Chautauqua Institution is expanding its tradition of live music with an exciting new offering this fall. On September 5, 2025, Bonnie Raitt — a 13-time Grammy Award winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee — will take the Amphitheater stage. This event marks the first major concert outside of Chautauqua’s traditional nine-week season, which is in session from late June to late August, opening the door for more spring and fall programming on the grounds.   

“Bringing one of music’s most celebrated artists to the stage, we hope this concert welcomes both longtime patrons and new audiences to Chautauqua at a time when our amphitheater is historically dark,” said Chief Program Officer Deborah Sunya Moore. “Bonnie Raitt is the perfect artist to help us reinforce this vision, which is part of our goal to expand our operations in mission-aligned ways that will supplement and support our signature summer season.”  

Since this show is happening outside of our regular nine-week Summer Assembly, some aspects of the event will operate differently than they do during Chautauqua’s Summer Assembly. All tickets will be sold as reserved seats, not general admission. Additionally, while youth 12 and under are always free during the summer season, they will require a purchased ticket to attend this special performance.   

Tickets for Bonnie Raitt with special guest Jimmie Vaughan & The Tilt-A-Whirl Band go on sale to the public Friday, February 7 at 10 a.m. (EST) at tickets.chq.org or by calling 716-357-6250. 

About Bonnie Raitt 
A singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose unique style blends blues, R&B, rock, and pop, after 20 years as a cult favorite, Raitt broke through to the top in the early 90s with her GRAMMY-award-winning albums, Nick of Time and Luck of the Draw, which featured hits, “Something To Talk About” and “I Can’t Make You Love Me” among others. The thirteen-time GRAMMY winner (and Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Awardee) was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 and Rolling Stone named the slide guitar ace one of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” and one of the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time.” Raitt received another incredible accolade being recognized for her lifetime of artistic achievement as part of the Kennedy Center’s 47th Class of Honorees in Washington, DC in December 2024. 

Raitt is as known for her lifelong commitment to social activism as she is for her music, and has long been involved with the environmental movement, performing concerts around oil, nuclear power, mining, water, and forest protection since the mid-‘70s. She was a founding member of MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy), which produced the historic concerts, album and film NO NUKES (1979,) as well as a founding member of The Rhythm and Blues Foundation, which works for royalty reform and recognition of generations of pioneer R&B artists. She continues to work on safe energy issues in addition to environmental protection, social justice, Native American and human rights, as well as artist’s rights and music education. 

About Chautauqua Institution 
Chautauqua Institution is a not-for-profit, 750-acre community on Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York State, where approximately 7,500 persons are in residence on any day during a nine-week season, and a total of more than 100,000 attend scheduled public events and even more engage online via the streaming channel CHQ Assembly. Chautauqua is dedicated to the exploration of the best in human values and the enrichment of life through a program that explores the important religious, social and political issues of our times; stimulates provocative, thoughtful involvement of individuals and families in creative response to such issues; and promotes excellence and creativity in the appreciation, performance and teaching of the arts.