Chautauqua Institution today announced the 2024 season repertoire of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra (CSO) under the baton of Music Director and Principal Conductor Rossen Milanov. The 2024 season, marking the CSO’s 95th season and Chautauqua Institution’s sesquicentennial, will offer 24 performances between June 25 and Aug. 17, with concerts in Weeks One through Week Nine of Chautauqua’s Summer Assembly. Repertoire will range from classics to tributes, commissions, and several concerts with Principal Pops Conductor Stuart Chafetz on the podium. The CSO continues its relationship with the Sphinx Organization, with eight CSO Fellows selected from the Sphinx Orchestral Partners program joining the orchestra this summer. 

“The CSO’s 95th season features a dazzling mix of programs, from rich and complex works like Mahler’s Fourth Symphony and the Grieg Piano Concerto to multiple pops concerts, including the beloved annual Fourth of July Celebration led by Principal Pops Conductor Stuart Chafetz featuring Julie Reiber. This season also brings family-friendly programming, including Saint-Saëns’ “Carnival of the Animals “on a free Sunday afternoon and Chautauqua Opera Company’s Hansel and Gretel, which has a 7:30 p.m. curtain time. We are truly blessed to have a resident orchestra who can offer such an abundant and varied slate of programming in just nine brief, magical weeks.” says Vice President for Performing and Visual Arts Laura Savia. 

The 2024 season will showcase all that Chautauqua has to offer in honor of this historic year. Concerts will feature CSO members and artists with close ties to Chautauqua. On opening night, principal wind musicians Jaren Atherholt on oboe, Eli Eban on clarinet, Jeffrey Robinson on bassoon, and Roger Kaza on horn will perform the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante. On June 27, assistant Principal Cellist Lars Kirvan will perform a concerto, and on June 29, longtime collaborator Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus joins the CSO for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, “Ode to Joy” in commemoration of Chautauqua’s sesquicentennial. The entire French horn section will be featured in the Schumann’s Concertpiece for Horns and Orchestra on July 2. Pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk, artist-in-residence and longtime collaborator, returns to the Amphitheater stage for his CSO appearance on July 16. And on Aug. 9, the CSO will be joined by the Houston Ballet, led by Co-Artistic Directors Stanton Welch AM and Julie Kent, whose long history with Chautauqua began when she was a student at the School of Dance. 

The CSO continues to support Chautauqua Opera by providing the orchestra for the Chautauqua Opera Company’s productions Love and Longing by the Lake, which includes new, commissioned works about Chautauqua’s history, to be performed on the Athenaeum Hotel lawn, and for the Amphitheater opera Hansel and Gretel. Another cherished annual collaboration, Opera & Pops, continues with the performance on July 11. 

In another connection to Chautauqua’s history, the CSO will perform celebrated Pulitzer Prize and Peabody Award-winning American composer, conductor, and educator Howard Hanson’s Song of Democracy as a part of the “Beethoven’s Ode to Joy” program. Renowned for elevating the Eastman School of Music to one of the nation’s premier music schools, Hanson first met and later married his wife, Margaret Elizabeth Nelson, at her parents’ summer home at Chautauqua. Chautauqua honored his dedication to arts education and longtime connection by renaming the street outside Bellinger Hall to Howard Hanson Avenue in the early 2000s.  

Kicking off Week Six of the Summer Assembly, “Exploring the Transformative Power of Music with Renée Fleming,” Ms. Fleming joins the CSO on July 27. The recent Kennedy Center honoree and Grammy-winning soprano will be a featured guest during a special week of lectures and performances exploring music’s profound impact on our lives. Fleming is an alumna of the Chautauqua School of Voice and was the recipient of the Chautauqua Women’s Club Edna M. Ward Memorial Scholarship in 1980. 

Programming will include a screening of the popular classic film “Jurassic Park” on July 6 and two tributes to history-making musicians: “A Symphonic Celebration of Genesis & Phil Collins” on July 20 and “Sinatra & Beyond with Tony DeSare” on Aug. 3. The Genesis tribute will star Broadway’s Aaron Finley, currently performing in Moulin Rouge and previously seen as Charlie Price in Kinky Boots; and Brook Wood, who recently debuted with The Philly Pops. Stuart Chafetz will conduct, and CSO Principal Percussionist Brian Kushmaul will shine on the iconic drum solos. Tony DeSare guarantees a contemporary interpretation of timeless elegance, seamlessly transitioning from intimate jazz clubs and prestigious venues like Carnegie Hall to taking center stage with renowned symphony orchestras. His exceptional and widely praised tribute to the legendary Frank Sinatra breathes new life into the classic era of sophistication. 

Artistic Director of the Chautauqua School of Music and Conductor of the Music Festival School Orchestra, Timothy Muffitt, will conduct a “Spanish Guitar” evening on July 18. The evening will feature the 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and one of the most sought-after guitarists of her generation, Bokyung Byun. No stranger to western New York, Byun was the recipient of the 2018 JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition, hosted by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and WNED | WBFO. “Brahms Piano Concerto” on Aug. 1 will feature pianist Alexander Kobrin, the 2024 Heintzelman Family Artistic Advisor to the School of Music. The Sunday Matinee, “Carnival of the Animals,” will include students from the piano program on Sunday, July 7, a free admission day at Chautauqua Institution. 

Chautauqua Institution proudly continues its commitment to foster new work through a co-commissioned project. On Aug. 8, Seth Parker Woods will perform a new cello work by composer Nathalie Joachim. In another exciting collaboration, Grammy Award-winning ensemble Third Coast Percussion will perform “Meander Spiral Explode” on Aug. 13, which was composed for them in 2019 by Christopher Cerrone. 

“The CSO season celebrates the sesquicentennial of Chautauqua and showcases the talent, virtuosity and dedication of the musicians of our beloved Chautauqua Symphony in extraordinary repertoire, great artistic partners and thoughtful nods to CSO and Chautauqua history,” shared Milanov.  

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Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra 2024 Repertoire 

Subject to change. See full listing at chq.org 

Tuesday, June 25, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: “Opening Night”   
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
Featuring principals from the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra  
W.A. Mozart: W.A. Mozart: Sinfonia concertante in E-flat major, K. Anh. C14.01  
Pyotr Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36   

Thursday, June 27, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: “Rhapsody for Cello”   
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
Lars Kirvan, cello  
Ernest Bloch: Schelomo: Rhapsodie Hébraïque for Violoncello and Orchestra  
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73  

Saturday, June 29, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: “Beethoven’s Ode to Joy”  
Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus, Adam Luebke, music director   
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
Howard Hanson: Song of Democracy  
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125  

Tuesday, July 2, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: “Flights of Fantasy”  
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
Featuring the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra Horn section  
Johann Strauss: Carnival of Venice Fantasy  
Robert Schumann: Concertpiece for Horns and Orchestra, Op. 86   
Georges Bizet: Symphony in C  
Jacques Offenbach: Orpheus in the Underworld Overture  

Thursday, July 4, 2024 ∙ 8:00 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: “Independence Day Celebration”   
Stuart Chafetz, conductor  
Julie Reiber, vocalist  
Program to be announced from the stage.  

Saturday, July 6, 2024 ∙ 7:30 p.m.  
Jurassic Park Live in Concert with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra   
Stuart Chafetz, conductor  

Sunday, July 7, 2024 ∙ 2:30 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Sunday Matinee: “Carnival of the Animals”   
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
Featuring students from the Chautauqua Piano Program  
Camille Saint-Saëns: Carnival of the Animals   
Additional works to be announced.  

Tuesday, July 9, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Timeless Love  
Carl St. Clair, conductor  
Sergei Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet Suite  
Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story Suite   

Thursday, July 11, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Opera & Pops   
Stuart Chafetz, conductor  
Program to be announced from the stage.  

Saturday, July 13, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
Paul Taylor Dance Company with Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra   
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
Mercuric Tidings  
Syzygy  
Promethean Fire  

Tuesday, July 16, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Grieg Piano Concerto  
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
Alexander Gavrylyuk, piano  
Edvard Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16  
Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition   

Thursday, July 18, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Spanish Guitar  
Timothy Muffitt, conductor  
Bokyung Byun, guitar  
Maurice Ravel: Alborada del gracioso   
Joaquín Rodrigo: Concierto de Aruanjuez    
Manuel de Falla: El sombrero de tres picos, Suite No. 2   
Emmanuel Chabrier: España   

Saturday, July 20, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
In the Air Tonight: A Symphonic Celebration of Genesis & Phil Collins with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra  
Stuart Chafetz, conductor  
Aaron Finley, vocalist  
Brook Wood, vocalist  
Brian Kushmaul, drums  
 Program to be announced from the stage.  

Tuesday, July 23, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: “Dvorak 8”  
Chia-Hsuan Lin, conductor  
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Petite Suite de Concert, Op. 77  
Tyzen Hsiao: The Angel from Formosa   
Antonin Dvorak: Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88, B.163  

Thursday, July 25, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: “Barber and Bartók”   
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
Samuel Barber: Essay for Orchestra, Op. 12  
Angel Kotev: Angel Kotev: Rhapsody No. 3 (‘Fateful’)  
Béla Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin Suite  

Saturday, July 27, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra with Renée Fleming, soprano   
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
Program to be announced.  

Tuesday, July 30, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Mahler’s Fourth Symphony  
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
Melissa White, violin  
Max Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26  
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 4   

Thursday, Aug 1, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Brahms Piano Concerto  
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
Alexander Kobrin, piano  
Johannes Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15  
Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120  

Saturday, Aug 3, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
Sinatra & Beyond with Tony DeSare and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra  
Stuart Chafetz, conductor  
Program to be announced from the stage.  

Thursday, Aug 8, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: A Joachim Premiere  
Naomi Woo, conductor  
Seth Parker Woods, cello  
Nathalie Joachim: New commission   
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43  

Saturday, Aug 10, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
Houston Ballet with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra  
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
Program to be announced.  

Tuesday, Aug 13, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra with Third Coast Percussion   
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
John Luther Adams: Become River   
Christopher Cerrone: Meander Spiral Explode   
Benjamin Britten: Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes  

Thursday, Aug 15, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Shostakovich’s First Symphony  
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
Caroline Shaw: Entr’acte  
Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1, Op. 10   

Saturday, Aug 17, 2024 ∙ 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Closing Night  
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
Program to be announced. 

ABOUT CHAUTAUQUA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 
The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1929, and today it continues its legacy as the center of musical life at Chautauqua Institution under the direction of Rossen Milanov. Performing more than 20 unique concerts of major symphonic repertoire in the Amphitheater in addition to collaborating with resident companies, the CSO is a tenured union orchestra and the summer home of musicians from some of the finest orchestras in the nation.   

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. The Institution celebrates its sesquicentennial in 2024.  

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