms form. Scientists do know that nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen, which algae need to grow, are in excess in Chautauqua Lake. While phosphorus is not the only contributing factor to algae growth — nitrogen, temperature and waves also have a hand — scientists often test for it because it is relatively easy to measure.

“We know that phosphorus can trigger algae blooms, but it’s not always the whole story,” Wigdahl-Perry said. “It’s not the only thing (algae) needs. It’s just a really good indicator.”

Cyanobacteria can create its own nitrogen by fixing atmospheric nitrogen — a process that is typically only completed by lightning, Wigdahl-Perry said. So, when algae also has access to phosphorus, it unlocks the organisms’ ability to grow.

A lake’s phosphorus supply comes from a mix of runoff from the watershed and from internal loading of nutrients, which might come from the lake sediments, fish excrement or the decomposition of plant and animal life at the bottom. In Chautauqua Lake’s north basin, 25% of the phosphorus in the lake can be attributed to internal loading, according to a Total Maximum Daily Load estimate published by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. In the south basin, which is much more shallow, that number is 55%.

These legacy nutrients from within the lake are what make the lake’s stratification worth studying, Wigdahl-Perry said.

Historical data from the Citizens Statewide Lake Assessment Program, a citizen science lake monitoring initiative in New York State, has shown that the stratification of water layers in Chautauqua Lake’s north basin is not particularly strong, Mason said.

However, Mason’s data so far from this summer has shown more lake stratification than the CSLAP data has reflected. Typically, the boundary between layers hovers around 10 meters below the surface, which in shallow parts of the lake is very close to the bottom, Wigdahl-Perry said. This year, the average boundary has shown up around 6 meters below the surface — a more dramatic stratification.

“This year, the lake is very strongly stratified, but this is also the first time we’re approaching it this way,” Wigdahl-Perry said. “This is providing us new insights on ways to study the stratification at this lake. Maybe we have to try something different to get a better handle on it.”

This summer, Mason has been watching the weather and going out onto the lake with Wigdahl-Perry or an undergraduate student on calm days after storm events. They dispatch from Chautauqua Institution, Prendergast Point in Mayville, or Long Point State Park in Ellery, and look for a deep pocket in the lake.

Once Wigdahl-Perry and Mason found the spot near Miller Bell Tower on July 22, they lowered a multi-probed sonde known as a Hydrolab into the water. The tool tests the water’s pH, temperature, chlorophyll and dissolved oxygen levels.

They took measurements at each meter, up to 12 meters below the surface. Mason recorded the data from each meter in a waterproof notebook. This data created what they call a “vertical profile” of the water in that pocket.

Next, Mason used a Van Dorn Sampler to collect water samples from 3 and 12 meters. The instrument is a clear tube with openings on either side that snap shut under the water when Mason sends a weight down the string attached to the device. Then, she pulls the Van Dorn back to the surface and pours the water into containers to bring back to the lab.

From 2016 to 2018, Wigdahl-Perry and her team have dispatched a water quality monitoring buoy called the Chautauqua Aquatic Monitoring Project each summer in the north basin. It takes readings about every 15 minutes. Wigdahl-Perry said it has not yet been deployed this year because it is being repaired.

This year, the team has deployed HOBO data loggers, little sensors, on strings that they submerge in the water, with one logger at each meter.

“It can show basically what happens over a period of time,” Mason said. “We can get that whole entire sequence of setting up from before the storm, through the storm and then what happens afterwards. And it can track that temperature for us, which is really important, really crucial so that we can start figuring out the stratification that goes on.”

At the lab in SUNY Fredonia’s Science Center, Mason compiles the data she collects after each visit to the lake. She also tests the water samples for phosphorus and chlorophyll, which indicates the density of plant life.

Data collection will likely wrap up by October, when the water becomes too cold and the lake’s stratification solidifies for the winter. Mason will begin to work with the data this fall and defend her thesis in the spring.

In addition to research on Chautauqua Lake, Wigdahl-Perry is involved in community outreach to educate the public about lake algae. She was a presenter at the first annual Chautauqua Lake Conference in June, and on the evening of July 22, led a Lake Walk presented by the Bird, Tree & Garden Club.

At that talk, Wigdahl-Perry and Mason brought microscopes to the back porch of the Youth Activities Center so Chautauquans could look at algae up close.

“It’s a great community, and people genuinely care about the lake,” Wigdahl-Perry said. “It’s really great to be in an area where people care about the lake and want to know more, and are making significant efforts to improve the lake. That’s not always that common.”

“Sometimes a sermon just has to have a subtitle,” said the Rev. Susan Sparks at the 9:15 a.m. Friday Ecumenical Service in the Amphitheater. “My title today is ‘Taking Down the Tree,’ but my subtitle is ‘God is making a way, so get out of the way.’ ”

The Scripture text was Isaiah 43:16-19.

Sparks listed a number of things she hates, including vacuuming, running out of potato chips with half a bowl of onion dip left and long lines at the car rental agency when first-time renters want an explanation of all the insurance options.

“What I hate most is taking down the Christmas tree,” she said. “My husband, Toby, and I must be the last people in the galaxy to take down our tree. I think this year the azaleas were blooming when we did it.”

Sparks said her family is the type that rushes out the weekend after Thanksgiving to get a tree. They buy theirs from Sébastien, a French Canadian tree dealer who sets up at the corner of 3rd Avenue and 31st Street in Manhattan.

“He’s a great salesman,” she said. “When we first met him, he asked where I was from; I told him North Carolina. He said, ‘Just like this North Carolina fraser fir.’ I didn’t care if it was true because it brought a feeling of my North Carolina mountain home to New York.”

Sparks puts cowboy boots under the tree instead of a traditional skirt.

“When I walk in the door, it smells like I walked into a forest on the Blue Ridge Parkway,” she said.

Yet, the magic fades, the needles fall into the cowboy boots, the tree turns brown, and it is time to take it down. There is a hole in the living room where it stood.

“Our life transitions are like taking down the tree,” Sparks said. “We have a range of emotions — the sadness of loss, and anger with the transition. The cleanup is messy, and anger and tears come at unexpected moments. We have to fill the hole where the tree used to be. That hole can be made by the transition from Chautauqua to home, a child going off to school, the loss of a loved one.”

The emotions are the same, and there is a messy cleanup followed by a bare spot.

“But life is nothing but change,” she said. “How do we face this inevitable heartbreak and fill the hole in our hearts?”

Through Isaiah, God was speaking hopeful words to the people of Israel who had been in exile in Babylon for 70 years. But to pick up, clean up and head out after 70 years was scary.

“God was trying to get them excited because God was going to do a new thing,” Sparks said. “But many wondered if they had to go. They wanted to hold on to things that were past their time. They had forgotten what is possible.”

She asked the congregation, “If God has something in mind, what should we do? God is making a way, so we need to get out of the way. I have three suggestions for how to do that — let go, clear out and move on.”

Humans can never know why God is doing what God is doing.

“When we face change, God is making a way, so we need to let go,” Sparks said. “I hate the saying, ‘When God closes a door, he opens a window.’ I prefer the saying, ‘When God closes all the doors and windows, perhaps there is a storm and God is keeping us safe.’ ”

Many in the congregation knew the book by Marie Kondo, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

“Kondo tells us to ask of an object, ‘Does it bring me joy?’ If yes, then keep it; if no, give it to Goodwill,” Sparks said. We need to apply that to our hearts. Is that anger bringing you any joy? No? Then let it go. The most influential person in your life is the one you refuse to forgive.”

To move on, Sparks told the congregation, we need to drop all the things that block us from being present with God.

“I was researching ancient doorways, as one does, and the Romans, Greeks and Vikings thought thresholds were sacred,” Sparks said. “Monks and nuns would stop at the doorway of the church and perform an act to shed any burdens so they could be present to God.”

Sparks said again, we have to “let go.”

“Whatever the doorway is in your life — a new job, a geographic change, a meeting at work, family tension, the line at the car rental agency — we have to let go of the messiness and walk in the full light of God,” she said.

Sparks told the congregation that something wonderful waits on the other side of transition.

“Things happen when we get out of the way because God is making a way.” 

She closed by reading the poem “George Gray,” by Edgar Lee Masters:

“I have studied many times / the marble which was chiseled for me, / a boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor. / In truth it pictures not my destination / but my life. / For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment; / sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid; / ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances. / Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life. / And now I know that we must lift the sail / and catch the winds of destiny / wherever they drive the boat. / To put meaning in one’s life may end in madness, / but life without meaning is the torture / of restlessness and vague desire, / it is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.”

The Rev. Natalie Hanson presided. Cheryl Chandola, longtime Chautauquan and volunteer teacher with Literacy Pittsburgh, which works with low-literate adults, read the Scriptures. For the introit, The Motet Choir sang “O Sing a Song of Bethlehem,” by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The anthem was “O Come, Desire of Nations,” by Gerald Near. Rebecca Scarnati was the oboe soloist. Jared Jacobsen, organist and coordinator of worship and sacred music, directed the choir. The Harold F. Reed, Sr. Chaplaincy and the J. Everett Hall Memorial Chaplaincy provided support for this week’s services.

One has to go through experiences in life’s journey before they reach their destination.

“Whether you know good deeds or sins or confusion or internal conflict, all that leads to something,” Gibran Saleem said. “We’re always growing in a direction whether we know it or not, and we don’t necessarily need to be there as long as you’re kind of working towards something, and sometimes you’re working towards something on a subconscious level.”

Saleem, a stand-up comedian and one-third of the Laugh in Peace Tour, presented his lecture, “What’s So Funny about Religion from a Muslim Perspective: A Personal Journey,” on Thursday, August 1 in the Hall of Philosophy, as a continuation of the Week Six theme, “What’s So Funny About Religion?”

Saleem talked about his childhood and the obstacles he faced as a young boy, being the only darker-skinned child in his class, sitting alone at lunch because of the food he brought to school and the split that existed between his life as a “regular child” and his life within the Muslim community.

“I’d go to Sunday school on Sundays,” Saleem said. “I even went to a karate class in our local Masjid, which was a very interesting experience because there was a Pakistani man with a thick Pakistani accent, and when we’re doing karate … can you imagine a thick Pakistani accent trying to speak Japanese? We’d get kicked out because we were just laughing so much at the wrong time. So, it was weird. There’s this dichotomy between me just being a regular kid at school and then me being a Muslim kid.”

As this dichotomy remained throughout his childhood, Saleem became more resistant, not wanting to pray as his family did — five times a day in the household. Some days, when he was sent to his room, he would genuinely pray, or he would do a Dua, a type of prayer Saleem described as a “personal confessional” or “a direct connection to God at your fingertips.”

“It was just my own personal dialogue, and that was me kind of exploring the world of religion and the different ways to connect to God through various lenses,” Saleem said.

Prayer was not all Saleem rebelled against. One time in school, a young boy approached Saleem and asked if he was Pakistani. Saleem said he wasn’t and that he was from North Carolina.

“Basically everything in my life, I just wanted to run away from,” Saleem said. “I was constantly embarrassed by my family, like most kids are.”

As Saleem grew, he started to think about his community and the similarities shared between all religions — one being the sense of community that religion creates.

“Part of what’s so funny about religion is that it’s not funny, and that makes it so much more funny,” Saleem said. “But also, what’s so funny is the communities, because within the communities is its own culture that’s part of the community, your own personal culture. And within that culture and within that community, there’s an arsenal of punchlines from people that you know and see all the time. There’s so much funny there, rooted from the people, that’s rooted from the culture, from the community, from the overarching religion.”

Saleem began to realize this, and he began to feel this sense of community when he went to college. Saleem went to Virginia Commonwealth University, where he was exposed to a great deal of diversity.

Again, Saleem wanted to distance himself from his religion and community. Part of the reason was that he didn’t want to represent Islam in a bad way, as many people tend to see one example of a group and use it to define the whole group. He also wanted to feel like and fit in with everyone else.

“There was a lot of internal conflict, and part of that conflict is learning how to unwind and take that ball of conflict, and turn it into a thread of clarity,” Saleem said. “Part of that was going through experiences, learning who I am, learning part of what the world is and what is my identity versus what is perception; what is someone’s perception of my identity?”

Finally, Saleem learned that he needed to stop fighting himself and stop rebelling against his identity. He said he was once washing a strainer, and there was a spot at the bottom that he could not get out. He flipped the strainer over and realized it was his own hand through the bottom of the strainer.

“Maybe those holes in the strainer really just represent an opportunity for my family to come through,” Saleem said. “Maybe that’s the way that I want to go. Rather than focus on negative or internal conflict, the solution is to just look at it positively and find a resolution within myself.”

Saleem began to have positive experiences in college with people of different religions, as well as people of his own religion. He said he began to create his own sense of community, and he also reconnected with his own community through the Muslim Students Association at his university. He even created his own university organization, PASA, which stands for Pakistani American Student Association.

After graduation and some time living in New York City, Saleem decided to pursue his master’s degree. While earning that degree, he went to England to work as a cognitive behavioral therapy coach at an obesity camp.

One day, he and a girl he met through individual counselling were skipping rocks. She could not skip the rock for anything, and at first, neither could he. But, from watching how she was skipping it wrong, Saleem was able to learn how to properly skip the rock. From this experience, he said, he learned a spiritual lesson.

“Your goal isn’t to give them the conclusion,” Saleem said. “It’s not to give them an answer on how to handle your situation or conflict. The goal is to help someone to arrive at their own conclusion, to help guide them along their way; it’s their journey.”

Saleem also learned that meeting and interacting with people enhances one’s journey and allows people to learn from one another.Because of his interactions, Saleem became more socially and spiritually attuned.

“Faith comes even when you’re not looking for it,” Saleem said. “Sometimes, there’s things around you that are there to teach you, to help you, to save you. … I started realizing that if you don’t keep an eye open or an open heart, … things in life happen that force you to think on a spiritual level.”

Everyone is on a path — a journey — to a destination, Saleem said. And, though everyone will face obstacles and be pushed to learn serious lessons, all people need laughter to make the journey a bit more enjoyable. Laughter doesn’t deviate one from their path, it only makes the passing time sweeter.

“Without conflict, without understanding, I wouldn’t be able to arrive to where I am and do comedy,” Saleem said. “So I get to laugh all the time along the way. And that makes me feel good. And when I feel good, I feel like I’m a better person to other people. I try to make people laugh; I try to make myself laugh because I know when I’m in that funny place, I get to be my best self, and I get to share my best self with every other faith, community and culture. … That positive feeling, in a way, feels like it helps everyone head towards the path that they’re headed toward anyways.”