United Church of Christ Worship Service
2025-07-06 09:00, 2025-07-13 09:00, 2025-07-20 09:00 (America/New_York) | Randell Chapel, UCC Headquarters

Episcopal Holy Eucharist
2025-07-06 09:00, 2025-07-07 07:45, 2025-07-08 07:45, 2025-07-09 07:45, 2025-07-10 07:45, 2025-07-11 07:45, 2025-07-13 09:00, 2025-07-14 07:45 and 10 more dates | Chapel of the Good Shepherd, Chapel of the Good Shepherd

Catholic Mass
2025-07-06 09:15, 2025-07-13 09:15, 2025-07-20 09:15 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary

Unity Service
2025-07-06 09:30, 2025-07-13 09:30, 2025-07-20 09:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

Quaker Worship Service
2025-07-06 09:30, 2025-07-13 09:30, 2025-07-20 09:30 | Quaker House
Quaker Worship Sevice

Unitarian Universalist Service
2025-07-06 09:30, 2025-07-13 09:30, 2025-07-20 09:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Sunday School
2025-07-06 10:15, 2025-07-13 10:15, 2025-07-20 10:15 | Children’s School, Children's School
Weekly Sunday School Program for Ages 3-11. Children of all faiths and no faith are welcome.

Rev. Dr. Suzanne Wenonah Duchesne
2025-07-06 10:45, 2025-07-07 09:15, 2025-07-08 09:15, 2025-07-09 09:15, 2025-07-10 09:15, 2025-07-11 09:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
The Rev. Dr. Suzanne Wenonah Duchesne, is a teacher, preacher, scholar, & consultant who delights in & encourages wholeness, justice, and healing with all creation. Her work in Beloved Speech, centers on identity formation, deep listening, and relationship building, particularly within the context of antiracist and decolonized preaching and worship practices.
Suzanne’s passion for social justice is guided by her ongoing relationships with members of various Indigenous Nations, including the Kiowa, Lakota, Cherokee, MVSKOKE (Creek), Choctaw, Chickasaw, Abenaki, Shinnecock, Southern Ute, Lenape, and Yuchi. These connections enrich her understanding and advocacy for Indigenous Peoples within her ministry and scholarship.
In addition to her published works on decolonized and antiracist preaching, she published essays, and articles, developed curricula, designed worship experiences, and crafted liturgies addressing critical topics such as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, the Doctrine of Discovery, Creation Care—including “Water is Life: Mní Wičóni”—the history of Methodist women preachers and activists, John Wesley’s interactions with various nations during his time in Georgia, and the legacy of Methodist involvement with Native American Boarding Schools.
Serving in various academic and ministerial roles, she currently holds the position of Assistant Professor of Worship and Preaching and the Director of Mast Chapel at New Brunswick Theological Seminary. She earned her Ph.D. in Liturgical Studies with a concentration in Women’s Studies from Drew University Theological School. An ordained elder in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, Suzanne is also an antiracism trainer, and Communications chairperson for the Northeastern Jurisdiction of the Native American Ministries Committee for The United Methodist Church.
Her work with the diverse faculty, staff, and student body at NBTS is informed by her experiences leading churches of various sizes and settings that included congregations comprised of white settlers as well as arrivants, multi-lingual, multi-cultural, and inter-generational members. Inspired by her training as a fine artist, dancer, and thespian, her congregations engaged in various worship styles such as Blended, sacramental-contemplative, Pentacostal-Charismatic, Maranatha style Contemporary, and Emergent Ancient-Modern.
Woven throughout her life has been a calling to engage in practices and honest conversations that strive to undermine and dismantle systemic racism and colonization and invite people to live more deeply into the kin-dom of God by seeking to honor each other’s differences, and embody a spirituality that recognizes all creation as beloved.

Art in the Park
2025-07-06 11:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park
Hosted by the Friends of CVA, Art in the Park is an open art fair with 70+ vendors held in Miller Park, showcasing art by members of the Chautauqua community, artists-in-residence from the School of Art, and artisans from the region around Chautauqua Institution. Items for sale include ceramics, paintings, prints, Chautauqua-themed trinkets, pieces made of up-cycled materials, homemade soaps, hand-dyed silk clothing, organic cosmetics, embellished handbags and fine jewelry. Art in the Park markets are always planned for Sundays, when admission to the grounds is free, so the markets can be accessible for Institution residents and members of the surrounding community alike.
For artist registration information, visit: https://art.chq.org/friends-of-cva/art-in-the-park/

Kosher BBQ
2025-07-06 11:30 | Miller Park, Miller Park

Twelve Step Meeting
2025-07-06 12:15, 2025-07-09 12:15, 2025-07-11 12:15, 2025-07-13 12:15, 2025-07-16 12:15, 2025-07-18 12:15, 2025-07-20 12:15, 2025-07-23 12:15 and 1 more date | Hurlbut Marion Lawrance

Bahai Faith
2025-07-06 13:00 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary
Susan Burke and Sharon Eakes talk on racism in America

CTC presents the DNAWORKS production of The Real James Bond...Was Dominican
2025-07-06 14:00 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater
Written and Performed by Christopher Rivas
Developed with and Directed by Daniel Banks
What happens when a James Bond-obsessed Dominican boy in Queens (who won’t go anywhere without his nerf gun), finds out that the real James Bond was Dominican? This is a true story about Porfirio Rubirosa, Ian Fleming’s inspiration for Bond, and a young Dominican actor-to-be, whose discovery of “Rubi” shakes his very foundation. Set to a live percussion score and immersive projections, The Real James Bond…Was Dominican is a young man’s guide to love, color, code-switching, white-washing, success, fake-it-till-you-make-it, and the roller coaster of finding one’s true self.
Content advisory: This production contains mild language usage, discussions of racism, colorism, and mild sexual content.
Recommended for audiences ages 13 and older.

Illusionist Leon Etienne
2025-07-06 15:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
You’ve seen him on America’s Got Talent, Jimmy Fallon, Masters of Illusion, and Penn & Teller: Fool Us! Illusionist Leon Etienne’s jaw-dropping, critically acclaimed hit show is not to be missed! Witness this family-friendly spectacular featuring the world’s best illusions, award-winning sleight of hand, and hilarious comedy. This show is an immersive experience that brings joy, laughter, and wonder when the world needs it most!

Nicole Cooley and Mary Hall Surface
2025-07-06 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Writers’ Center Faculty Reading — Week Three — Featuring Nicole Cooley (Poetry) and Mary Hall Surface (Muli-Genre)
Nicole Cooley grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her most recent book is the collection of poetry Mother Water Ash (Louisiana University Press, July 2024) as well as the two poetry collections, Girl after Girl after Girl (Louisiana State University Press, 2017) and Of Marriage (Alice James Books, 2018). She has published four other collections of poems, Breach, Milk Dress, The Afflicted Girls and Resurrection, as well as a novel, Judy Garland, Ginger Love, two chapbooks, Frozen Charlottes, A Sequence, and Vanishing Point, and a collaborative artists’ book (with book artist Maureen Cummins), Salem Lessons.
Her awards include The Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, a Discovery/The Nation Award, an NEA, a Creative Artists fellowship from The American Antiquarian Society, and the Emily Dickinson Award from the Poetry Society of America. She is currently completing a non-fiction book project, Dollhouse: A Book of Miniature Histories, excerpts of which have appeared in The Guardian, The Atlantic, The Rumpus, and the Feminist Wire. She is also currently finishing a manuscript of poems, titled Trash. Poems from this collection have recently appeared in Blackbird, Poetry, and Tupelo Quarterly. She has taught at Bucknell University and the Stonecoast Low-Residency MFA program, as well in Merida, Mexico with US Poets in Mexico and at the Chautauqua Institution and at the Young Arts Foundation in Miami, Florida.
Mary Hall Surface is an award-winning teaching artist, playwright, theatre director, and museum educator. She has presented her art-inspired writing workshops at the National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Kennedy Center, Chautauqua Institution, Washington National Cathedral, Phoenix Art Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and Harvard’s Project Zero Classroom. Her “Write into Art” series is among the Smithsonian Associates most popular programs. Her innovative approach to the writing-visual art connection was featured in The Washington Post in 2017. Her plays have been produced worldwide including 17 productions at the Kennedy Center. She has been nominated for ten Helen Hayes Awards, including four Charles McArthur Awards for Outstanding New Play, and received the 2002 award for Outstanding Director of a Musical. Her work was recently commissioned for two films and a stage production by Washington’s Arena Stage. Mary Hall has published fifteen plays, an anthology of her scripts, two collections of scenes and monologues, and three original cast albums. www.maryhallsurface.com.

FLOW
2025-07-06 15:30 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
This Latvian Oscar Winner for Best Animated Feature follows a courageous cat after his home is devastated by a great flood. Teaming up with a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog they must rely on trust, courage, and wits to survive the perils of a newly aquatic planet. “A film full of wonders but not a single word of dialogue.” -Cath Clarke, Guardian
“Dreamy, epic, perilous and very beautiful.” -Ty Burr, Washington Post “Poignant, unique, absolutely gorgeous, and a must-see.” -Kristy Puchko, Mashable (PG, 84m)

Church of the Wild
2025-07-06 16:00, 2025-07-13 16:00, 2025-07-20 16:00 | Outdoor Classroom
Kriss Young Miller and her husband Gary manage the Quaker House. Kriss is a 2022 graduate of Earlham School of Religion with her Master of Arts in Peace and Social Transformation. Kriss is currently a student of Victoria Loorz in the Seminary of the Wild Earth at the Center for Wild Spirituality. She has completed Wild Church Leadership training and is deeply grateful for the opportunity to work to build connections with Chautauquans in the sacred wild.

Blessing of the Animals
2025-07-06 16:30 | Miller Park, Miller Park
Weather Permitting

Orientation for New Chautauquans
2025-07-06 16:30, 2025-07-13 16:30, 2025-07-20 16:30 | Hultquist 101, Hultquist 101
Join us for lemonade and cookies at the Orientation for New Chautauquans, where we warmly welcome you to our vibrant community. This event is designed to acquaint you with the rich history, diverse programs, and unique experiences that Chautauqua has to offer. Meet fellow newcomers, engage with staff, and learn about the array of cultural, educational, and recreational opportunities available. Whether you’re here for a day, a week, or the entire season, this orientation will help you make the most of your visit and feel right at home.

Children's Organ Tours
2025-07-06 17:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater

Palestine Park Tour
2025-07-06 17:00, 2025-07-13 17:00, 2025-07-20 17:00 | Palestine Park, Palestine Park
“A Journey Through the Holy Land in the times of Jesus”

WARFARE
2025-07-06 18:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Written and directed by Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Civil War, 28 Days Later), Warfare embeds audiences with a platoon of American Navy SEALs on a surveillance mission gone wrong in insurgent territory. A visceral, boots-on-the-ground story of modern warfare and brotherhood, told like never before: in real time and based on the memory of the people who lived it. “The sheer technical brilliance and strength of performances, cannot fail to connect when you take on the film on its own terms, as pure human experience in the most hellish of circumstances.” -Martin Robinson, London Evening Standard (R, 95m)

CTC presents the DNAWORKS production of The Real James Bond...Was Dominican
2025-07-06 19:00 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater
What happens when a James Bond-obsessed Dominican boy in Queens (who won’t go anywhere without his nerf gun), finds out that the real James Bond was Dominican? This is a true story about Porfirio Rubirosa, Ian Fleming’s inspiration for Bond, and a young Dominican actor-to-be, whose discovery of “Rubi” shakes his very foundation. Set to a live percussion score and immersive projections, The Real James Bond…Was Dominican is a young man’s guide to love, color, code-switching, white-washing, success, fake-it-till-you-make-it, and the roller coaster of finding one’s true self.
Recommended for audiences ages 13 and older.
Written and Performed by Christopher Rivas

Hebrew Congregation, Shirley Lazarus Sunday Evening Lecture Series
2025-07-06 19:00, 2025-07-13 19:00, 2025-07-20 19:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall

Sacred Song Service - Come and Find the Quiet Center
2025-07-06 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater

NATIONAL ANTHEM
2025-07-06 20:30, 2025-07-07 18:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Dylan (Charlie Plummer), a soft-spoken 21-year-old construction worker, is the de facto father figure to his little brother and works odd jobs to help the family get by. After he finds himself with the opportunity to work at a ranch, he is welcomed by a vibrant community of rodeo performers who openly explore their identities and sexuality. “A glorious portrait of rural queer Americana.” -Kristy Puchko, Mashable “Seems impossibly idyllic yet palpably authentic at the same time. -David Lewis, SF Chronicle “Tender and moving.” -Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com (R, 99m)

CHQ Mystic Heart: Cantor Julie Newman
2025-07-07 07:45, 2025-07-08 07:45, 2025-07-09 07:45, 2025-07-10 07:45, 2025-07-11 07:45 | Presbyterian Chapel
Cantor Julie Newman founded and serves as President of the Tiferet Project. Tiferet has been a source for Jewish spiritual practices in Pittsburgh such as twice weekly Jewish mindfulness meditation groups. She has been crafting and leading innovative Jewish worship services in the Pittsburgh area for 25 years. Passionate about heart-opening Jewish contemplative practices, she has been an active participant, worship leader, yoga teacher, and consultant with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality since 2004. She received Cantorial ordination and earned a Master of Jewish Education from Hebrew College in Boston in 2017. She is a member of the New Community Chevra Kadisha of Pittsburgh. Raised in Southern California, Julie originally came to Pittsburgh for graduate school where she received her MBA from the Tepper School of Business in 1982 and met her husband of 37 years, Bill Klingensmith (a 3rd generation Chautauquan.) They raised their kids, Jake (31) and Ben (25) in Pittsburgh where Julie & Bill still live with their rescued greyhound, Yogi.

Daily Word Meditation
2025-07-07 08:00, 2025-07-08 08:00, 2025-07-09 08:00, 2025-07-10 08:00, 2025-07-11 08:00, 2025-07-14 08:00, 2025-07-15 08:00, 2025-07-16 08:00 and 7 more dates | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions
(Programmed by Unity of Chautauqua)

Movement and Meditation with Monte Thompson
2025-07-07 08:30, 2025-07-09 08:30, 2025-07-11 08:30, 2025-07-14 08:30, 2025-07-16 08:30, 2025-07-18 08:30, 2025-07-21 08:30, 2025-07-23 08:30 and 1 more date | Hall of Philosophy Grove
Monte Thompson was a professional dancer, and also spent years as a restauranteur. His life was spent on his feet. Now retired, he is interested in continuing to be able to move easily and gracefully while using breathing and stretching techniques to help quiet his mind and prepare him to face each day with purpose and joy.

Catholic Mass
2025-07-07 08:45, 2025-07-08 08:45, 2025-07-09 08:45, 2025-07-10 08:45, 2025-07-11 08:45, 2025-07-14 08:45, 2025-07-15 08:45, 2025-07-16 08:45 and 7 more dates | Chapel of the Good Shepherd, Chapel of the Good Shepherd

Chautauqua Prays for Peace though Compassion
2025-07-07 08:55, 2025-07-08 08:55, 2025-07-09 08:55, 2025-07-10 08:55, 2025-07-11 08:55, 2025-07-14 08:55, 2025-07-15 08:55, 2025-07-16 08:55 and 7 more dates | Hall of Philosophy Grove

Opera Conservatory: Masterclass with Maxine Davis
2025-07-07 10:00 | McKnight Hall, McKnight Hall

Service of Blessing and Healing
2025-07-07 10:15, 2025-07-08 10:15, 2025-07-09 10:15, 2025-07-10 10:15, 2025-07-11 10:15, 2025-07-14 10:15, 2025-07-15 10:15, 2025-07-16 10:15 and 7 more dates | Randell Chapel, UCC Headquarters

School of Music Masterclass: Imani Winds
2025-07-07 10:30 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall

Kate D. Levin
2025-07-07 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Kate D. Levin oversees the Bloomberg Philanthropies Arts program, supporting a range of organizations and activities in the United States and around the world. Current initiatives include management training, public art, and digital technology. She is also a principal at Bloomberg Associates in Cultural Assets Management. Client cities have included Athens, Bogotá, London, Nashville, Newark, and Oakland. Opening Chautauqua’s week on “Art in Action: Building Community Through the Arts,” Levin will share work being done through the Bloomberg Philanthropies Arts program, demonstrating the extraordinary power of art and culture as a form of civic glue.
From 2002 to 2013, Levin served as commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Managing the largest single arts funder in the United States, she increased support for cultural organizations, and expanded creative sector participation in economic development, tourism, human service, and education initiatives. During her tenure capital funding recipients tripled, while agency-sponsored technology and capacity building projects strengthened non-profit leadership. Levin oversaw the city’s permanent public art commissioning program, and helped develop and promote numerous temporary exhibitions and performances.
The inaugural fellow at the National Center for Arts Research at Southern Methodist University and a former professor of English at City College/CUNY, Levin also served in the administration of New York City Mayor Ed Koch.

Antisemitism and How to Respond to it
2025-07-07 12:15 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary
Scott Richman

CLSC Book Discussion
2025-07-07 12:15 | Alumni Hall Porch, Alumni Hall Porch
Presenters Susan Allen and Bethanne Snodgrass will lead a community discussion on our Week Three CLSC selection Liberation Day: Stories by George Saunders

Earth Care in Native American and Christian Faith Traditions
2025-07-07 12:30 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Earth Care in native American and Christian Faith Traditions. With Crystal Cavalier-Keck and Brian Webb

The Rt. Rev. Eugene Sutton
2025-07-07 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton is the senior pastor of Chautauqua Institution. Formerly the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland and Canon Pastor of Washington National Cathedral, where he directed the Cathedral’s Center for Prayer and Pilgrimage. Sutton has also served as a college chaplain, parish priest, and professor of homiletics and liturgy at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Sutton is a frequent leader of retreats focused on spirituality, nonviolence, and social justice, including multiple missions to South Africa. He co-founded Contemplative Outreach of Maryland and Washington, an ecumenical network of churches and individuals committed to centering prayer and renewing the contemplative gospel for daily living. He is a prolific writer, and has contributed to multiple books, including The Diversity of Centering Prayer and Reclaiming the Gospel of Peace: Challenging the Epidemic of Gun Violence. Bishop Sutton has been named by the Center for American Progress as one of “Fourteen Faith Leaders to Watch” for his faith-led efforts to promote nonviolent solutions to conflicts.

Islam 101 Khalid Rehman and Sabeeha Rehman
2025-07-07 15:30, 2025-07-14 15:30 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary
“The Quran and What it Says About Other Faiths”

"Courageous Conversations on Death and Dying" Shahid Aziz
2025-07-07 15:30, 2025-07-14 15:30, 2025-07-21 15:30 | Presbyterian Chapel
Seminar

Chautauqua Chamber Music: Imani Winds
2025-07-07 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Grammy-nominated wind quintet Imani Winds is celebrated for vibrant performances and adventurous repertoire. With a mission to champion diversity in classical music, they perform works from a wide range of cultures and genres, including works by underrepresented composers. Known for their dynamic artistry and engaging stage presence, Imani Winds has earned critical acclaim and a devoted following worldwide. Through their innovative programming and educational outreach, they continue to inspire audiences and redefine the possibilities of wind chamber music.
Program:
Valerie Coleman: Red Clay and Mississippi Delta
Fazil Say: Alevi Dedeler raki masasinda
Stevie Wonder/arr. Mark Dover: Overjoyed
Andy Akiho: BeLoud, BeLoved, BeLonging
Simon Shaheen/arr. Jeff Scott: Dance Mediterranea

CHQ @ 150 - ALL RISE
2025-07-07 16:00, 2025-07-14 16:00, 2025-07-21 16:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Celebrate the sesquicentennial of our iconic institution, while exploring the ever-evolving definition of democracy through powerful stories and performances that have unfolded here, with a stirring performance of Wynton Marsalis’ All Rise and appearances by Kathryn Hahn, Kwame Alexander, Misty Copeland and more. (NR, 55m)

Play CHQ: Art and Nature Meet
2025-07-07 16:00, 2025-07-14 16:00, 2025-07-21 16:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park
Play CHQ invites families to discover, create, and play together all season long! Enjoy a variety of engaging activities including games, crafts, STEM experiments, and more at pop-up locations throughout the Chautauqua grounds.
In case of inclement weather, all Play CHQ events will be relocated to Sheldon Hall of Education, Room 202.

Men's Softball League
2025-07-07 17:00, 2025-07-09 17:00, 2025-07-11 17:00, 2025-07-14 17:00, 2025-07-16 17:00, 2025-07-18 17:00, 2025-07-21 17:00, 2025-07-23 17:00 | Sharpe Field, Sharpe Field
Interested in playing slow pitch softball? Contact co-commissioner Wes Delancey
at markernalt21@gmail.com to be added to a team roster. Fee per team for league play.

Taize' and Tea Meditation Worship
2025-07-07 19:00, 2025-07-14 19:00, 2025-07-21 19:00 | Randell Chapel, UCC Headquarters

Music School Festival Orchestra
2025-07-07 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Comprised of top-tier students from conservatories and universities in the U.S. and abroad, Music School Festival Orchestra members participate in a variety of musical activities during their summers at Chautauqua including chamber music and private lessons along with their meticulous orchestral training. Alumni from the MSFO can be heard in many of the world’s top orchestras and chamber ensembles and can be found on music faculties worldwide. The MSFO is led by Artistic Director Timothy Muffitt, who serves as Music Director of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Laureate of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra.

Beyond the Tipping Point: Mobilizing Climate Solutions for a Sustainable Future
2025-07-08 09:15 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary
Chautauqua Science Group Weekly Talk with Prof. Brian Webb, Wooster College: Beyond the Tipping Point: Mobilizing Climate Solutions for a Sustainable Future.
This talk will evaluate global progress on addressing the climate crisis and explore the forces necessary to accelerate climate action in the coming decades. Beginning with a frank assessment of our situation, we first demonstrate how current actions to reduce carbon emissions fall significantly short of what is needed. At the same time, important tipping points, such as the economics of renewable energy, the rapid expansion of electric vehicles, and nearing peak emissions all point toward significant breakthroughs in climate action. We will close by examining the technical, political, financial, and social changes needed to make meaningful progress toward achieving global climate goals, with an emphasis on solutions that are currently available and realistic. By focusing on these essential drivers of change, this talk aims to illuminate a clear path toward meaningful, sustained action that ensures a livable future.

Denyce Graves
2025-07-08 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Recognized as “an operatic superstar of the 21st century” by USA Today, mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves’ career has garnered unparalleled popular and critical acclaim. The recently appointed artistic advisor of the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory, Graves is artistic director of The Denyce Graves Foundation, which she founded in 2021. Exploring the theme of “Art in Action: Building Community Through the Arts,” Graves will both open the week in concert with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, July 5, 2025, and then speak three days later in her Chautauqua Lecture Series debut. In that presentation, Graves will discuss her dedication to the singers of the next generation, and her work championing the hidden musical figures of the past while uplifting young artists of world-class talent from all backgrounds.
Currently, Graves is a U.S. Global Music Ambassador with the U.S. Department of State, representing the nation with her artistry and leadership. A member of the voice faculty at the Peabody Institute, and a distinguished visiting faculty member at The Juilliard School, Graves’ acclaimed appearances as Carmen and Dalila in Samson et Dalila have resounded in the world’s greatest opera houses. In the 2024–25 season, Graves joins Washington National Opera as Prime Minister in Fidelio and Maria in Porgy & Bess, as well as directs the world premiere of Loving v. Virginia with Virginia Opera in a co-production with Richmond Symphony. Recent season highlights include appearances with The Metropolitan Opera as Sally in The Hours, Seattle Opera as Erda in Das Rheingold, and Lyric Fest and Washington Performing Arts in Cotton, where she was presented with the inaugural Ruth Bader Ginsburg Memorial Fund Award.

BTG Brownbag: Wawa Gatheru, founder of Black Girl Environmentalist
2025-07-08 12:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall

CHQ Mystic Heart: Julie Newman
2025-07-08 12:30, 2025-07-10 12:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions
Jewish Mindfulness Meditation

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-08 12:30, 2025-07-09 12:30, 2025-07-15 12:30, 2025-07-16 12:30, 2025-07-22 12:30, 2025-07-23 12:30 | Presbyterian House, Presbyterian House

School of Music Open Recital
2025-07-08 13:00 | McKnight Hall, McKnight Hall

Omid Safi
2025-07-08 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Omid Safi is a teacher in the Islamic mystical tradition of Radical Love and serves as a professor of Islamic studies at Duke University. Omid’s passion for teaching has been recognized through the ten times that he has been nominated for professor of the year awards.
Omid has published extensively on the foundational sources of Islam and Sufism. His Memories of Muhammad is an award-winning biography of the Prophet Muhammad. His most recent book is Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition. His next two books are forthcoming from Yale University Press on the Persian Sufi Kharaqani, and from Princeton University Press on Rumi’s Masnavi. Omid is committed to the intersection of spirituality and liberation, and has offered the annual Martin Luther King lecture from the spot of Dr. King’s assassination, Lorraine Motel, on “What Does Martin Have to Say to Today’s America?”
Omid often appears as an expert on Islam in the New York Times, Newsweek, Washington Post, Al-Jazeera, PBS, NPR, NBC, BBC, CNN, and other outlets. He has a podcast (“Sufi Heart”) at the Be Here Now Network. He teaches online courses through Illuminated Courses on topics ranging from Rumi to the mystical dimension of the Qur’an. Lastly, he offers for the general public Illuminated Tours, spiritually oriented contemplative journeys and retreats which have brought more than 1,200 friends from over twenty countries to Turkey, Morocco, Andalusia, and now Umrah since 2002. The Turkey, Morocco, and Andalusia programs are open to friends of all backgrounds. Information about the above books, podcasts, courses, and tours can be found at www.illuminatedcourses.com

Social Hour at Denominational Houses
2025-07-08 15:15, 2025-07-15 15:15, 2025-07-22 15:15 | Denominational Houses (Selected)
Social hour at the Baptist House, Catholic House, Christian Church, Everett Jewish Life Center, Episcopal Cottage, Lutheran House, Unitarian House and United Methodist House

Islam 101 Khalid Rehman and Sabeeha Rehman
2025-07-08 15:30, 2025-07-15 15:30 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary
Women and Family Life

Heritage Lecture Series - Brian M. Harward
2025-07-08 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
As part of the Oliver Archives Center’s 2025 Heritage Lecture Series, Brian Harward will present “Strategic Responsiveness: How Congress confronts Executive Power”.
Brian M. Harward, Ph.D. is Professor and Chair of Political Science at Allegheny College (Meadville, PA). He has published several books and articles on a number of themes in American politics, including congressional delegation, oversight, and presidential power. His most recent book, “Strategic Responsiveness: How Congress Confronts Executive Power” (with coauthors Scott Ainsworth and Kenneth Moffett), was published by the University of Michigan Press this spring.

Play CHQ: Crafting by the Water
2025-07-08 16:00, 2025-07-15 16:00, 2025-07-22 16:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park

THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME
2025-07-08 18:00, 2025-07-09 15:15, 2025-07-09 20:45, 2025-07-10 20:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Wealthy businessman Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro) appoints his only daughter (Mia Threapleton), a nun, as sole heir to his estate. As Korda embarks on a new enterprise, they soon become the target of tycoons, terrorists and assassins in director Wes Anderson’s (Moonrise Kingdom, The French Dispatch) meticulously staged new production. “A palate cleanser – a lovely lark, a spirits lifter.” -Kimberley Jones,Austin Chronicle “Star-crammed and detailed, The Phoenician Scheme delights!” -Thelma Adams, AARP Movies for Grownups (PG-13, 101m)

Labyrinth History and Meditation
2025-07-08 18:30, 2025-07-15 18:30, 2025-07-22 18:30 | Turner (Outside of Building)
Bring gate pass. Adjacent to Turner Community Center

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Celestial Dances
2025-07-08 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Rossen Milanov, conductor
Immerse yourself in a mesmerizing evening of music that spans the celestial, the mystical, and the playful. Missy Mazzoli’s Sinfonia for Orbiting Spheres creates an ethereal soundscape, setting the stage for the fiery passion of de Falla’s El Amor Brujo and the whimsical charm of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite. Join the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for a night where shimmering modern textures, spellbinding Spanish folklore, and Stravinsky’s neoclassical brilliance collide in an unforgettable orchestral experience!
Program:
Missy Mazzoli: Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres)
Manuel de Falla: El Amor Brujo
Igor Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite

SING SING
2025-07-08 20:45, 2025-07-09 18:00, 2025-07-10 14:15 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Divine G (Colman Domingo), imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn’t commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men in this stirring true story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art, starring an unforgettable ensemble cast of formerly incarcerated actors. “A cinematic work of unique empathy, a slice of hand-turned humanity, hewn from the heart with rigorous attention paid to the process itself.” -Katie Walsh,Tribune News Service “A powerful drama that will stick with you.” -Laura Babiak, Observer (R, 105m)

Cultural Ethics Series- Rev. Neal Jones
2025-07-09 09:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
“Lighting A Candle Instead of Cursing the Darkness”

Pablo Hernandez Basulto
2025-07-09 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
An emerging leader in the theater and community engagement field, Pablo Hernandez Basulto is the director of civic artistic programs at The Public Theater where he oversees the Public Works and the Mobile Unit initiatives. One of the nation’s first nonprofit theaters, The Public has long operated on the principles that theater is an essential cultural force and that art and culture belong to everyone. Hernandez Basulto joins the Chautauqua Lecture Series during a week celebrating “Art in Action: Building Community Through the Arts” for a conversation that will focus on community-engaged theater and the role that cultural institutions play in fostering civic engagement, artistic innovation, and access for all.
Through his work, Hernandez Basulto has consulted community-based theater at institutions including the National Theatre in London, Seattle Rep, Tulsa Performing Arts Center, and the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts in Taiwan. Born and raised in Mexico, he started his career at the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard University, working closely with Anna Deavere Smith’s Pipeline Project. Later, Hernandez Basulto worked with People’s Palace Projects and the Augusto Boal Institute in Rio de Janeiro, collaborating with With One Voice, an international network of choirs composed of people experiencing houselessness.
In 2022, he became the inaugural staff board representative of The Public. Hernandez Basulto is an artist ambassador with the New York Civil Liberties Union, an alumnus of Northeastern University, and a member of the board of Theatre of the Oppressed NYC.

Organ Recitals
2025-07-09 12:15, 2025-07-16 12:15, 2025-07-23 12:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater

Women in Ministry
2025-07-09 12:15, 2025-07-16 12:15, 2025-07-23 12:15 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

Antisemitism and How to Respond to it
2025-07-09 12:15 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

CLSC Young Readers Book Discussion
2025-07-09 12:15, 2025-07-16 12:15 | Alumni Hall Porch, Alumni Hall Porch
Presenters Joanna Fox and Christina Noel, Ph.D., will lead a community discussion on our Week Four CLSC Young Readers selection They Call Me Güero: A Border Kids Poems by David Bowles

CHQ Dialogue
2025-07-09 12:30, 2025-07-16 12:30, 2025-07-23 12:30 | Catholic House, Catholic House

Chenxing Han
2025-07-09 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chenxing Han’s work delights in the interplay between Buddhism, Asian America, spiritual care, pedagogy, translation, and creative expression. Chenxing is the author of the books Be the Refuge: Raising the Voices of Asian American Buddhists (2021) and one long listening: a memoir of grief, friendship, and spiritual care (2023), along with many essays and articles for mainstream and academic audiences. A national speaker and workshop leader, she has received fellowships from Hedgebrook, Hemera Foundation, the Lenz Foundation, and the University of Michigan. Trained as a Buddhist chaplain, Chenxing holds a BA from Stanford University and an MA from the Graduate Theological Union and the Institute of Buddhist Studies. She is a founder of Listening to the Buddhists in Our Backyard; May We Gather: A National Buddhist Memorial for Asian American Ancestors; and Roots and Refuge: An Asian American Buddhist Writing Retreat.

African American Heritage House Lecture: Raymond Arsenault
2025-07-09 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Raymond Arsenault is the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History emeritus at the University of South Florida, where he is also chairman of the Department of History and Politics. Educated at Princeton and Brandeis, he is an esteemed expert in the political, social, environmental and civil rights history of the American South, and the author of several widely acclaimed and prize-winning books, including Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice; The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America; and Arthur Ashe, A Life.
Arsenault’s most recent book, published in January 2024 as a volume in Yale University Press’ new Black Lives series, is John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community. The 2011 PBS American Experience documentary “Freedom Riders,” based on his book, won three Emmys and a George Peabody Award. He has also served as a consultant for numerous civil rights museums and documentary film projects, including the 2022 PBS American Masters documentary “Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands.”

Islam 101 Khalid Rehman and Sabeeha Rehman
2025-07-09 15:30, 2025-07-16 15:30 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary
Shia-Sunni Divide and Religious Hierarchy

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-09 15:30, 2025-07-16 15:30, 2025-07-23 15:30 | Catholic House, Catholic House

Play CHQ: STEM by the Water
2025-07-09 16:00, 2025-07-16 16:00, 2025-07-23 16:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park

Chautauqua Bird, Tree & Garden Club Master Class: Wild Plants in native American Culture: Talk and Foraging Walk
2025-07-09 16:15 | Alumni Hall Porch, Alumni Hall Porch
Wild Plants Talk and Walk: Learn about wild plants in Native American diet and culture and then take a foraging walk! With native American nature rights advocate Crystal Cavalier-Keck

Masters Series Masterclass: Rumi and the path of Radical Love
2025-07-09 16:30 | Alumni Hall Ballroom, Alumni Hall Ballroom
Hold for Masters Series weekly class for Religion. Guest to be confirmed.

CHQ Mystic Heart: Therapeutic Gong Meditation with Kim Hehr
2025-07-09 16:45, 2025-07-16 16:45, 2025-07-23 16:45 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary
Kim Hehr is a lifelong Chautauquan and a certified level 2 teacher of Kundalini Yoga and Meditation. She has been a yoga and meditation practitioner for 30 years and has been teaching Kundalini Yoga and Meditation for 25 years. A retired hospice nurse, she is presently the coordinator of the CHQ Mystic Heart Meditation Program. Kim specializes in healing addictive patterns through yogic technology. Passionate about teaching meditation, performing Gong Baths, and pranayama (breath work), her objective is to help others with their anxiety and everyday stress. Her goal is to facilitate bringing more peace and self-acceptance into people’s lives.

Opera Conservatory: “Common Threads: The Music of Damien Geter”
2025-07-09 18:30 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall
“Common Threads: The Music of Damien Geter”
On July 9th, the Opera Conservatory will present an evening of music and scenes by celebrated composer Damien Geter, followed by a discussion between Geter, stage director Kimille Howard, and Artistic Advisor Denyce Graves. Included on this program will be songs from Cotton and scenes from Loving v. Virginia (whose world premiere was directed by Ms. Graves this spring).
Damien Geter is an acclaimed American composer who infuses classical music with various styles from the Black diaspora to create music that furthers the cause for social justice, as well as a celebrated bass-baritone – “amazing to listen to. Possessed of a rolling, resonant voice even at the lowest register” (Northwest Reverb) – whose varied credits include performances from the operatic stage to the television screen. He is Richmond Symphony’s Composer-in-Residence through 2026 and serves as Interim Music Director & Artistic Advisor at Portland Opera.

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-09 18:30, 2025-07-11 12:30, 2025-07-16 18:30, 2025-07-18 12:30, 2025-07-23 18:30, 2025-07-25 12:30 | Lutheran House, Lutheran House

Malpaso Dance Company
2025-07-09 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
With “technical strength, precision, and passion” (Arts Atlanta), the Havana-based Malpaso Dance Company returns to Chautauqua after residencies in 2022 and 2023. Since its founding in 2012 by Daile Carrazana, Osnel Delgado, and Fernando Sáez, the company remains committed to nurturing new voices in Cuban choreography. Witness a thrilling fusion of modern dance and rich Cuban rhythms, crafted by internationally acclaimed choreographers.

George Saunders
2025-07-10 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
The recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and numerous literary awards, George Saunders is the celebrated author of a novel, four collections of short stories, a novella, a book of essays and a children’s book. His most recent collection, Liberation Day, is a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics and justice, cutting to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. It is this work that will help frame his joint presentation for the Chautauqua Lecture Series and Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, during a week dedicated to “Art in Action: Building Community Through the Arts,” in which he’ll consider the significance of books, stories and the literary arts as cultural touchstones in our increasingly siloed and stratified social and intellectual consciousness.
In 2017, Saunders won the Man Booker Prize for his long-awaited first novel Lincoln in the Bardo. His collection Tenth of December was a finalist for the National Book Award, and winner of the 2014 Story Prize for short fiction and the 2014 Folio Prize, which celebrates the best fiction of our time.
His work appears regularly in The New Yorker, GQ and Harpers Magazine, and has appeared in the O’Henry, Best American Short Story, Best Non-Required Reading and Best American Travel Writing anthologies. Named by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2013, Saunders teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Syracuse University.

CTC Theater Chats
2025-07-10 12:15, 2025-07-17 12:15, 2025-07-24 12:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Theater Chats (formerly known as Brown Bags)
On selected Thursdays at 12:15 p.m., bring lunch to Smith Wilkes Hall and join special guests, including actors, designers, playwrights and more, for a look at our upcoming productions and discussions on the craft of theater-making. Free and open to the public.

Tallman Tracker Organ Recital
2025-07-10 12:15 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary

CHQ Dialogue
2025-07-10 12:30, 2025-07-17 12:30, 2025-07-24 12:30 | Everett Jewish Life Center, Everett Jewish Life Center

Duplicate Bridge
2025-07-10 12:45, 2025-07-17 12:45, 2025-07-24 12:45 | Sports Club, Sports Club
Don’t have a partner? One will be provided. Game managed by Shelley Dahlie. $10/person.

Rabbi Marc Margolius
2025-07-10 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Rabbi Marc Margolius is Vice President for Faculty and Program for the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS). He directs the faculty and overall programming for IJS; oversees its Kivvun: Mindful Jewish Leadership program and programming for alumni of its Clergy Leadership Program; hosts IJS’s online daily mindfulness meditation sessions and its weekly podcast, “Jewish Meditation for Everyone;” and teaches Awareness in Action: Cultivating Character through Mindfulness and Middot, an online program integrating Jewish mindfulness with attention to core character traits.
Previously, Rabbi Margolius served as rabbi at West End Synagogue in Manhattan and Congregation Beth Am Israel in Penn Valley, PA. He developed and led the Legacy Heritage Innovation Project at the Legacy Heritage Fund in New York from 2005-10, an initiative to promote systemic educational change in Jewish congregations around the globe. He has been a public interest attorney serving low income communities in New Haven and Hartford, CT. A graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Yale Law School, he lives in New York City with his wife, Rabbi Ayelet Cohen, and their children.

Islam 101 Khalid Rehman and Sabeeha Rehman
2025-07-10 15:30, 2025-07-17 15:30 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary
Shariah

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-10 15:30, 2025-07-17 15:30, 2025-07-24 15:30 | United Methodist House, United Methodist House

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-10 15:30, 2025-07-17 15:30, 2025-07-24 15:30 | Baptist House, Baptist House

Chautauqua Arts Education 101
2025-07-10 15:30 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Chautauqua Arts Education programs serve thousands of students and hundreds of teachers each year in Chautauqua County, carrying out Chautauqua Institution’s mission through empowering students to learn about their world and themselves through the arts. Director of Arts Education Suzanne Fassett-Wright and Vice President of Performing and Visual Arts Laura Savia will be joined by Chautauqua Lake Central School Secondary Principal Rachel Curtin and C.C. Ring Elementary (Jamestown, NY) teacher Beth Johnson in a panel discussion to share how Chautauqua Institution is working in collaboration with our community to support student growth through increased engagement with arts experiences.

Piano Program Faculty Recital: Alexander Kobrin, Heinztelman Family Artistic Advisor to the Piano Program. Music of Schumann and Brahms
2025-07-10 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Called the “Van Cliburn of today” by the BBC, pianist Alexander Kobrin has placed himself at the forefront of today’s performing musicians. His prize-winning performances have been praised for their brilliant technique, musicality, and emotional engagement with the audience. Mr. Kobrin has taken the top prize in many international competitions, most notably the esteemed Gold Medal at the Twelfth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Though widely acclaimed as a performer, he is also a respected and inspirational teacher, currently a professor at the renowned Eastman School of Music. Mr. Kobrin is the Heintzelman Family Artistic Advisor for the Chautauqua Piano Program.

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-10 16:00, 2025-07-17 16:00 | AAHH African American Heritage House
The Dialogue is devoted to the AAHH Lecture on Wednesday at 3:30pm

Play CHQ: Get your Game On!
2025-07-10 16:00, 2025-07-17 16:00, 2025-07-24 16:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park

FROM PAIN TO PURPOSE - MARY'S STORY
2025-07-10 17:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Presented in cooperation with LGBTQ+ and Friends and SLA Video Productions, we are pleased to present this moving, original documentary affectionately known as Mary’s Story, about trans woman Mary Almy’s journey of faith and acceptance. Mary, Director Cheryl Shaver and the documentary film crew will be on hand for the screening and discussion. (NR, 67m)

Drop-in Softball
2025-07-10 17:30, 2025-07-17 17:30, 2025-07-24 17:30 | Sharpe Field, Sharpe Field
Interested in playing slow pitch softball? Contact co-commissioner Carrie Zachry at carriezachry@gmail.com

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-10 18:30, 2025-07-17 18:30, 2025-07-24 18:30 | Disciples of Christ House, Disciples of Christ House

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Summer Stories
2025-07-10 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Rossen Milanov, conductor
Experience a night of sweeping melodies and vibrant orchestral color with a program that delights the senses. Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess Symphonic Picture brings the soul of American jazz to life, while Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite enchants with its delicate fairy-tale magic. The evening culminates in the hypnotic build of Ravel’s Bolero, an irresistible crescendo that will leave you breathless!
Program:
George Gershwin: Porgy and Bess Symphonic Picture
Maurice Ravel: Mother Goose Suite
Ravel: Bolero

Deborah F. Rutter
2025-07-11 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Deborah F. Rutter is an internationally respected nonprofit executive with nearly five decades of leadership at premier cultural institutions. From 2014 to 2025, she served as the first female president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — the nation’s preeminent cultural center — where she led a period of transformative growth while centering artists in all aspects of the institution’s work. She joins the Chautauqua Lecture Series to close a week exploring “Art in Action: Building Community Through the Arts,” by considering what it means to uplift the arts through the work and investment of a cultural center for all of America and all of her peoples.
During her tenure at the Kennedy Center, Rutter expanded the institution’s artistic and educational programming across genres and audiences, developed an innovative exploration of arts and well-being in collaboration with National Institutes of Health and the National Endowment for the Arts, and established the Hip Hop Culture Council to create new pathways and deepen public knowledge of hip-hop. Notably, she led the planning, design, construction and celebrated 16-day opening festival of the Kennedy Center’s first physical expansion — The REACH — encompassing 72,000 sq. ft. of indoor space and 130,000 sq. ft. outdoor green space to accommodate an increased number of festivals, exhibitions and community impact initiatives.
Rutter began her career at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and went on to lead such esteemed cultural institutions as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. A pianist and violinist, Rutter earned a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and an MBA from the University of Southern California.

Introduction to Jumu'ah Muslim Prayer
2025-07-11 12:30, 2025-07-18 12:30, 2025-07-25 12:30 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary
Jumu’ah introduction for visitors is at 12:30 PM. Jumu’ah Service is at 1:05 PM

Subagh Singh Khalsa
2025-07-11 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Subagh Singh Khalsa has been teaching mediation for around half a century, and, along the way, has seen how people can gain compassion, wisdom and courage from the practice. He thinks these qualities are often missing in wider, materialist culture. He is the founder of the Mystic Heart Program, a Department of Religion initiative aimed at teaching Chautauquans meditation techniques from various world faiths and traditions, and co-directed this program with his spouse Linda Winkelstern until their retirement in 2022. Subagh is the author of four books on meditation, healing, and living to one’s full potential.

Chautauqua Opera Company workshop: Lincoln in the Bardo
2025-07-11 15:15 | Norton Hall, Norton Hall
The Metropolitan Opera has commissioned composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek to create an operatic adaptation of George Saunders’ wildly imaginative, Booker Prize-winning novel LINCOLN IN THE BARDO. Chautauqua Opera Company partners with The Metropolitan Opera for a two-week orchestral workshop, using the combined forces of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, the company’s 16 Young Artists, and 18 singers from the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory to realize Mazzoli’s bold and sparkling score. Celebrated soprano Christine Goerke joins the cast to sing the role of The Reverend, which has been written specifically for her. The workshop culminates with a public reading of excerpts from the opera. This first ever presentation with orchestra will be performed on the stage of Norton Hall, and will be followed by a discussion with Mazzoli, Vavrek and Saunders.

Islam 101 Khalid Rehman and Sabeeha Rehman
2025-07-11 15:30, 2025-07-18 15:30 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary
Islam in America

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-11 15:30, 2025-07-18 15:30, 2025-07-25 15:30 | Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-11 15:30, 2025-07-18 15:30, 2025-07-25 15:30 | Episcopal Cottage, Episcopal Cottage

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-11 15:30, 2025-07-18 15:30 | Alumni Hall Ballroom, Alumni Hall Ballroom

School of Music: Piano Program Student Recital
2025-07-11 16:00 | Sherwood-Marsh 101

Hebrew Congregation Evening Kabbalat Shabbat Service
2025-07-11 17:00, 2025-07-18 17:00, 2025-07-25 17:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park

THE WEDDING BANQUET
2025-07-11 18:00, 2025-07-12 20:50, 2025-07-13 15:15, 2025-07-14 18:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Frustrated with his commitment-phobic boyfriend Chris (Bowen Yang) and running out of time, Min (Han Gi-chan)makes a proposal: a green-card marriage with their friend Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) in exchange for her partner Lee’s (Lily Gladstone) expensive IVF. Elopement plans are upended, however, when Min’s grandmother surprises them with an extravagant Korean wedding banquet. Directed by Andrew Ahn (Fire Island). “A modern-day tale with an old-fashioned spirit, a joyous crowd-pleaser with the most romantic of hearts.” -Tomris Laffly, RogerEbert.com (R, 103m)

A Service of Compline
2025-07-11 19:30, 2025-07-18 19:30 | Episcopal Chapel

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
2025-07-11 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
April 2025 marks the 32 year anniversary of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s remarkable arrival onto the music scene. Since its formation in the early nineties in Ventura, California, the band has toured virtually nonstop, performing on average over 150 shows a year, and has produced a sizable catalog of recorded music, with sales of over 2 million albums to date. Early on, during their legendary residency at the Derby nightclub in Los Angeles, they reminded the world, in the midst of the grunge era no less, that it was still cool to swing. The band, co-founded by singer Scotty Morris and drummer Kurt Sodergren, was at the forefront of the swing revival of that time, blending a vibrant fusion of the classic American sounds of jazz, swing, and dixieland, with the energy and spirit of contemporary culture.
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s all original core line-up includes Scotty Morris (lead vocals and guitar), Kurt Sodergren (drums), Dirk Shumaker (double bass and vocals), Andy Rowley (baritone saxophone and vocals), Glen “The Kid” Marhevka (trumpet), Karl Hunter (saxophones and clarinet) and Joshua Levy (piano and arranger).
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s efforts to promote and revitalize swing music have taken shape as much more than a simple tribute. Taking inspiration from the creators of this uniquely American art form, the band’s original horn-infused music and legendary high energy show introduces the genre to a new and younger generation while remaining cognizant and respectful of the music’s rich legacy.

THE PENGUIN LESSONS
2025-07-11 20:45, 2025-07-12 18:00, 2025-07-13 18:00, 2025-07-14 20:45 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
A disillusioned Englishman (Steve Coogan) goes to work in a school in a divided Argentina in 1976 where he finds his life transformed after rescuing an injured penguin from the beach in director Peter Cattaneo’s charming film. “When all is said and done, The Penguin Lessons is about finding the courage to stand up to injustice at one’s own peril” -Ty Burr, Washington Post “. “Despite the danger of G-rated sentimentality, which everyone involved heroically avoids, The Penguin Lessons is a work of surprising depth and subtle, irresistible impact.” -Rex Reed, Observer (PG-13, 110m)

CHQ Mystic Heart Meditation: Carol McKiernan
2025-07-12 07:15, 2025-07-19 07:15 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Carol McKiernan grew up at Chautauqua and says that her love of mystical practices began here on the grounds. She was formally introduced to meditation many years ago at an off-season yoga and meditation retreat led by Subagh Singh Khalsa and has been practicing Centering Prayer daily ever since. She has attended many seminars, workshops, and retreats offered by Contemplative Outreach, founded by the late Father Thomas Keating, a Trappist Monk who was instrumental in the creation of Centering Prayer. Carol practices Centering Prayer with weekly groups in Campus Ministry at Villanova University and at St. David’s Episcopal Church outside of Philadelphia. She has led and participated in many Centering Prayer workshops and groups in the areas surrounding her hometown of Philadelphia. She is a member of the Augustinian Affiliates, the lay order of the Augustinian Friars and volunteers for the Friars in the Villanova Province. Carol is a past board member and treasurer of the Chautauqua Catholic Community.

Chabad Jewish House, Community Shabbat Service, Rabbi Zalman Vilenken
2025-07-12 09:30, 2025-07-19 09:30 | Chabad Jewish House

Sabbath Morning Worship, Hebrew Congregation
2025-07-12 10:30, 2025-07-19 10:30 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary

Kiddish Luncheon
2025-07-12 11:30, 2025-07-19 11:30 | Hurlbut Truesdale

Opera Company: Masterclass with Jonathan Beyer
2025-07-12 14:00 | McKnight Hall, McKnight Hall

Contemporary Issues Forum: Bartley Griffith, M.D.
2025-07-12 15:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
At the University of Maryland School of Medicine and University of Maryland Medical System, Bartley Griffith is the Thomas E. and Alice Marie Hales Distinguished Professor of Transplant Surgery, director of the Cardiac and Lung Transplant Programs, clinical director of the Cardiac Xenotransplantation Program, and vice chair for innovation. In January 2022, in partnership with Muhammad Mohiuddin M.D., he became the first surgeon in the world to implant a genetically modified pig heart into a living patient. For the Chautauqua Women’s Club, he’ll discuss “Why a Pig Heart?” in his installment of the Contemporary Issues Forum.
Prior to his arrival at UMSOM, Griffith served as vice chair in the department of surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where he was also chief of cardiothoracic surgery and the Henry T. Bahnson Professor of Surgery. He also served as the founding director for the McGowan Center for Artificial Organ Development. Griffith has directed more than 1,200 heart transplants and 600 lung transplants and is an innovator in the use of immunosuppression after transplant and mechanical blood pumps prior to transplant.
Griffith received his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He completed a surgery internship and general and cardiothoracic surgery residency at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Health Center Hospitals.

School of Music Faculty Spotlight Series: 20th Century Masterworks for Flute and Harp
2025-07-12 16:15 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
The School of Music is delighted to present an enchanting afternoon of music featuring the graceful pairing of flute and harp. Join us as Richard Sherman, esteemed resident flute faculty and Principal Flute of the CSO, is joined by guest harpist Juan Riveros for a stunning selection of masterworks, including compositions by renowned composers Vincent Persichetti, Jean-Michel Damase, and William Alwyn. Don’t miss this opportunity to enjoy an afternoon of exquisite chamber music in the hands of two world-class musicians.

Catholic Mass
2025-07-12 17:00, 2025-07-19 17:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Chautauqua Opera Company's Opera Invasion: "Opera Open Book"
2025-07-12 18:45 | Hultquist Porch, Hultquist Porch

Chautauqua Theater Company presents Execution of Justice (Preview)
2025-07-12 19:30, 2025-07-13 19:30, 2025-07-15 19:30 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater
Written and Directed by Emily Mann
It’s 1978, and San Francisco is a divided city. The brutal murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk—the nation’s first openly gay elected official—shocked a nation. This gripping documentary play examines the trial of Dan White, the disgruntled former city supervisor whose reduced voluntary manslaughter conviction, rather than murder in the first degree, sparked outrage and introduced the infamous “Twinkie defense.” Ripped from the headlines, personal interviews, and court documents of the past but still resonating powerfully today, this play confronts themes of justice, prejudice, and privilege and grapples with the issues of gun violence and systemic homophobia. This contemporary classic challenges us to reflect on our identity as a nation.
Recommended for audiences ages 13 and older.

The Music of Elton John starring Michael Cavanaugh with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
2025-07-12 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Stuart Chafetz, conductor
Get ready to rock out with Michael Cavanaugh as he performs the timeless hits of Elton John, such as “Tiny Dancer,” “Rocket Man,” “Bennie and the Jets,” Candle in the Wind,” and many more! A charismatic performer and musician made famous for his piano/lead vocals in the Broadway musical Movin’ Out, Cavanaugh was handpicked by Billy Joel to star in the production. This electrifying show features Cavanaugh’s powerhouse vocals and incredible piano skills, backed by the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra with Principal Pops Conductor Stuart Chafetz on the podium.

Episcopal Holy Eucharist
2025-07-13 07:45, 2025-07-20 07:45 | Chapel of the Good Shepherd, Chapel of the Good Shepherd

Song, Prayer, Communion & Meditation
2025-07-13 08:30, 2025-07-20 08:30 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary

The Rev. Dr. Frank Yamada
2025-07-13 10:45, 2025-07-14 09:15, 2025-07-15 09:15, 2025-07-16 09:15, 2025-07-17 09:15, 2025-07-18 09:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Frank M. Yamada began as executive director of The Association of Theological Schools (ATS) in July 2017. He oversees the work of both the Association and the Commission on Accrediting. During his tenure, ATS has re-developed the Standards of Accreditation, received over $50 million in grant funding to support the future of theological schools and their leaders, successfully navigated the multiple programs of the Association through the global pandemic, and partnered with the Lilly Endowment through the Pathways for Tomorrow initiative, which has granted $209 million to ATS accredited schools and supporting organizations. This funding supports schools as they make the changes necessary to pursue more effective and sustainable futures.
Prior to ATS, he joined the McCormick faculty in 2008 as associate professor of Hebrew Bible and director of the Center for Asian American Ministries. In 2011, he was elected as McCormick’s tenth president—the first Asian American to lead a Presbyterian Church (USA) seminary. His tenure there was marked by increasing diversity in McCormick’s student body and creative engagement with the shifting realities of theological education. Yamada previously had taught Hebrew Bible/Old Testament for nine years at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. A biblical scholar, Yamada has authored and edited books and articles on cross-cultural and feminist hermeneutics. He had been an active member of the Society of Biblical Literature, where he served as a chair and as a steering committee member of the Asian American Biblical Hermeneutics Group, the Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible Section, and the Committee for Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Profession. In addition, he was a member of the Ethnic Chinese Biblical Colloquium and the American Academy of Religion, and he was the co-chair for the Managing Board of the Asian Pacific Americans and Religion Research Initiative annual conference. A graduate of Southern California College (now Vanguard University), Yamada earned his MDiv and PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and has written about and it is a sought-after speaker on the future of the church and theological education.

Friends of the Chautauqua Writers' Center Authors Among Us Book Fair
2025-07-13 11:30 | Bestor Plaza, Bestor Plaza

Chautauqua School of Dance: Student Gala I
2025-07-13 15:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Chautauqua School of Dance presents an outstanding mixed repertoire matinee of new and established works featuring the most exceptional young talent in the country. Under the leadership of Sasha Janes,
Bonnefoux McBride Artistic Director of Chautauqua School of Dance, the school continues its long tradition of excellence as a top-tier summer training program focused on bringing the next generation of dance stars from the studio to the stage.

Maritri Garrett and Maritza Rivera
2025-07-13 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Writers’ Center Faculty Reading — Week Four — Featuring Maritri Garrett (Songwriting) and Maritza Rivera (Poetry)
Maritri Garrett is a remarkable independent artist whose music reflects the depth of her diverse musical background. As a composer, multi-instrumentalist, singer, her songs tell honest stories of life, love, and loss, offering healing and solace to all who listen.
Maritri holds a unique blend of academic achievements, including a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Fisk University, a Bachelor of Science in Composition, and a Master of Fine Arts in Jazz Studies from Howard University.
Her skillful versatility with instruments like the piano, guitar, bass, cello, and percussion sets her apart. Having performed with and opened for musical legends like Gladys Knight and Patti LaBelle and sung back up for Barbra Streisand. She has written for theater, ballet, apps, and film.
Maritza Rivera is a Puerto Rican poet and US Army veteran who has lived in Rockville, MD since1994. Maritza has been writing poetry for over 50 years; she is the creator of a short form of poetry called Blackjack and is the author of: About You; A Mother’s War; Baker’s Dozen; 21 Blackjack Poems; and the Blackjack Poetry Playing Cards. Her work appears in the public arts project: Meet Me at the Triangle, in Wheaton, MD. Her work has been featured in literary and online publications such as: Gargoyle Magazine, Poet Lore, O Dark Thirty, Sojourners, WordWrights Magazine, MilSpeak.org, LA Bloga, ArLiJo, PoetryXHunger.com, and DanMurano.com. She has also appeared on: The Coffee House/MCTV, Joe’s Place/WHUR; On the Margin/WPFW, The Poet and the Poem/Library of Congress and Leguizamo Does America/NBC.
Maritza is the creator and host of the weekly Mariposa Poetry Series in College Park, MD, which ran from 1999 to 2002. In 2012, Maritza was a recipient of a Book in a Day (BID) International Writing Fellowship in Bahia, Brazil; in 2013, she attended the Bread Loaf Writers Conference in Sicily; and in 2013 she was the recipient of a Montgomery County Executive’s Volunteer Award for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities.
In 2022, Maritza co-edited Diaspora Café: D.C., an Afro-LatinX anthology with Jeffrey Banks that was published by Day Eight. Maritza has been a supporter of The Memorial Day Writers Project, co-facilitated the Warrior Poetry Project at Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD with Dr. Fred Foote and Richard Epstein, and served on the Board of Directors of Split this Rock in Washington, DC. She has also collaborated and worked on several literary translation projects with Yvette Neisser, Joseph Ross, Hiram Larew, Brenardo Taylor and Grace Cavalieri. Her translation efforts include Inquilinos Mudos/Silent Tenants by Alberto Roblest published by Day Eight in 2023. Maritza’s work also appears in This is the Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets, edited by Kwame Alexander and published in January 2024.

Children's Organ Tour
2025-07-13 17:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater

Chautauqua Visual Arts Pop Up Art Show
2025-07-13 17:00 | CVA: Arts Quad
Join Chautauqua Visual Arts, July 13th from 5:00 – 8:00 pm in the Grotto, located in the School of Art. Meet the energetic CVA 6-week residents as they host an exciting and spontaneous Pop-Up exhibition. Highlighting artworks created during the first 3 weeks of the Chautauqua Visual Arts Residency. We invite the Chautauqua community to explore the wide range of creative endeavors, from drawings and painting to sculpture and ceramics. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to witness the artistic drive and spirit happening on the Arts Quad!

Sacred Song Service - In Remembrance
2025-07-13 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater

CHQ Mystic Heart: Bhante Chipamong Chowdhury
2025-07-14 07:45, 2025-07-15 07:45, 2025-07-16 07:45, 2025-07-17 07:45, 2025-07-18 07:45 | Presbyterian Chapel
Originally from Chittagong Hill Tracts (Bangladesh), Bhante (Chipamong Chowdhury) is a contemplative teacher, researcher, storyteller and monastic activist. He became a monk at the age of 6 and received traditional Buddhist education, monastic training and meditation in Sri Lanka and Myanmar (1998-2006). He also studied at the University of Toronto Canada, Naropa University Colorado, Arizona State University, and was a Fellow at the Columbia University NY. He taught courses on Contemporary Buddhism Universities in Europe and US. He is a co-editor of the book: Human Dignity: Practices, Discourses, and Transformations. His essays and writings have appeared in the Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Journal of Contemporary Buddhism, Buddhist Studies Reviews, and Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, among other publications. Defining himself as a nomad monk or/ a global citizen, he travels extensively in North America, Europe and Asia, teaching nomad mindfulness, inner resources, active care, and human dignity. Bringing his experience as a Theravāda/nomad monk in South and Southeast Asia, besides daily mindfulness meditation, Bhante will be offering various aspects of Theravāda Dhamma reflecting on empathy, hopes, loves, forgiveness, healings, emotional intimacy, anger, and compassionate actions, among other topics.

Opera Conservatory: Masterclass with Rachel Calloway
2025-07-14 10:00 | McKnight Hall, McKnight Hall

Robert Doar & Cecilia Elena Rouse
2025-07-14 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Robert Doar and Cecilia Elena Rouse, presidents of two of the nation’s most highly regarded public policy think tanks, come together in conversation on the Amphitheater stage to lead off a week of dialogue on “The Future of the American Experiment,” presented at Chautauqua in partnership with AEI and Brookings. In providing their perspectives on the state of our democratic republic today — plus thoughts on its immediate and long-term future, and how Americans can find common ground on our most urgent challenges — the pair will set the stage for the week’s remaining Chautauqua Lecture Series programs, all featuring experts from both organizations.
Robert Doar became American Enterprise Institute’s 12th president in July 2019. Since then, he has recruited dozens of leading scholars and fellows across multiple issue areas and launched a new research division focused on Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies. By supporting the extensive work of AEI scholars in areas including foreign and defense policy, education, the reform of key institutions, the U.S. economy, and in opportunity and mobility studies, Doar has helped to solidify AEI’s position as a leading voice on the major issues facing the United States.
While at AEI, Doar has served as a co-chair of the National Commission on Hunger and as a lead member of the AEI-Brookings Working Group on Poverty and Opportunity. Doar joined AEI in 2014 to lead the Institute’s opportunity and mobility studies program after serving for more than 20 years in leadership positions in the social service programs of New York state and New York City.
Cecilia Elena Rouse is the president of the Brookings Institution. From 2021 to 2023, she served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, the first Black American to fill that role in the CEA’s 75-year history. Confirmed with 95 votes in the U.S. Senate, she served as CEA chair while on public service leave from Princeton University, where she joined the faculty in 1992. The university’s Katzman-Ernst Professor in Economics and Education and a professor of economics and public affairs, she served as dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs from 2012 to 2021.
A labor economist with a focus on the economics of education, Rouse is the founding director of the Princeton Education Research Section and a member of the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Education, and the National Academy of Sciences. A member of the Council of Economic Advisers from 2009 to 2011, she was Special Assistant to the President at the National Economic Council from 1998 to 1999.

CLSC Book Discussion
2025-07-14 12:15 | Alumni Hall Porch, Alumni Hall Porch
Presenters Sherra Babcock and Terrie Tucker will lead a community discussion on our Week Four CLSC selection My Side of the River: A Memoir by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez

Gregory A. Smith
2025-07-14 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Gregory A. Smith is a senior associate director of research at Pew Research Center. He helps to coordinate the Center’s domestic polling on religion. Smith also writes reports and provides information to news media and others about religion and public opinion, religion and American politics, and the political views of Catholics. Smith holds a doctorate in government from the University of Virginia, where he was a fellow at the Center on Religion and Democracy. He is an author of the 2007 and 2014 U.S. Religious Landscape Studies, the 2010 U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey, the 2007 and 2011 Pew Research Center surveys of Muslim Americans, the 2012 Mormons in America report and the 2012 report “Nones” on the Rise. He also wrote Politics in the Parish: The Political Influence of Catholic Priests (Georgetown University Press, 2008). Smith has been interviewed as an analyst by a variety of broadcast media, including ABC, CBS, CNN, C-SPAN, MSNBC and NPR, and by The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today, among other print media.

Piano Faculty Masterclass: Charis Dimaras
2025-07-14 14:15 | Sherwood-Marsh 101

Chautauqua Chamber Music: The Gesualdo Six
2025-07-14 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Award-winning British vocal ensemble The Gesualdo Six comprises some of the UK’s finest consort singers, directed by Owain Park. Praised for their imaginative programming and impeccable blend, the ensemble formed in 2014 for a performance of Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories in Cambridge and has gone on to perform at numerous major festivals across the UK, Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand.
Notable highlights include performances at renowned venues including London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s Miller Theatre, the Sydney Opera House and their debut at the BBC Proms in 2023. The ensemble has harnessed the power of social media to make classical music accessible to millions worldwide, creating captivating videos from beautiful locations while on tour.
Program to be announced.

Community Compact: Connecting Conversations with Summer Scholars
2025-07-14 16:30 | Bestor Plaza, Bestor Plaza

CHQ Mystic Heart: Suzanne Watters
2025-07-14 16:45 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary
Suzanne Watters is a Pratt Institute MFA graduate with a concentration in painting/drawing. Her art practice centers around woven pieces made with found textiles painted with pigments and/or dyed with food waste and other organic matter. She has attended training in New York City and received a certification in sound meditation from the Sound Healing Academy. She has also done additional sound healing training at a retreat and session with Wyatt Mylius at Rooted In Sound in Pittsburgh, PA (trained with Peter Hess) and with indigenous sound healing practitioner Moises Tort in Mandarina, Mexico. Watters sees her sound meditation sessions as being led by an artist and guided with the relaxation tools and techniques of poetry, breath, and sound

Afro-Andean Funk
2025-07-14 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Afro-Andean Funk is a genre-defying band led by Peruvian singer Araceli Poma and American bassist/producer Matt Geraghty. Their music fuses Afro-Andean roots, world music, and funk, exploring themes of social struggle, shamanic rituals, and indigenous Peruvian traditions. Committed to cultural storytelling, their work brings visibility to Quechua, the most widely spoken indigenous language in South America. With their unique fusion of ancestral tradition and contemporary sound, Afro-Andean Funk continues to break new ground, bringing their vibrant music to international audiences while staying rooted in the power of cultural storytelling and social impact.

Buffalo Day
2025-07-15 07:00
Buffalo Day 2025
Explore locally and come to Chautauqua Institution on Buffalo Day. Residents of Buffalo have free admission and parking* all day. Our Buffalo Day includes access to all events in the Amphitheater and Hall of Philosophy that day, beaches, and so much more!
Please bring proof of residency for entry. Youth 12 and under are always free at Chautauqua!
July 15
9:15 a.m. (Amphitheater) Morning Worship: The Rev Dr. Frank Yamanda
10:45 a.m. (Amphitheater) Morning Lecture: Michael O’Hanlon & Kori Schake
12:30 pm (Hall of Christ) Buffalo Day – Erie Canal 200 A Lifelong Learning Experience
2 p.m. (Hall of Philosophy) Teddy raShaan (Reeves) with Becka A. Alper
2:15 pm (Smith Library) Buffalo Day Talk
4:45 p.m. (Smith Wilkes) Buffalo Day Speakers –
Creating Reading Rainbow: The Untold Story of a Beloved Children’s Series
Authors Tony Buttino, Sr., Barbara Irwin and Pam Johnson
8:15 p.m. Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Romantic Elegance
Patrons from the Buffalo region zip codes 14201 through 14280 are admitted free to Chautauqua 7 a.m. –11:59 p.m. Order tickets at the Chautauqua Ticket Office.
*Parking is free when tickets are ordered in advance (before 7/15) for Buffalo Day

Michael O'Hanlon & Kori Schake
2025-07-15 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Michael O’Hanlon and Kori Schake are two of the nation’s leading experts in American defense strategy and foreign policy. The pair will present in tandem, building on the Chautauqua Lecture Series theme of “The Future of the American Experiment,” with an examination of world affairs and the global order through the lenses of U.S. defense and diplomacy. The program is the second in a five-part weeklong series presented at Chautauqua in partnership with the American Enterprise Institute and Brookings Institution, each featuring experts from both organizations.
Michael O’Hanlon is the inaugural holder of the Philip H. Knight Chair in Defense and Strategy and director of research in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, where he specializes in U.S. defense strategy and budgets, the use of military force, and American national security policy. He is a senior fellow and directs the Strobe Talbott Center on Security, Strategy, and Technology, and serves as co-director of the Africa Security Initiative. An adjunct professor at Georgetown University and Columbia University and a member of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board, he was also a member of the external advisory board at the Central Intelligence Agency from 2011 to 2012.
O’Hanlon’s most recent book is Military History for the Modern Strategist: America’s Major Wars since 1861; other works include The Art of War in an Age of Peace: U.S. Grand Strategy and Resolute Restraint, Defense 101: Understanding the Military of Today and Tomorrow, and The Senkaku Paradox: Risking Great Power War over Limited Stakes.
O’Hanlon was an analyst at the Congressional Budget Office from 1989 to 1994, where he won the Director’s Award in 1992. His doctorate from Princeton University is in public and international affairs, where he was awarded a National Science Foundation fellowship. His bachelor’s and master’s degrees, also from Princeton, are in the physical sciences. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 1982 to 1984, where he taught college and high school physics in French.
Kori Schake is a senior fellow and the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, where her research areas include national security strategy; NATO; alliances and U.S.-led international order; and threats to the liberal international order.
Before joining AEI, Schake was the deputy director-general of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. She has had a distinguished career in government, working at the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the National Security Council at the White House. She has also taught at King’s College, Stanford, West Point, Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, National Defense University, and the University of Maryland, and served as senior policy adviser to the McCain-Palin campaign in 2008.
Schake is the author of five books, including America vs the West: Can the Liberal World Order Be Preserved?; Safe Passage: The Transition from British to American Hegemony; State of Disrepair: Fixing the Culture and Practices of the State Department; and Managing American Hegemony: Essays on Power in a Time of Dominance. She is also the coeditor, along with former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, of Warriors & Citizens: American Views of Our Military.
Schake holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in government and politics from the University of Maryland, as well as an MPM from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. She received her bachelor’s degree in international relations from Stanford University.

Dance on Bestor with Afro-Andean Funk
2025-07-15 12:00 | Bestor Plaza, Bestor Plaza

BTG Brownbag: Kenn Kaufman & Arthur Pearson
2025-07-15 12:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
BTG Brownbag

CHQ Mystic Heart: Bhante Chipamong Chowdhury
2025-07-15 12:30, 2025-07-17 12:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

School of Music Open Recital
2025-07-15 13:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Teddy raShaan (Reeves) with Becka A. Alper
2025-07-15 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Teddy raShaan (Reeves), Ph.D. is a multifaceted, award-winning producer, curator, educator, and storyteller. Currently, Teddy serves as the Curator of Religion at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C. Through this work at the NMAAHC, teddy has created innovative projects that have highlighted the influence of digital technologies and media in capturing, preserving, and telling the stories of Black spiritual and religious life in the Americas.
Most recently, Teddy created and produced the NMAAHC’s first featured film, gOD-Talk, which explores the lives of seven Black Millennials (Buddhist, Christians, Atheist, Ifa, Muslim, and Spiritualist) and how they are reimaging faith in the 21st century. The film has received critical acclaim having been selected in 12 film festivals and won Best LGBTQ film at the Northern Virginia Film Festival. In 2018, teddy created, and executive produced the Museum first digital series under the same name, “gOD-Talk: A Black Millennials and Faith Conversation Series.” The series garner critical acclaim–having received more than 40 Telly Awards and five Shorty Awards for digital innovation, tackling pressing social issues, production, religion and spirituality media, art direction, and more.
In addition, Teddy curated the NMAAHC’s first born-digital religion exhibition, “Jesus’ Hair Like Wool: Black Messianic Representations in Art, History, and Media,” which explores– through a recently rediscovered sculpture of the Last Supper–the historic and contemporary role of Black messianic figures (Father Divine, Martin Luther King, Daddy Grace, Marcus Garvey, etc.) and portrayals in Black history, music, art, and culture. In addition, Teddy is the curator of the forthcoming exhibition, “‘They Are Killing Me Tonight:’ The Final Words Black and LatinX Men from the Death Chamber,” which explores the role of the death penalty and mass incarceration in the lives of Black and Brown men. Most recently, teddy founded Art Like ME Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to help empower Black and Brown boys and men cultivate emotional intelligence through art and culture. One of the signature programs of the organization is gifting framed visual art prints, by established artists, to boys (newborn to 12th grade) at no cost. Working alongside Dr. Yolanda Pierce, teddy helped to establish The Betsey Stockton Center for Black Church Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary. Teddy’s commitment to community led him to create The Reeves Group to help educational, cultural, and faithbased non-profit organizations, domestically and internationally, reach their fundraising and board goals. His work contributed to over $70 million in philanthropic revenue. Alongside these efforts, Teddy has also served as an English teacher at the Thacher School (Ojai, CA) and Providence Day School (Charlotte, NC), and as a teaching assistant at Princeton University Pace Center for Civic Engagement.
Teddy earned his B.A. from Hampton University, M.Div. from Princeton Seminary, and Ph.D. from Fordham University. Teddy hails from Winston-Salem, North Carolina and now calls Brooklyn, New York home with his wife, Briana Gibson Reeves.
Becka A. Alper is a Senior Researcher at Pew Research Center where she leads surveys exploring American religious identities, beliefs and practices, including the views and demographic profile of Jewish Americans and the religiously unaffiliated. Her work is instrumental in shaping the Center’s U.S. religion polls and offering insights into the role of religion in American public life. She has authored major reports analyzing America’s changing religious landscape, the experiences and views of Jewish Americans, spiritual beliefs and practices, what Americans know about religion, a new way of understanding religious identities in America, how religion intersects with Americans’ view on the environment, among many others. Becka holds a doctorate in sociology from Purdue University.

WYNTON MARSALIS' ALL RISE
2025-07-15 15:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Special Program Event! Free Admission with Gate Pass! Recorded live at the Chautauqua Amphitheater in 2024 this is Wynton Marsalis’s massive jazz symphony All Rise performed in it’s entirety featuring the Music School Festival Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus. (NR, 115m)

Heritage Lecture Series: Cynthia Patterson
2025-07-15 15:30 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary
As part of the Oliver Archives Center’s 2025 Heritage Lecture Series, Cynthia Patterson will present “Owensboro, Kentucky and the Black Chautauqua Movement 1884-1924”.

Piano Program Faculty Recital: Logan Skelton, with guest pianist, Tian Tian: An Afternoon of Gershin for Two Pianos
2025-07-15 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Logan Skelton is a much sought-after pianist, teacher and composer whose work has received international critical acclaim. As a performer, Skelton has concertized widely in the United States, Europe and Asia and has been featured on many public radio and television stations including NPR’s Audiophile Audition, Performance Today, All Things Considered, and Morning Edition, as well as on radio in China and national television in Romania.
He has served on the faculties of Manhattan School of Music, Missouri State University, and is currently Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Piano and Director of Doctoral Studies in Piano Performance at the University of Michigan.
Pianist Tian Tian currently serves on the faculty of Oakland University as Associate Professor of Piano and Area Coordinator. She began her piano training at the age of four in her native China. Upon arriving in the United States, she studied with Logan Skelton and quickly began amassing top prizes at national and international competitions. These included 2nd prize at the MTNA Baldwin Junior High school Piano Competition, 2nd prize at the Cooper International Piano Competition (Oberlin), 1st prize at the Idyllwild Arts Academy Young Artist Competition, 2nd prize at the Missouri Southern International Competition, and 3rd place at the Eastman Young Artists International Piano Competition.
She continued her training at the Juilliard School, where she received B.M. and M.M. degrees under the tutelage of Robert McDonald. In the fall 2011 Tian completed a D.M.A. in Piano Performance and Literature with a minor in Chamber Music and Accompanying at the Eastman School of Music, where she was a student of (and served as teaching assistant to) Nelita True.
Tian has presented solo concerts across the US, Canada and China. She has also appeared in music festivals such as Piano Texas, the Gilmore Festival, and Summer Courses with Arie Vardi (Germany). Recent concerto appearances include the Oakland Symphony Orchestra, Windsor Symphony and the Idyllwild Chamber Orchestra. As an avid chamber musician, Tian has performed with the Juilliard Quartet and toured in the US, China, and Korea as a member of the Studzinsky Trio.

Opera Company: Masterclass with Denyce Graves
2025-07-15 16:00 | McKnight Hall, McKnight Hall

Buffalo Day Speaker Series Tony Buttino
2025-07-15 16:45 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall

THE PRESIDENT'S WIFE
2025-07-15 18:00, 2025-07-16 18:00, 2025-07-17 21:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Always the woman behind the man, Bernadette Chirac (Catherine Deneuve) has worked long in her husband Jacques’ shadow. When he attains the presidency of France in 1995, she fully claims the place in the political elite that she believes she deserves. “Deneuve is delicious in a role affectionately crafted for her.” -Thelma Adams, AARP Movies for Grownups “Deneuve doesn’t just play Bernadette…she rewrites the part history forgot.” -Rex Reed, Observer (NR, In French with subtitles. 92m)

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Romantic Elegance
2025-07-15 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Rossen Milanov, conductor
Sterling Elliott, cello
Experience an evening of breathtaking virtuosity and profound emotion as Avery Fisher Career Grant cellist Sterling Elliott brings Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations to life with dazzling elegance and charm. Then, be swept away by the dramatic intensity of Brahms’ Symphony No. 4, a masterpiece of deep passion and soaring melodies. Under the baton of music director Rossen Milanov, this unforgettable concert blends the brilliance of Tchaikovsky’s homage to the classical era with the rich, brooding power of Brahms’ final symphony.
Program:
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98

MATERIALISTS
2025-07-15 20:30, 2025-07-16 15:00, 2025-07-17 18:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
A young, ambitious New York City matchmaker (Dakota Johnson) finds herself torn between the perfect match (Pedro Pascal) and her imperfect ex (Chris Evans) in Past Lives writer/director Celine Song’s masterful new feature. “A romantic film for pragmatists, a pragmatic film for romantics. Opposites attract, and it’s a perfect match.” -Karl Quinn, Sydney Morning Herald “Sparkling, smart and sophisticated—finally, a rom-com for intelligent adults.” -Rafer Guzman, Newsday “Wonderful, in a wistful, elusive way.” -Stephanie Zacharek, TIME Magazine (R, 116m)

Cultural Ethics Series- Leigh-Anne Hendrick
2025-07-16 09:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
“Holocaust and Social Justice Education Program”

Louise Sheiner & Michael R. Strain
2025-07-16 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
As the Chautauqua Lecture Series continues its theme dedicated to “The Future of the American Experiment,” scholars Louise Scheiner and Michael R. Strain will approach this topic drawing on their joint expertise in economic policy. The program is the third in a five-part weeklong series presented at Chautauqua in partnership with the American Enterprise Institute and Brookings Institution, each featuring experts from both organizations.
Louise Sheiner is the Robert S. Kerr Senior Fellow in Economic Studies and policy director for the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at Brookings Institution, where she pursues research on federal and state and local fiscal policy, productivity measurement, demographic change, health policy, and other fiscal and macroeconomic issues.
At Brookings, she is also affiliated with the Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Initiative. Prior to her work at Brookings, she served as a senior economist in the Fiscal Analysis Section for the Research and Statistics Division with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. In her time at the Fed, she was also appointed deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury (1996) and served as senior staff economist for the Council of Economic Advisers (from 1995 to 1996). Before joining the Fed, Sheiner was an economist at the Joint Committee on Taxation. Sheiner is chair of the Bureau of Economic Analysis Advisory Committee.
She received her Ph.D. and master’s degree in economics, as well as an undergraduate degree in biology, from Harvard University.
Michael R. Strain is the director of Economic Policy Studies and the Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute, where his research and writing span labor markets, public finance, social policy, and macroeconomics. He oversees AEI’s work in economic policy, financial markets, international trade and finance, tax and budget policy, welfare economics, health care policy, and related areas.
Strein is the author of The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It). He is the editor or coeditor of Preserving Links in the Pandemic: Policies to Maintain Worker-Firm Attachment in the OECD; What Has Happened to the American Working Class Since the Great Recession?; The U.S. Labor Market: Questions and Challenges for Public Policy; and Economic Freedom and Human Flourishing: Perspectives from Political Philosophy. He was a member of the AEI-Brookings Working Group on Poverty and Opportunity, which published in 2015 the report “Opportunity, Responsibility, and Security: A Consensus Plan for Reducing Poverty and Restoring the American Dream.”
Previously, Strain worked in the Center for Economic Studies at the U.S. Census Bureau and in the macroeconomics research group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University.

Sustainable Business Forum: Protecting Our Waters
2025-07-16 12:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
In a joint forum of the Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative and the Western NY Sustainable Business Roundtable, learn how Western New York businesses are thriving while adopting practices that help protect and restore our waters.

Wajahat Ali with Besheer Mohamed
2025-07-16 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Besheer Mohamed is a Senior Researcher at Pew Research Center with extensive experience studying Muslim American communities. More broadly, his research examines religious identities, beliefs and practices in the United States, with a particular focus on the intersection of religion and race.
He has led public opinion studies on the experiences and attitudes of Muslim Americans, a religious profile of Asian Americans, the religious composition of Hispanic Americans, and faith among Black Americans, among others. He also publishes regularly in scholarly journals and has authored book chapters for Oxford University Press and NYU Press. His insights have been featured in prominent media outlets such as CNN, NPR, Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.
Besheer holds a doctorate in sociology and a master’s degree in Middle East studies from the University of Chicago.
Wajahat Ali is a writer and an exhausted, middle-aged dad who drives a minivan and shops at Costco. In his previous life, he was the author of the play, “The Domestic Crusaders,” an attorney, a co-host of a TV show, and a CNN and NYT contributor.
Currently, he is the author of the memoir, Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American, and editor of The Left Hook Substack. He co-hosts the Democracy-Ish show with Danielle Moodie and American Unhinged with Francesca Fiorentini. He yearns to have abs but he cannot give up Pakistani food, so he has made peace with his dad bod.

African American Heritage House Lecture: Christopher Cameron
2025-07-16 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Christopher Cameron is Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, founding president of the African American Intellectual History Society, and the founding secretary of the Black Humanist Studies Association. His research and teaching interests include early American history, the history of slavery and abolition, and African American religious and intellectual history.
Cameron is the author of To Plead Our Own Cause: African Americans in Massachusetts and the Making of the Antislavery Movement and Black Freethinkers: A History of African American Secularism; he is also the co-editor of Race, Religion, and Black Lives Matter: Essays on a Moment and a Movement and co-editor of New Perspectives on the Black Intellectual Tradition. His current book project, The Faith of the Future: African Americans and Unitarian Universalism, explores the intersection of race and liberal religion dating back to the mid-18th century and the varied ways that liberal theology has informed African American religion and politics in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Cameron received his Bachelor of Arts in history from Keene State College and his Master of Arts and Ph.D. in American History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Piano Faculty Masterclass: Logan Skelton
2025-07-16 16:00 | Sherwood-Marsh 101

Chautauqua Theater Company presents Execution of Justice
2025-07-16 18:00, 2025-07-17 14:00, 2025-07-17 19:30, 2025-07-18 14:00, 2025-07-18 19:30, 2025-07-19 16:00, 2025-07-20 14:00, 2025-07-20 19:30 and 6 more dates | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater

CVA Lecture Series: James Everett Stanley
2025-07-16 18:30 | Hultquist 101, Hultquist 101
CVA Lecture Series: School of Art faculty
James Everett Stanley
James Everett Stanley is a New England-based painter and Associate Professor of Painting at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Massachusetts. He has exhibited his work recently at Sean Horton Presents, New York; Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York; Provincetown Arts Society, Provincetown; EXPO Chicago; Art Basel Miami Beach. A graduate of the MFA program at Columbia University, Stanley is the recipient of fellowships from the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. His work is included in the permanent collection of The Studio Museum in Harlem.

Bandits on the Run
2025-07-16 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
BANDITS ON THE RUN are a musical trio comprised of Adrian Blake Enscoe, Sydney Shepherd, and Regina Strayhorn, known for their distinct combination of cello, guitar, accordion, and found-percussion with sophisticated three-part harmonies and rotating lead vocals. The Brooklyn-based outfit sprang from a chance encounter while busking in NYC’s bustling subways and burst onto the national stage in 2019 when their song, “Love in the Underground,” was featured on the NPR Tiny Desk Contest’s Top Shelf, with the esteemed tastemakers at the station proclaiming, “the band orchestrates a symphony of sound and story through its impressive musicianship and marvelous harmonies.” After recording their 2021 EP, Now Is The Time, with producer Ryan Hadlock (Brandi Carlile, The Lumineers), the Bandits took to the screen, devising a short musical film, Band At The End Of The World, commissioned by Prospect Musicals. Since then, they have continued to explore the nexus of indie-folk music and theatrical storytelling, composing music for the Netflix animated series, Storybots, scoring the movie, The Same Storm, adapting several songs from texts by William Shakespeare for a production of As You Like It, and receiving an NEA grant for a new musical with Prospect Musicals, all the while touring the globe with appearances at the Cambridge Folk Festival, Floydfest, Summerfest Milwaukee, Americanafest, F1 Singapore Grand Prix, Mile of Music, and the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival.
Bandits on the Run are currently working on the stage musical adaptation of the novel What’s Eating Gilbert Grape in association with MCC Theater, alongside actor-musician Christopher Sears and Academy Award Nominee Peter Hedges, who wrote the original book and screenplay.

Chautauqua County Day
2025-07-17 07:00
Explore locally and come to Chautauqua Institution on Chautauqua County Day. Residents of Chautauqua County have free admission and parking* all day. Our Chautauqua County Day includes access to all events in the Amphitheater and Hall of Philosophy that day, beaches, and so much more!
Chautauqua County Day: Featured Events
• Morning Worship (9:15 a.m., Amphitheater): The Rev. Dr. Frank Yamada, Association of Theological Schools
• Morning Lecture (10:45 a.m., Amphitheater): Ian Rowe (American Enterprise Institute) & Rebecca Winthrop (Brookings Institution)
• Chautauqua Theater Company Chats (12:15 p.m., Smith Wilkes Hall) – bring your lunch!
• Afternoon Lecture (2 p.m., Hall of Philosophy): Neha Sahgal, Pew Research Center
• Theater: Execution of Justice** (2:00 p.m., Bratton Theater): **Admission to this event requires purchase of a separate ticket, available at tickets.chq.org
• Chautauqua Opera Company: An afternoon of song (3:15 p.m., Athenaeum Parlor)
• CLSC Author Presentation (3:30 p.m., Hall of Philosophy): Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez: My Side of the River (2025 Chautauqua County Book Read Selection)
• Piano Recital: Jonathan Mamora (4:00 p.m., Lenna Hall)
• Opera Conservatory: Le nozze di Figaro** (6:30 p.m., Fletcher Music Hall): **Admission to this event requires purchase of a separate ticket, available at tickets.chq.org
• Theater: Execution of Justice** (7:30 p.m., Bratton Theater): **Admission to this event requires purchase of a separate ticket, available at tickets.chq.org
• Evening Program (8:15 p.m., Amphitheater): Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Korngold and Dvorak
Please bring proof of residency for entry. Youth 12 and under are always free at Chautauqua!
Tickets are available starting June 6, 2025 by calling the Chautauqua Institution Ticket Office at 716-357-6250.
*Free parking with ticket reservations made by July 12.
**Admission to this event requires purchase of a separate ticket, available at tickets.chq.org
Chautauqua Institution would like to thank our incredible community partners who generously support Chautauqua County Day and the Institution all year around:
Chautauqua Region Community Foundation, Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation, The Winifred Crawford Dibert Foundation, Ralph C. Sheldon Foundation, Jessie Smith Darrah Fund, Hulquist Foundation, The Lenna Foundation, and Wegmans.
Your partnership helps make this special celebration possible, and we’re so grateful for all you do for Chautauqua and our broader community.

Ian Rowe & Rebecca Winthrop
2025-07-17 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Ian Rowe and Rebecca Winthrop have spent their careers in the fields of education and education research. The pair will present in tandem for the Chautauqua Lecture Series, examining “The Future of the American Experiment” through the lenses of education and youth development. The program is the fourth in a five-part weeklong series presented at Chautauqua in partnership with the American Enterprise Institute and Brookings Institution, each featuring experts from both organizations.
Ian Rowe is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on education and upward mobility, family formation and adoption; additionally, he is the cofounder of Vertex Partnership Academies, a network of virtues-based International Baccalaureate high schools; the chairman of the board of Spence-Chapin, a nonprofit adoption services organization; and the cofounder of the National Summer School Initiative. He concurrently serves as a senior visiting fellow at the Woodson Center and a writer for the 1776 Unites Campaign.
Previously, Rowe has served as CEO of Public Prep, a nonprofit network of public charter schools based in the South Bronx and Lower East Side of Manhattan; deputy director of postsecondary success at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; senior vice president of strategic partnerships and public affairs at MTV; director of strategy and performance measurement at the USA Freedom Corps office in the White House; and cofounder and president of Third Millennium Media. Rowe also joined Teach for America in its early days.
The author of Agency: The Four Point Plan (F.R.E.E.) for All Children to Overcome the Victimhood Narrative and Discover Their Pathway to Power, Rowe leads AEI’s FREE Initiative, which aims to cultivate a deeper understanding of how family, religion, education, and entrepreneurship weave together a moral fabric that shapes children.
Rowe earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science in computer science engineering from Cornell University.
Rebecca Winthrop is a senior fellow and director of the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution, where her research focuses on education globally, with special attention to the skills young people need to thrive in work, life, and as constructive citizens. She works to promote quality and relevant education, including exploring how education innovations and family and community engagement can be harnessed to leapfrog progress, particularly for the most marginalized children and youth.
She currently leads the Brookings Family Engagement in Education Network and co-leads the Brookings Community Schools Forward Task Force. She has served as the chair of the U.N. Secretary General’s Global Education First Initiative’s Technical Advisory Group, helping to frame an education vision that focuses on access, quality, and global citizenship. With UNESCO Institute of Statistics, she co-led the Learning Metrics Task Force that involved inputs from education professionals in over 100 countries to identify how to measure what matters in education systems.
Prior to joining Brookings, Winthrop spent 15 years working in the field of education for displaced and migrant communities. As the head of education for the International Rescue Committee, she was responsible for the organization’s education work in over 20 conflict-affected countries.
Winthrop earned her Ph.D. at Columbia University Teachers College; her master’s degree at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, and her bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College.

Neha Sahgal
2025-07-17 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Neha Sahgal is Vice President of Research at Pew Research Center. In this role, she partners with a team of highly skilled and specialized research directors to curate an interdisciplinary research agenda. She also oversees project performance and research staff development.
Neha has a background in multicountry, multilingual and multicultural survey research. Prior to serving the Center in her current role, she headed several marquee research projects such as the survey of religion in India, a 16-country survey on public attitudes toward religion, nationalism and tolerance in Western Europe and a study on religious change in Latin America. She has also served on AAPOR’s standards committee. Neha holds a Ph.D. in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland, and a B.A. in Political Science from the College of Wooster.

Chautauqua Opera Company presents An Afternoon of Song
2025-07-17 15:15 | Athenaeum Parlor, Athenaeum Parlor
Join us for an afternoon of song, featuring our 2025 Young Artists.

Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez
2025-07-17 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle Presentation — My Side of the River: A Memoir by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez
Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez reveals her experience as the U.S. born daughter of immigrants and what happened when, at fifteen, her parents were forced back to Mexico in this captivating and tender memoir.
Born to Mexican immigrants south of the Rillito River in Tucson, Arizona, Elizabeth had the world at her fingertips. She was preparing to enter her freshman year of high school as the number one student when suddenly, her own country took away the most important right a child has: the right to have a family.
When her parents’ visas expired and they were forced to return to Mexico, Elizabeth was left responsible for her younger brother, as well as her education. Determined to break the cycle of being a “statistic,” she knew that even though her parents couldn’t stay, there was no way she could let go of the opportunities the U.S. could provide. Armed with only her passport and sheer teenage determination, Elizabeth became what her school would eventually describe as an unaccompanied homeless youth, one of thousands of underage victims affected by family separation due to broken immigration laws.
For fans of Educated by Tara Westover and The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande, My Side of the River explores separation, generational trauma, and the toll of the American dream. It’s also, at its core, a love story between a brother and a sister who, no matter the cost, is determined to make the pursuit of her brother’s dreams easier than it was for her.
Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez grew up in Tucson, AZ, a daughter of immigrants forced to return to Mexico following complications with their legal status. Despite these tumultuous events, Elizabeth graduated from High School at the top of her class. In 2018, she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Philosophy, Politics, & Economics. While studying at Penn, Elizabeth appeared on NPR’s Latino USA and The Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF) named her as the Scholar of the year in 2017. Elizabeth was also the recipient of multiple awards and fellowships including the U.S. Department of State Gilman Scholarship Program. She was selected to document her experience abroad in the U.K. as a blogger and video correspondent. Also, both Harvard and Stanford’s Business Schools selected Elizabeth to participate in their competitive business programs.

Piano Program Featured Alum Recital: Jonathan Mamora
2025-07-17 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
​Pianist and educator Jonathan Mamora strives to uplift and positively influence others using music as a means for service.
An Indonesian-American and a native of Southern California, Jonathan has served as a church pianist and organist—the result of having been enrolled in piano lessons by his parents for the purpose of becoming a church musician. Jonathan aims to use music as service not only in the church, but also in the community through homes, schools, community centers, and the concert hall.
Jonathan has performed throughout North America, South America, Europe, and Asia, and he is a prize-winner of numerous piano competitions including the Chautauqua Piano Competition in 2022. Jonathan is a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music, studying with Douglas Humpherys, whom he served as studio assistant.

Opera Conservatory: Le nozze di Figaro
2025-07-17 18:30, 2025-07-19 18:30 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall
It’s a wedding, and you’re invited!
A contemporary production of Le Nozze di Figaro reimagines the classic opera in a modern context, blending traditional elements with innovative staging and design and modern dress Set against a backdrop of a sleek, minimalist environment, this production will highlight themes of class struggle and gender dynamics through a contemporary lens. From Figaro and famously sharp banter to the Count’s unsettling attempts to exert power over Susanna, this production will crackle with wit while lifting up ever-relevant themes of inequality, consent and agency in relationships, and gender dynamics. And while no marriage is perfect…that of Mozart’s music and Da Ponte’s text comes exceedingly close in ways brilliant, bawdy, and bold (just as Beaumarchais intended back in 1778). This production invigorates Mozart’s masterpiece, inviting audiences to reflect on its themes within the context of our modern sensibilities. Please join us for this musically sublime tragicomedy exploring life, liberty, and the pursuit of upending the patriarchy.

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Korngold and Dvorak
2025-07-17 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
JoAnn Falletta, conductor
Blake Pouliot, violin
Multiple Grammy Award-winning conductor and Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic JoAnn Falletta joins the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for a luminous evening. Recently named one of the “Fifty Great Conductors,” past and present, by Gramophone Magazine, Falletta is also widely celebrated as the first woman to lead a major American orchestra. Her program with the CSO features the “refined and impassioned” (ArtsAtlanta) Canadian violinist Blake Pouliot in Erich Korngold’s cinematically virtuosic violin concerto. The concert closes with Dvorak’s radiant Symphony No. 6, a masterpiece of sweeping melodies and lively folk rhythms.
Program:
Erich Korngold: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35
Antonin Dvorak: Symphony No. 6 in D major, B.112, Op. 60

Opera Conservatory: Masterclass with Steven Osgood
2025-07-18 10:00 | McKnight Hall, McKnight Hall

Jonah Goldberg & Jonathan Rauch
2025-07-18 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Jonah Goldberg and Jonathan Rauch join the Chautauqua Lecture Series to close a week in partnership with the American Enterprise Institute and Brookings Institution dedicated to “The Future of the American Experiment.” Together in conversation, two of the nation’s leading thinkers and writers on American culture and public policy will discuss strategies to address our overheated, deeply divided politics and broken systems of governance and civic life.
Jonah Goldberg holds the Asness Chair in Applied Liberty at the American Enterprise Institute, where he is also a senior fellow. He writes about political and cultural issues and is concurrently the editor in chief of The Dispatch, a media company he cofounded after leaving National Review in 2019. He is also host of the podcast “The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg.”
At AEI, Goldberg’s research areas include U.S. politics and culture, the media, the conservative movement, and the progressive movement. From 2014 to 2023, he was senior fellow at the National Review Institute, and from 1998 to 2019 was involved in National Review in various capacities, including as founding editor, senior editor, editor-at-large of National Review Online, and as a columnist. From 1994 to 1998 he was senior producer of “Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg,” and from 1992 to 1994 was a research assistant at AEI. Goldberg is the author of three New York Times bestsellers: Suicide of the West; The Tyranny of Clichés; and Liberal Fascism. A graduate of Goucher College, he is a weekly columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and his syndicated column appears in over 100 newspapers nationwide.
Jonathan Rauch is a senior fellow in the Governance Studies program and the author of eight books and many articles on public policy, culture, and government. He is a contributing writer of The Atlantic and recipient of the 2005 National Magazine Award, the magazine industry’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize. His many Brookings publications include the 2021 book The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth, as well as the 2015 ebook Political Realism: How Hacks, Machines, Big Money, and Back-Room Deals Can Strengthen American Democracy. Other books include The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better after 50 and Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America.
Rauch is a contributing editor at National Journal, where he used to be senior writer, and serves on the board of directors for the Institute for American Values. In addition to the National Magazine Award, his honors include the National Headliner Award, the Premio Napoli alla Stampa Estera for his coverage in The Economist of the European Parliament, and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association prize for excellence in opinion writing. He is a graduate of Yale University.

Summer on the Steps with Chautauqua Literary Arts: Saying It Plain: An American Patchwork Book Launch & Reading
2025-07-18 12:15 | Alumni Hall Porch, Alumni Hall Porch

David Campbell with Alan Cooperman
2025-07-18 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
David Campbell is the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame and the director of the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative. His research focuses on civic and political engagement, with particular attention to religion and young people. Campbell’s most recent book is Secular Surge: A New Fault Line in American Politics (with Geoff Layman and John Green), which received the Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. Among his other books is American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us (with Robert Putnam), winner of the award from the American Political Science Association for the best book on government, politics, or international affairs. His work has appeared in a variety of scholarly journals including the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Public Opinion Quarterly, and Daedalus. In addition, he has been featured in publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and—every political scientist’s dream—Cosmopolitan.
Alan Cooperman is director of religion research at Pew Research Center. He is an expert on religion’s role in U.S. politics and has reported on religion in Russia, the Middle East and Europe. He plays a central role in planning the project’s research agenda and writing its reports. Before joining Pew Research Center, he was a national reporter and editor at The Washington Post and a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press and U.S. News & World Report. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1982 and started in journalism at the Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Mass. He is an author of the following Pew reports: Mormons in America, Muslim Americans, the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey, “Nones” on the Rise, and A Portrait of Jewish Americans. He also was the primary editor of Global Christianity and Global Restrictions on Religion. He has appeared on numerous media outlets, including NPR, BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the NewsHour, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, and C-SPAN.

Erie Insurance Panel: Civic Engagement and Partnership for Community Progress
2025-07-18 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Civic Engagement and Partnership for Community Progress:
A glimpse into some bright spots in the snowiest place in America, along beautiful Lake Erie
Active civic participation is vital to building stronger, more resilient communities — and in Erie, Pennsylvania, local efforts are demonstrating how meaningful progress can take root through collaboration and shared purpose. In this panel discussion, experts will explore how educational forums, philanthropic initiatives, and cross-sector partnerships are equipping citizens to actively participate in civic life and strengthen the social fabric of their community. Please join the Presenting Sponsor of Week Four, Erie Insurance, for this inspiring conversation in alignment with the week’s theme, The Future of the American Experiment.
Moderator
Janae Alexander
Inclusion & Belonging Consultant
Erie Insurance Group
Panelists
Nick Cianci
Director of Investments
Hoffman United
Chelsea Oliver
Director of Marketing and Community Engagement
Jefferson Educational Society
Dorothy Leemhuis
Senior Vice President of Actuarial and Chief Actuary
Erie Insurance Group
Nick Cianci
Nick Cianci has served in a leadership role with the Emerging Erie Fund (EEF) since 2022, chairing the group from 2024 to 2025. Affiliated with the Erie Community Foundation, EEF is a group of emerging leaders dedicated to strengthening Erie’s “people and places” through collective giving. Since 2019, EEF has grown from 15 members awarding a $5,000 annual grant to 125 members awarding a $100,000 annual grant.
Professionally, Nick is the Director of Investments at Hoffman United, a rapidly growing, Erie-based real estate development and investment firm with commercial and residential holdings across seven states. Previously, he worked in major gift philanthropy at Hamot Health Foundation (UPMC Hamot).
Nick holds dual bachelor’s degrees from Mercyhurst University and a master’s degree from Edinboro University. He lives in Erie with his wife and two sons and enjoys competing in triathlons.
Chelsea Oliver
After earning a dual bachelor’s degree from Seton Hill University and a master’s degree from Point Park University, Chelsea Oliver made what she thought would be a short-term move to Corry, Pennsylvania — a town she had never heard of. Six months turned into ten years, as she quickly immersed herself in the community and developed a deep appreciation for the region, its potential for growth, and its people.
During her decade in Corry, Chelsea supported small businesses and nonprofits through marketing consulting, social media management, and web design. She played an active role in local community development, serving on the original steering committee for the Corry Community Strategic Plan, and holding leadership and board roles with Impact Corry (as chairperson), the Corry Higher Education Council, the Corry Area Arts Council, and the Northwest PA Trail Association. She also served on the Corry City Council and co-founded the Corry Young Professionals Network.
In summer 2024, Chelsea relocated to downtown Erie, where she continues her commitment to community through her service on the boards of Erie’s Black Wall Street and the Crime Victims Center. She also serves as the Director of Marketing and Community Engagement at the Jefferson Educational Society (JES).
Chelsea’s dedication has earned her numerous recognitions, including Corry’s 2019 Volunteer of the Year Award and a spot in the Erie Reader’s 2022 class of 40 Under 40. She is also a 2021 Jefferson Civic Leadership Academy graduate and a 2024 JES Raimy Fellow.
When she’s not working or volunteering, Chelsea can be found exploring her new neighborhood and the local trails, relaxing with friends at a brewery, or reading — most often a memoir — or writing her own.
Dorothy Leemhuis
Dorothy Leemhuis joined Erie Insurance in 2010 as an actuarial analyst. In her current role as Senior Vice President of actuarial and chief actuary, she directs and oversees the company’s actuarial policies, programs and activities for personal and commercial lines of business.
Dorothy is a Case Western University alumna with a bachelor’s degree in statistics. She was part of the inaugural graduating class of the Thomas B. Hagen Fellowship Program and a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society. She also serves on the board for CROP Hunger Walk.
Janae Alexander
Janae Alexander joined Erie Insurance in 2021 as a Strategic Communications Specialist and now serves as an inclusion and belonging consultant in the Sustainability and Community Development department. She has over a decade of experience in strategic communications, media relations, story development and community engagement.
Janae is an alumna of Gannon University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism communications and a master’s degree in strategic communication. She also graduated from Erie Insurance’s Thomas B. Hagen Fellowship Program in 2023 and NAAWLI, the National African American Women’s Leadership Institute, in 2024.
Janae stays engaged in her local community by serving as a board member for both Gannon University’s Alumni Association and the Erie Cancer Wellness Center. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, traveling with her husband, and boosting endorphins as an instructor at Jazzercise Erie Fitness Center.

JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE
2025-07-18 17:30, 2025-07-19 21:00, 2025-07-20 14:40, 2025-07-21 18:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Agathe (Camille Rutherford), is hopelessly clumsy yet charming and full of contradictions as well as desperately single. Her dream is to experience love akin to a Jane Austen novel and her ultimate aspiration is to become a writer. When she is Invited to a Jane Austen Writers’ Residency in England, she finds she must confront her insecurities. “A gentle treat, sure to leave any book-loving viewer happy.” -Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times “A celebration of bibliophilia and cinephilia alike!” -Ann Hornaday, Washington Post (R, 94)

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING
2025-07-18 20:00, 2025-07-19 17:15, 2025-07-20 17:15, 2025-07-21 20:30 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Our lives are the sum of our choices. Tom Cruise is Ethan Hunt in this sentimental sendoff that accomplishes its mission with a characteristic flair for the impossible. “It’s thrilling, funny, absurd in the best way. It’s pure spectacle, and that’s the entire reason these movies exist.” -Karl Quinn, Sydney Morning Herald “The last hour is exhilarating; there are scenes that will make you lean forward in your seat, amazed at what you’re seeing.” -Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle “A thrilling jolt of pure summer fun.” -Rafer Guzman, Newsday (PG-13, 169m)

Straight No Chaser
2025-07-18 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
If the phrase “male a cappella group” conjures up an image of students in blue blazers, ties, and khakis singing traditional college songs on ivied campuses… think again. Straight No Chaser (SNC) are neither strait-laced nor straight-faced, but neither are they vaudeville-style kitsch. They have emerged as a phenomenon with a massive fanbase and a long list of accomplishments including 2 RIAA Gold Certified albums, over 1.5 million concert tickets sold, over 1 billion streams on Pandora, and over 2 million albums sold worldwide. Straight No Chaser is the real deal, the captivating sound of nine unadulterated human voices coming together to make extraordinary music that is moving people in a fundamental sense… and with a sense of humor.

Torah Study
2025-07-19 09:30 | Hurlbut Marion Lawrance

Contemporary Issues Forum: Liesbet Steer
2025-07-19 15:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Liesbet Steer is a senior adviser at the system change company Systemiq and board chair at the global affairs think tank ODI Global. She’s also a senior adviser for Gorongosa National Park — a preserved area in the Great Rift Valley of central Mozambique — and for the Chautauqua Women’s Club will discuss “From the Red River Delta to the Great Rift Valley: How East Asia’s Miracle Can Inform Africa’s” in her Contemporary Issues Forum presentation.
With more than 20 years of experience in international development research and policy, Steer has been a fellow at the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution and director of the Overseas Development Institute’s (ODI) flagship program on Development Progress, financed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
As a fellow of ODI’s Centre for Aid and Public Expenditure, she also worked on issues of development finance, aid effectiveness, and the production and use of impact evaluations. Between 1997 and 2007, Liesbet lived and worked in Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos and Cambodia. She directed the economic reform program for the Asia Foundation in Indonesia, a technical assistance and research program on local economic development and growth. She also worked with the World Bank and IFC on private sector reform and the design and evaluation of SME development programs in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

School of Music Faculty Spotlight Series: Chautauqua Faculty String Quartet
2025-07-19 16:15 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Renowned musicians Aaron Berofsky (violin), Kathryn Votapek (violin), Lynne Ramsey (viola), and Felix Wang (cello) unite for a stunning performance of Mozart’s String Quartet in A Major, K. 499 and Dvořák’s String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 51. Don’t miss this extraordinary opportunity to witness the debut performance of this newly formed quartet, promising an unforgettable musical experience.

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and Music School Festival Orchestra: Mahler's Resurrection Symphony
2025-07-19 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Rossen Milanov, conductor
Timothy Muffitt, School of Music artistic director
Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus
Adam Luebke, music director
Emily Finke, soprano
Rosamund Dyer, mezzo-soprano
The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and Music School Festival Orchestra, under the baton of Maestro Rossen Milanov, join forces with the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus for Mahler’s profound ‘Resurrection’ Symphony in a special side-by-side performance. This monumental work, one of Mahler’s most emotionally charged compositions, is a masterful journey from darkness to transcendent light and hope. Of the culminating moments Mahler wrote: “A feeling of overwhelming love fills us with blissful knowledge and illuminates our existence.”
Program:
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C minor, “Resurrection”

The Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers
2025-07-20 10:45, 2025-07-21 09:15, 2025-07-23 09:15, 2025-07-24 09:15, 2025-07-25 09:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
The Rev. Canon Dr. Stephanie Spellers is one of the Episcopal Church’s leading thinkers around 21st-century ministry and mission. The author of The Church Cracked Open: Disruption, Decline and New Hope for Beloved Community and Radical Welcome: Embracing God, The Other and the Spirit of Transformation, she recently wrapped up nearly a decade as canon to the Episcopal Church’s Presiding Bishop Michael Curry. She currently assists at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in New York and is at work on a new book exploring what nonreligious Americans (the “Nones” and “Dones”) can teach us about the future of faith.
Prior to her service with Bishop Curry, she directed mission and evangelism work at General Theological Seminary and as a canon in the Diocese of Long Island; founded The Crossing, a ground-breaking emerging church within St. Paul’s Cathedral in Boston; and led numerous church-wide renewal efforts.
A native of Frankfort, Kentucky, and a graduate of both Episcopal Divinity School and Harvard Divinity School, she received an honorary doctorate from the General Theological Seminary in New York City in 2018.
Spellers makes her home today in New York’s Harlem neighborhood with her husband Albert and their two chaotic cats.

"Unbecoming: New Works by Yael Braha Created in Shigaraki, Japan" Exhibition - July 20–August 19
2025-07-20 13:00 | Strohl Art Center 2nd Floor
“Unbecoming: New Works by Yael Braha Created in Shigaraki, Japan” exhibition runs July 20–August 19. Yael Braha designs objects with bold and stylized surface patterns, which feature optical and geometrical illusions by integrating innovative digital fabrication with traditional ceramic processes. The creative intention is to challenge and expand viewer’s perceptual assumptions when experiencing a minimalist yet complex functional design object. The way that patterns are framed within a form, where they are cut, assembled, and overlapped, alludes to the process of film editing, assembling separate but related parts to create a sequence that is larger than the sum of their parts. All work shown has been created during her residency in Shigaraki Japan. This exhibition is generously sponsored by Friends of CVA. Curated by Judy Barie.

Chautauqua Piano Program Showcase
2025-07-20 15:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
The Chautauqua Piano Program Showcase
Sunday, July 20, 2025
3:00 pm
Amphitheater
Nicola Melville, Chair
Alexander Kobrin, 2025 Heintzelman Family Artistic Advisor
Pianists from the Chautauqua School of Music present a dazzling program of works for one and two pianos, with repertoire drawn from virtuoso works of the great classical composers and arrangements of popular and familiar tunes. Don’t miss your chance to see the next generation of talent on the Amphitheater stage today!
The Chautauqua Piano Program is a highly selective and dynamic five-week program for 20 pianists, ages 18–28. Combining a world-class roster of resident and guest faculty with unmatched practice and performance facilities, the program is designed to inspire young pianists from all over the globe. Students have solo and chamber music performance opportunities, plentiful private lessons, faculty-led discussions and master classes focused on advanced pianistic growth and building a career path.

"Unbecoming: New Works by Yael Braha Created in Shigaraki, Japan" Opening Reception
2025-07-20 15:00 | Strohl Art Center 2nd Floor
Exhibition runs July 20-–August 19. Yael Braha designs objects with bold and stylized surface patterns, which feature optical and geometrical illusions by integrating innovative digital fabrication with traditional ceramic processes. The creative intention is to challenge and expand viewer’s perceptual assumptions when experiencing a minimalist yet complex functional design object. The way that patterns are framed within a form, where they are cut, assembled, and overlapped, alludes to the process of film editing, assembling separate but related parts to create a sequence that is larger than the sum of their parts. All work shown has been created during her residency in Shigaraki Japan. This exhibition is generously sponsored by Friends of CVA. Curated by Judy Barie.

Tempany Deckert-Donovan, Brian Donovan, Nikki Shannon Smith, and Ann Marie Stephens
2025-07-20 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Writers’ Center Faculty Reading — Week Five — Featuring Tempany Deckert-Donovan (Fiction), Brian Donovan (Young Writers’ Institute), Nikki Shannon Smith (Young Writers’ Institute), and Ann Marie Stephens (Young Writers’ Institute)
Tempany Deckert Donovan has eighteen middle grade novels published by Scholastic, Macmillan and Random House in her native Australia. Now residing in the United States, she teaches novel writing for the Writers’ Program at UCLA. An actress, author and playwright, she’s been nominated and won various awards in all mediums and loves nothing more than talking about story. She specializes in zero criticism teaching, a technique that allows students to write fearlessly and with joy.
Brian Donovan is an award-winning performer, filmmaker, and speaker. He is the director of the acclaimed documentary, Kelly’s Hollywood (www.kellyshollywood.com), and has been a professional actor (www.briandonovan.org) for more than 30 years in film, television, and radio. In addition, Brian is the founder and executive director of the Los Angeles Repertory Theater (www.larepertorytheater.com) since 1994, responsible for producing and directing more than a hundred inner-city high school workshops and live shows.
Nikki Shannon Smith is an educator, presenter, and the award-winning author of 24 published and forthcoming children’s books. Her titles include the middle grade novel, STRANDED (Scholastic), OUR BEAUTIFUL COLORS (Little Golden Books), and the board book series Brown Baby Parade (Crown Books/Random House). Nikki is also the author of the Azaleah Lane chapter book series and five titles in Capstone’s middle grade series, Girls Survive. LENA AND THE BURNING OF GREENWOOD: A TULSA RACE MASSACRE SURVIVAL STORY won the 2023 Oklahoma Book Award. Her upcoming titles include LETTERS TO MISTY: HOW TO MOVE THROUGH LIFE WITH CONFIDENCE AND GRACE co-written with Misty Copeland (Aladdin, May 2025), DEEP SECRETS: A TITANIC NOVEL (Scholastic, Spring 2026), and PRINCE (A Little Golden Book Biography, 2026). Nikki’s writing is informed not only by her research, but by her childlike curiosity, a love of words, and thirty years as an elementary school teacher. She is from Oakland, California and is represented by Jennifer March Soloway of Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Learn more about Nikki at https://nikkishannonsmith.com/home-page
Ann Marie Stephens is the author of numerous picture books including the Arithmechicks series, the CATastrophe! series, and more. Her books have been translated into several languages and have been featured on lists such as Fuse #8, Children’s Book Council, and Hot Off the Press. She is a retired, award-winning elementary teacher with over 30 years in the classroom. Ann Marie’s poetry and literacy work has been featured in Bon Appetit Magazine and on NPR. She is represented by Emily Mitchell at Wernick & Pratt Agency. Ann Marie lives in Virginia and can be found at https://www.annmariestephensbooks.com/

Organ Tour
2025-07-20 17:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater

Sacred Song Service - An Old-Fashioned Hymn Sing
2025-07-20 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater

CHQ Mystic Heart: Mateo Mortellaro
2025-07-21 07:45, 2025-07-22 07:45, 2025-07-23 07:45, 2025-07-24 07:45, 2025-07-25 07:45 | Presbyterian Chapel
Taking a general and non-sectarian approach to Buddhism, Mateo Mortellaro (Konchok Tsering Tengye) has years of experience leading meditation and teaching Buddhist philosophy. Mateo started his spiritual journey early in life practicing Zen Buddhism, eventually shifting focus to the Tibetan tradition, primarily within the Drikung ,Kagyu and Sakya schools.
Mateo’s main teacher is His Eminence Garchen Rinpoche, the world-renowned Buddhist master and Yogi. While his main practice and personal approach is of the Buddhist tradition, Mateo also follows the rich and eclectic teachings of Baba Ram Dass, giving instructions using language and methods that are accessible to Western students of all levels of experience.
Mateo has been fortunate to receive teachings and instructions directly from masters such as H.H the Sakya Gongma Trichen Rinpoche,H.E Garchen Rinpoche, H.E Bardor Tulku Rinpoche, and Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche. Other influential teachers include His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh, and Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
Mateo is also the founder of KTT Dharma, which is aimed at making spiritual teachings available to those interested through media sharing, interviews, his writing, and teachings.

Opera Conservatory: Masterclass with John Holiday
2025-07-21 10:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Erin McLaughlin & David K. Young
2025-07-21 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
For more than 100 years, The Conference Board has existed as a nonprofit business membership and research organization, working at the intersection of business performance and societal advancement; among its areas of focus and expertise is sustainable capitalism. To open the Chautauqua Lecture Series week on “Innovation in Capitalism: How to Meet 21st-Century Challenges?,” Erin McLaughlin and David K. Young — two of The Conference Board’s leading experts on the economy and economic development — will discuss not just sustainable capitalism, but their perspectives on the importance of sustaining capitalism, and how The Conference Board is leading this work.
Erin McLaughlin is a senior economist at The Conference Board’s Economy, Strategy and Finance (ESF) Center. Within ESF, McLaughlin focuses on a new area of research for the organization: energy, infrastructure and environment.
McLaughlin joined The Conference Board in 2022 after five years with the American Council of Engineering Companies, where she was vice president of private market resources. In that role, she led the council’s efforts in analyzing economic and market activities, as well as connected policy implications — such as from 2021’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Previously, McLaughlin spent 10 years with Dewberry, a large engineering and professional services firm, and was also National Federal Market Leader at global architecture firm HOK.
McLaughlin holds a Master of Science in transportation (planning concentration) from the University of New Orleans, as well as an MBA from Marymount University and a Bachelor of Arts in American civilization (urban studies concentration) from George Washington University. In addition to completing Oxford University’s Infrastructure, Development and Finance course, she has a Certificate in economic measurement from the National Association for Business Economics and a Certificate in mitigation planning from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Emergency Management Institute.
David K. Young is president of the Committee for Economic Development, the public policy center of The Conference Board.
Previously, Young was chief executive officer of Oxford Analytica and responsible for the company’s global strategy and business operations. Founded in 1975, Oxford Analytica is a leading geopolitical and macroeconomic analysis and advisory firm working with a range of governments, multilateral organizations and multinational companies to navigate critical global issues impacting businesses, governments and society. Prior to his time at Oxford Analytica, Young was a management consultant at Atos, where he advised senior executives on how best to achieve business objectives by leveraging emerging technologies, and a director at an international charity. He has co-founded a cloud-based, mobile payment company and a boutique due diligence firm, and advises multiple early-stage and not-for-profit organizations.
Young graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in government from The College of William and Mary, a master’s degree in international security from the University of London, and an MBA from The McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.

CLSC Book Discussion
2025-07-21 12:15 | Alumni Hall Porch, Alumni Hall Porch
Presenters Emily Novak and Mary Pat McFarland will lead a community discussion on our Week Five CLSC selection Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Evolution by Cat Bohannon

Auden Schendler - Author of Terrible Beauty, Reckoning with Climate Complicity and Rediscovering Our Soul.
2025-07-21 12:30 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Auden Schendler spent twenty-six years running sustainability programs at Aspen One, which operates ski resorts, hotels, restaurants, and retail stores. He focuses on scale solutions to climate change, including clean-energy development, policy, advocacy, movement building, and activism.
Along with Protect Our Winters, where he served on the board for a decade, he is working to mobilize the outdoor industry as a political force. Previously a research associate at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), he is author of the new book Terrible Beauty: Reckoning with Climate Complicity and Rediscovering Our Soul (November, 2024) and Getting Green Done: Hard Truths from the Front Lines of the Sustainability Revolution, which climatologist James Hansen called “an antidote to greenwash.”
He was named a “climate innovator” by Time magazine and a “climate saver” by the EPA. Auden served on Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission, where he developed state climate policy, and between 2016 and 2020, he was elected to the town council of Basalt, Colorado.
An avid outdoorsman and “dirtbag,” he has climbed Denali, North America’s highest peak; kayaked the Grand Canyon in winter; and twice ascended Mount Rainier’s Liberty Ridge: the first time terrified, the second competently.
He has worked as a burger flipper, Bobcat driver, medic on a rural ambulance service, a Forest Service goose-nest island builder in Alaska, auction junk sorter, gas station attendant, Outward Bound instructor, high school English and math teacher, ski instructor, and low-income housing weatherization technician.
A graduate of Stuyvesant High School and Bowdoin College, he lives in Basalt, Colorado, with his wife Ellen and children Willa and Elias.

Jonathan Lee Walton
2025-07-21 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Jonathan Lee Walton, Ph.D., is a social ethicist, religious educator, and influential scholar known for engaging American evangelical traditions. On January 1, 2023, he became the 8th president of Princeton Theological Seminary.
He is the author of two critically acclaimed books, Watch This! The Ethics and Aesthetics of Black Televangelism (NYU Press) and A Lens of Love: Reading the Bible in Its World for Our World (Westminster John Knox Press). Dr. Walton has also contributed to over a dozen journal articles, chapters, and essays in prestigious academic publications.
His insights have been featured in national and international media outlets, including the New York Times, CNN, Time Magazine, and the BBC. Before his appointment at Princeton Seminary, he served as the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church of Harvard University. Additionally, he was Dean of the School of Divinity and held the Presidential Chair in Religion & Society at Wake Forest University.
Dr. Walton earned his Ph.D. and Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and his BA from Morehouse College, where he was honored with the distinguished Benjamin Elijah Mays Alumni Award in 2016. He also received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Wake Forest University in 2015.
He is married to Cecily Cline Walton, a children’s book author, and they are parents to three children, residing in Princeton, NJ. Dr. Walton’s life and work continue to inspire academic and public dialogues on ethics, religion, and societal challenges, reflecting his dedication to scholarship and moral leadership.

Open Forums with Presidential Search Firm
2025-07-21 15:30, 2025-07-22 08:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Join representatives of the presidential search firm Heidrick & Struggles for a conversation about the qualities and characteristics of Chautauqua’s next president. All Chautauquans are invited to attend.
Nominations and requests for information about the role may be sent to Heidrick & Struggles at: ChautauquaPresident@heidrick.com

Chautauqua Chamber Music: Poiesis Quartet
2025-07-21 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Founded 2022, the Poiesis Quartet is the 2023 Grand Prize winner of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Within their first year playing together, they also received Fischoff’s Senior Strings Gold Medal and the Lift Every Voice prizes, and Gold Medal and BIPOC Prize at the 2023 St. Paul String Quartet Competition. As a string quartet made up of inter- and multi-disciplinary young artists, Poiesis seeks to program music of all styles and genres and expand the traditional quartet setting with an emphasis on platforming works by emerging and underrepresented composers. The Poiesis Quartet strives to create unique moments of synchronicity, sensitivity, and verve in each performance.
Program
Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in D major, Op. 71, No. 2
Kevin Lau: String Quartet No. 7 (World Premiere)
Sky Macklay: Many, Many Cadences
Béla Bartók: String Quartet No. 5

Chautauqua School of Dance with the Music School Festival Orchestra
2025-07-21 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Chautauqua School of Dance presents an outstanding mixed repertoire evening of new and established works, masterfully performed by the Music Student Festival Orchestra. This performance will feature the most exceptional young talent in the country. Under the leadership of Sasha Janes, the school continues its long tradition of excellence as a top-tier summer training program focused on bringing the next generation of dance stars from the studio to the stage.

The Rev. Canon Dr. Stephanie Spellers
2025-07-22 09:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater

Marcella Kanfer Rolnick & Mark Smucker
2025-07-22 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Continuing Chautauqua’s weeklong exploration of “Innovation in Capitalism: How to Meet 21st-Century Challenges?,” leaders of two storied American companies come into conversation to explore the phenomenon of multi-generational family leadership and the impact of family businesses on the economy and capitalism. Marcella Kanfer Rolnick and Mark Smucker are top executives at GOJO Industries, Inc., and The J.M. Smucker Company, respectively. In this conversation, GOJO and Smucker will serve as two case study companies that have survived and thrived for decades — GOJO since 1946 and Smucker since 1897. Informed by the experiences of these two successful companies and the insights of their family-led leaders, we’ll explore what it will take to succeed in the private sector over the next 75 years.
As executive chair and the third generation of family leadership of GOJO Industries, Inc., Marcella Kanfer Rolnick focuses on vision-setting, long-term strategy, sound governance, and stewardship of the family values and culture that have propelled GOJO to success. Keys to that success: always seeking possibilities for making the world better; working on the forefront of new thinking and innovation; being adaptable in a fast-changing world; team-based co-creation; and non-stop learning.
Marcella was Vice Chair of GOJO from 2007 to May 2018, when she became executive chair. Previously, she worked in several areas of GOJO, including production, R&D, market research, and market development. Marcella helped lead the launch of Purell Hand Sanitizer in the consumer market and then established the company’s initial e-business capability and digital strategy in the late 1990s. Outside of GOJO, she had early- and mid-career roles within a consulting firm, a multi-media publisher, and a boutique investment company. She also co-leads Walnut Ridge, a family office that supports the business, investment, non-profit philanthropic and family goals, and activities of the Kanfer family.
Marcella serves on a wide variety of nonprofit and for-profit boards, including the Advisory Board of the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit at Case Western Reserve University, Lippman Kanfer Family Foundation, and Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, which she chairs. She earned her MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and her B.A. from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs.
Mark Smucker is only the sixth CEO in The J.M. Smucker Company’s 127-plus-year history; he also serves as chair of the company’s board. Under his leadership, Smucker has strengthened the company’s position as a leading manufacturer of beloved products while expanding its role as a world-class marketer of popular brands across growth categories. This success has allowed the company to enhance its partnerships with leading retailers, meet the evolving needs of consumers, and increase value for shareholders.
Inspired by Mark’s devotion to being relentlessly consumer-focused, Smucker has adopted a stronger concentration on agility to meet emerging needs. This is reflected in the company’s investment in data analysis and market intelligence to better predict consumer behavior; corporate strategy, to identify new growth opportunities; and insights and sales, to expand distribution and ensure its products are conveniently available to consumers. As Smucker has grown, Mark has championed and evolved the culture, guided by the Company’s Basic Beliefs and Our Commitment to Each Other, that instills pride in employees while creating a positive, exciting atmosphere to attract new talent.
In addition to its leadership as a business and employer, Smucker has enhanced its position as a responsible organization. Mark has built upon the company’s rich history of corporate responsibility by championing sustainable practices, a commitment to responsible sourcing, and a passion for supporting the communities in which Smucker operates.

Protecting our National Parks and Monuments: How climate change and development threaten clean air, water, and public access to America’s most sacred lands.
2025-07-22 12:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Erin Sprague is the CEO of Protect our Winters (POW), where she leads the outdoor movement for climate action. Previously, Erin built brands in the outdoor industry as the Chief Brand Officer at Aspen Skiing Company; VP of Marketing at Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Sport; and Global Head of Women’s Brand and Product at Specialized Bicycles. Most recently, Erin has worked with leaders from Google and Nest to help build climate tech start-ups tackling food waste and heat pump adoption. Erin started her career in finance and public affairs at The Blackstone Group, and graduated from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Harvard College.
Erin grew up in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York where she raced Nordic skiing, cross-country running, and hiked with her family most weekends. She previously Chaired the Board of Protect our Winters and started a non-profit called In the Running to support youth fitness initiatives while setting a World Record as the Youngest Woman to Run a Marathon on all Seven Continents. She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and two daughters, who are already beating her up and down most mountains.
Protect our Winters (POW) has become the leading outdoor movement for climate action. Founded by professional snowboarder Jeremy Jones in 2007, they are led by inspirational athletes and brands in running, cycling, snow sports, and climbing. They advocate for renewable energy, public lands for recreation, and are a trusted source of cross partisan information on climate change. They are currently building community hubs for outdoor recreation and climate action throughout the United States.

CHQ Mystic Heart: Mateo Mortellaro
2025-07-22 12:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions
Taking a general and non-sectarian approach to Buddhism, Mateo Mortellaro (Konchok Tsering Tengye) has years of experience leading meditation and teaching Buddhist philosophy. Mateo started his spiritual journey early in life practicing Zen Buddhism, eventually shifting focus to the Tibetan tradition, primarily within the Drikung ,Kagyu and Sakya schools.
Mateo’s main teacher is His Eminence Garchen Rinpoche, the world-renowned Buddhist master and Yogi. While his main practice and personal approach is of the Buddhist tradition, Mateo also follows the rich and eclectic teachings of Baba Ram Dass, giving instructions using language and methods that are accessible to Western students of all levels of experience.
Mateo has been fortunate to receive teachings and instructions directly from masters such as H.H the Sakya Gongma Trichen Rinpoche,H.E Garchen Rinpoche, H.E Bardor Tulku Rinpoche, and Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche. Other influential teachers include His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh, and Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
Mateo is also the founder of KTT Dharma, which is aimed at making spiritual teachingavailable to those interested through media sharing, interviews, his writing, and teachings.

Chautauqua Opera Company Opera Invasion: So You Think You’re Louder Than An Opera Singer
2025-07-22 12:30 | Bestor Plaza, Bestor Plaza

Diane H. Winston
2025-07-22 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Diane Winston is Professor of Journalism and Communication at the University of Southern California, where she holds the Knight Chair in Media and Religion. A former religion reporter, she received a PhD from Princeton University where she focused on American evangelicalism.
Her monographs and edited collections include Righting the American Dream: How the Media Mainstreamed Reagan’s Evangelical Vision, Red-Hot and Righteous: The Urban Religion of The Salvation Army, Religion in Los Angeles: Innovation, Diversity and Experimentation, Religion and Reality Television: Faith in Late Capitalism and Small Screen, Big Picture: Television and Lived Religion. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, and The Baltimore Sun among other media outlets.

Hebrew Congregation Scholarship Recital
2025-07-22 15:15 | Everett Jewish Life Center, Everett Jewish Life Center

Heritage Lecture Series - Angela G. Ray
2025-07-22 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
As part of the Oliver Archives Center’s 2025 Heritage Lecture Series, Angela G. Ray will present “The Lyceum and Chautauqua: Cooperative Learning in Nineteenth Century America”.
Angela G. Ray is Associate Professor in the Communication Studies Department at Northwestern University. Her scholarship and teaching focus on rhetorical analysis and rhetorical history, with specialties in nineteenth-century U.S. popular education and social reform. Her book “The Lyceum and Public Culture in the Nineteenth-Century United States” won awards from the American Forensic Association, the National Communication Association, and the Rhetoric Society of America. She is editor of Free Black Charlestonians in Debate: The Complete Proceedings of the Clionian Debating Society, 1847–1858 and coeditor, with Paul Stob, of Thinking Together: Lecturing, Learning, and Difference in the Long Nineteenth Century. Her scholarship has also appeared in book chapters and journals emphasizing communication, history, and language and literature.

Piano Program Faculty Lecture-Recital: José Ramón Méndez. Spanish Piano Music
2025-07-22 16:00 | Sherwood-Marsh 101

THE LIFE OF CHUCK
2025-07-22 17:45, 2025-07-23 20:35, 2025-07-24 20:35 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
From childhood to adulthood, Charles “Chuck” Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) experiences the wonder of love, the heartbreak of loss, and the multitudes contained within all of us in director Mike Flanagan’s life-affirming, genre-bending film. “Feels like the coziest of blankets enveloping you in the theater. However, you should expect a few jolts of static…this touching, beautiful film is based on a novella by Stephen King.” -Odie Henderson, Boston Globe “A story of profound humanity, ultimately spirit-expanding.” -Nell Minow, Movie Mom (R, 110m)

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Opera & Pops
2025-07-22 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Stuart Chafetz, conductor
Steven Osgood, General & Artistic Director of Chautauqua Opera Company
Chautauqua Opera Company Apprentice and Studio Artists
Chautauqua Opera Company Apprentice and Studio Artists join Stuart Chafetz, Principal Pops Conductor, and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for the much-anticipated annual Opera & Pops concert. This popular summer event showcases Chautauqua Opera’s young artists in music from Opera, Operetta and Broadway.

OCEAN WITH DAVID ATTENBOROUGH
2025-07-22 20:35, 2025-07-23 18:00, 2025-07-24 14:30 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
David Attenborough takes viewers on a breathtaking journey showing there is nowhere more vital for our survival, more full of life, wonder, or surprise, than the ocean. The celebrated broadcaster and filmmaker reveals how his lifetime has coincided with the great age of ocean discovery. Stunning, immersive cinematography showcases the wonder of life under the seas and exposes the realities and challenges facing our ocean as never before. “Environmental film-making at its most powerful .” -James Jackson, The Times UK (PG, 95m)

Mihir A. Desai
2025-07-23 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Mihir A. Desai is the Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance at Harvard Business School and a professor of law at Harvard Law School. He joins Chautauqua’s week on “Innovation in Capitalism: How to Respond to 21st-Century Challenges?” with an examination of financial markets — particularly how recent years have seen much different results than what market watchers might have typically expected, and what that says for the immediate and long-term future.
Desai’s areas of expertise include tax policy, international finance, and corporate finance, and his academic publications have appeared in leading economics, finance and law journals. His work has emphasized the appropriate design of tax policy in a globalized setting, the links between corporate governance and taxation, and the internal capital markets of multinational firms. His research has been cited in The Economist, BusinessWeek, The New York Times and several other publications. He is a research associate in the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Public Economics and Corporate Finance Programs, and served as the co-director of the NBER’s India program.
Desai’s general interest publications include opinion pieces on varied topics, including tax policy and the effects of globalization on domestic welfare, in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Tax Notes and The New York Times. He has also written for practitioners in the Harvard Business Reviewon the role of the global CFO, on how to reform the U.S. tax system, and how changing incentive systems have contributed to the degradation of American competitiveness. He has testified several times to Congressional bodies, including most recently to the Senate Finance Committee on corporate tax reform and inversions.

Chautauqua’s Winter Recreation Economy in a Changing Climate
2025-07-23 12:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Our forum features a distinguished panel, keynoted by Erin Sprague, CEO of Protect Our Winters (POW) and including Auden Schendler, who for over a quarter century served as senior vice president of sustainability at Aspen One; Barb Pump Executive Director of the Ellicottville Chamber of Commerce; Brian Pender President of the Mayville Chamber of Commerce; and Bill Ward Board President of Chautauqua County Rails to Trails and Chair of the Chautauqua County Visitors Bureau.

CLSC Young Readers Book Discussion
2025-07-23 12:15 | Alumni Hall Porch, Alumni Hall Porch
Presenters Mary Kay Szwejbka and Charlotte Cohen will lead a community discussion on our Week Four CLSC Young Readers selection Stranded by Nikki Shannon Smith and Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

"Intersections & Diversions" Exhibition - July 23–August 20
2025-07-23 13:00 | Strohl Art Center: Main Galleries
These works interrogate the ways in which humans use the grid to build, organize, and connect. Using a range of both rigid and pliable materials, they suggest growth and imply the metaphorical repeating of patterns. A softness balances the collective gridwork structures through curves, glitches, and loose threads. From circuit boards to city streets, we can find connections between acts of mapping, protecting, and testing boundaries. Curated by Erika Diamond.
Artists: Paolo Arao, Thomas Campbell, Lisa Corinne Davis, Kimberly English, Adam Grinovich, Peter Christian Johnson, Erica Lord, Ellen Ramsey, Jayoung Yoon

Musa al- Gharbi
2025-07-23 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Musa al-Gharbi is a sociologist and assistant professor in the School of Communication and Journalism at Stony Brook University.
His research primarily focuses on the political economy of knowledge production and the social life of scholarly and journalistic outputs. He is a columnist for The Guardian, and his writing has also appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, and more. al-Gharbi’s first book, We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite, was published by Princeton University Press in October 2024.

"Intersections & Diversions" Exhibition Opening Reception
2025-07-23 15:00 | Strohl Art Center: Main Galleries
Exhibition runs July 23–August 20. These works interrogate the ways in which humans use the grid to build, organize, and connect. Using a range of both rigid and pliable materials, they suggest growth and imply the metaphorical repeating of patterns. A softness balances the collective gridwork structures through curves, glitches, and loose threads. From circuit boards to city streets, we can find connections between acts of mapping, protecting, and testing boundaries. Curated by Erika Diamond.
Artists: Paolo Arao, Thomas Campbell, Lisa Corinne Davis, Kimberly English, Adam Grinovich, Peter Christian Johnson, Erica Lord, Ellen Ramsey, Jayoung Yoon

African American Heritage House Lecture: Spencer R. Crew
2025-07-23 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Spencer R. Crew has worked in public history institutions for more than 30 years and currently serves as the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of History at George Mason University. Prior to his position at George Mason, he served as president of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center for six years, and at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History for 20 years.
Now the Emeritus Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of American History, he served for nine years as director of NMAH and was interim director of NMAAHC from July 2019 to January 2021. At each of those institutions, he sought to make history accessible to the public through innovative and inclusive exhibitions and public programs.
Crew has published extensively in the areas of African American and public history and curated numerous exhibitions; his most recent curated exhibition is “Make Good the Promises: Reconstruction and Its Legacies.” He is a graduate of Brown University and holds a master’s degree and a doctorate from Rutgers University. His most recent publication is Thurgood Marshall: A Life in American History.

Piano Faculty Masterclass: José Ramón Méndez
2025-07-23 16:00 | Sherwood-Marsh 101

Family Movie Night with Kwame Alexander: Acoustic Rooster PBS Special
2025-07-23 16:30 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Come Jazz it up at Family Movie Night with Kwame Alexander! Gather your family and join us for an exclusive showing of his PBS Animated Special: Acoustic Rooster’s Barnyard Band.

CVA Lecture Series: Adrienne Elise Tarver
2025-07-23 18:30 | Hultquist 101, Hultquist 101
CVA Lecture Series: School of Art faculty
Adrienne Elise Tarver
Adrienne Elise Tarver is an interdisciplinary artist with a practice that spans painting, sculpture, installation, textiles, photography, and video. Her work addresses the complexity and invisibility of black female identity.
She has exhibited nationally and abroad, including solo exhibitions at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Connecticut; the Academy Art Museum in Maryland; Atlanta Contemporary in Georgia; Dinner Gallery in New York; Ochi Projects in Los Angeles, CA; Wave Hill in the Bronx, NY; BRIC Project Room in Brooklyn, NY; and A-M Gallery in Sydney, Australia. She has received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Boston University, the Nancy Graves Foundation Award, the ArtNoir “Where We Going” Fellowship and recently completed residencies at Silver Art Projects and Stoneleaf Retreat among others. She has been commissioned for solo projects through the Public Art Fund, the New York MTA, Google, Art Aspen, and Pulse Art Fair and has been featured in online and print publications including the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Forbes, Brooklyn Magazine, ArtNews, ArtNet, Blouin ArtInfo, Whitewall Magazine, and Hyperallergic, among others. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and BFA from Boston University.

Opera Conservatory: "Old Songs - New Stories" with Laura Ward
2025-07-23 18:30 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall
Curated by Laura Ward, this recital promises to be a true highlight of the season. The timeless beauty of Old Italian Songs and Arias is brought into the present with stunning new arrangements by today’s leading composers.
For over a century, these enduring melodies have inspired arrangers around the world. Now, it’s our turn. The Denyce Graves Foundation has commissioned 15 of America’s premier Black composers to reimagine these beloved songs, dressing them in vibrant, contemporary soundscapes while honoring their historic roots.
Join us for an evening where tradition meets innovation in the most exquisite way.
LAURA WARD is pianist and Artistic Director of Lyric Fest. As a distinguished collaborative pianist she is known for both her technical ability and vast knowledge of repertoire and styles. Concert engagements have taken her to Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Teatro Colon, the Spoleto Festival (Italy), the Colmar International Music Festival and Saint Denis Festival in France. She has served on the faculty of AlpenKammermusik, The CoOPERAtive Program at Westminster Choir College, The Academy of Vocal Arts, Temple University, Ravinia Festival Stean’s Institute, Washington Opera, University of Maryland, Music Academy of the West and as the official pianist for the Washington International Competition, the Astral Artists Auditions and for the Marian Anderson Award. Laura is pianist on the recently released Daron Hagen 21st Century Song Cycles on the Naxos label and Lineage with her frequent collaborative partner, Randall Scarlata on the Albany label. Laura is also recording artist and editor of song accompaniments for publisher Hal Leonard having co-edited: Richard Strauss: 40 Songs, Gabriel Fauré: 50 Songs, and Johannes Brahms: 75 Songs and recorded over 2000 song accompaniments for Hal Leonard Publishing. These volumes help countless singers and pianists experience, learn and enjoy the art song repertoire and also help introduce a world of art song to many who have had little exposure to classical song. A native of Texas, Laura received her Bachelor in Music degree from Baylor University, holds a Masters in Piano Accompanying at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and a Doctorate in Accompanying from the University of Michigan where she was a student of Martin Katz.

Ekep Nkwelle
2025-07-23 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Ekep Nkwelle is a force in today’s jazz scene, with a journey from Washington, DC, to New York City. She refined her talents at Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Howard University, and The Juilliard School.
Her captivating voice has earned her collaborations with jazz legends like Wynton Marsalis, Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Cyrus Chestnut, and the late Russell Malone. She has also performed on renowned stages including SFJAZZ, NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, Marians Jazzroom, and the Umbria Jazz Festival.
In 2023, she received the Juilliard Career Advancement Grant, nominated by Marsalis, highlighting her artistry. Beyond performing, Ekep supports influential arts organizations including The National Jazz Museum in Harlem and Jazz Houston, and she is one of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s latest rising stars.

Nomi Prins
2025-07-24 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
A leading authority on how the widespread impact of financial systems continues to affect our daily lives, Nomi Prins has spent decades analyzing and investigating economic and financial events at the ground level and meeting with those that shape the world’s geo-political-economic framework. She joins the Chautauqua Lecture Series in a week exploring “Innovation in Capitalism” to discuss her latest book, Permanent Distortion: How Financial Markets Abandoned the Real Economy Forever, on the gap between the financial markets and the real economy, and what it means for everyone’s future.
Before becoming an author and advocate for economic reform, Prins worked as a managing director at Goldman Sachs, ran the international analytics group as a senior managing director at Bear Stearns in London, and was a strategist at Lehman Brothers and an analyst at the Chase Manhattan Bank.
Prins’ other books include Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World; All the Presidents’ Bankers: The Hidden Alliances that Drive American Power; It Takes a Pillage: Behind the Bonuses, Bailouts, and Backroom Deals from Washington to Wall Street; and Other People’s Money: The Corporate Mugging of America. A widely sought-after speaker and adviser, she has also served as a member of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Federal Reserve Reform Advisory Council.
Prins received her Bachelor of Science in math from SUNY Purchase, and Master of Science in statistics from New York University. She received her Ph.D. in international strategic studies with a specialization in international political economy from The Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.

CHQ Mystic Heart: Mateo Mortellaro
2025-07-24 12:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

Claudia Strauss
2025-07-24 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Claudia Strauss is the Jean M. Pitzer Professor of Anthropology at Pitzer College in the Claremont Consortium. In 2025 she was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Psychological Anthropology. She received her Ph.D. from Harvard University, where she analyzed US workingmen’s beliefs about economic mobility.
As a cultural anthropologist of the contemporary United States, she studies personal and cultural meanings of work, immigration policies, government social welfare programs, and other social issues. She is widely cited as a theorist of the way people mentally represent and express conflicting cultural messages. Her books include What Work Means: Beyond the Puritan Work Ethic (Cornell UP, 2024), Making Sense of Public Opinion: American Discourses about Immigration and Social Programs (Cambridge UP, 2012), and A Cognitive Theory of Cultural Meaning (with Naomi Quinn, Cambridge UP 1997).

Christian Science House: Our from the Shadows: Women of the Bible
2025-07-24 15:00 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary

Cat Bohannon
2025-07-24 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle Presentation — Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannon
How did the female body drive 200 million years of human evolution? Why do women live longer than men? Why are women more likely to get Alzheimer’s? Why do girls score better at every academic subject than boys until puberty, when suddenly their scores plummet? Is sexism useful for evolution? And why, seriously why, do women have to sweat through our sheets every night when we hit menopause?
These questions are producing some truly exciting science – and in Eve, with boundless curiosity and sharp wit, Cat Bohannon covers the past 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex: “We need a kind of user’s manual for the female mammal. A no-nonsense, hard-hitting, seriously researched (but readable) account of what we are. How female bodies evolved, how they work, what it really means to biologically be a woman. Something that would rewrite the story of womanhood. This book is that story. We must put the female body in the picture. If we don’t, it’s not just feminism that’s compromised. Modern medicine, neurobiology, paleoanthropology, even evolutionary biology all takes a hit when we ignore the fact that half of us have breasts. So, it’s time we talk about breasts. Breasts, and blood, and fat, and vaginas, and wombs—all of it. How they came to be and how we live with them now, no matter how weird or hilarious the truth is.”
Eve is not only a sweeping revision of human history, it’s an urgent and necessary corrective for a world that has focused primarily on the male body for far too long. Picking up where Sapiens left off, Eve will completely change what you think you know about evolution and why Homo sapiens has become such a successful and dominant species.
Cat Bohannon is a researcher and author with a Ph.D. from Columbia University in the evolution of narrative and cognition. Her essays and poems have appeared in Scientific American, Mind, Science Magazine, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Georgia Review, The Story Collider, and Poets Against the War. She lives with her family in Seattle.

Double Feature: Purple Mountains and The Hypocrite, with Erin Sprague and Auden Schendler
2025-07-24 17:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
A double feature of short films by Teton Gravity Research and Protect Our Winters: (1) Purple Mountains: Live Free or Die, a film about finding common ground on climate change, and (2) The Hypocrite: a film that squarely addresses imperfect advocacy in the world of snow sports.

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Shostakovich 11
2025-07-24 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Rossen Milanov, conductor
Join conductor Rossen Milanov and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for a gripping performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11, a powerful work of cinematic intensity and raw emotion. Subtitled The Year 1905, this symphony sweeps listeners through a dramatic soundscape of revolution, sorrow, and triumph. Experience the full force of Shostakovich’s orchestral mastery in a night of music that is as haunting as it is unforgettable.
Program:
Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11

Young Writers' Institute Final Performance and Reading
2025-07-25 09:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Join Chautauqua Literary Arts to celebrate the work completed by our young writers at Chautauqua this Friday. Participants will have the chance to perform a reading of their works in their forthcoming book!
Book-in-a-Day (BID) is a new fun-filled, hands-on literacy project that teaches kids the fundamentals of creative writing, through poetry and book publication. This innovative educational program fosters literacy skills through a groundbreaking writing and publishing workshop, which focuses on student-run publication—in one day. In this one-week program, students learn how to write a well-crafted poem, or piece of prose, and how to publish their own work for public consumption. The full BID program is comprised of two days of writing workshops, two days of publishing workshops, and a performance party to celebrate and share the work of all participants. Kwame Alexander will kick off each day with motivational thoughts and poetic inspiration. His superstar friends, Nikki Shannon Smith and Ann Marie Stephens, both published authors and retired teachers, will be the writing coaches for the workshops. They will receive a physical copy of the book of their shared work by the end of the summer (following Week Nine of Chautauqua’s summer assembly season).

Oren Cass
2025-07-25 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Oren Cass is the chief economist at American Compass, the conservative think tank that he founded at the start of 2020 to restore an economic consensus emphasizing the importance of family, community, and industry to the nation’s liberty and prosperity. A contributing opinion writer for the Financial Times and The New York Times, Cass writes the “Understanding America” newsletter and is considered a leading economic policy adviser shaping modern conservative thought and the future of capitalism. He joins the Chautauqua Lecture Series to close a week on “Innovation in Capitalism: How to Meet 21st-Century Challenges?”
From 2015 to 2019, Cass was a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, where he published The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America, which has become required reading for young conservatives and is taught at universities across the country; Vice President J.D. Vance has called it “a brilliant book, and among the most important I’ve ever read.”
From 2005 to 2015, Cass worked as a management consultant in Bain & Company’s Boston and Delhi offices. During this period, he also earned his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was elected vice president and treasurer of the Harvard Law Review. While still in law school, he also became domestic policy director for Governor Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, editing and producing the campaign’s “jobs book” and developing its domestic policy strategy, proposals and research.

Elizabeth Anderson
2025-07-25 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Elizabeth Anderson is Max Shaye Professor of Public Philosophy at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she has taught since 1987. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was awarded a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2019. She has written extensively on egalitarianism, the interaction of facts and values in social science research, the intersection of democratic theory and social epistemology, pragmatism, and the philosophy of work. Her two most recent books are Private Government (How Employers Rule our Lives, and Why We Don’t Talk About It) (Princeton UP, 2017) and Hijacked: How Neoliberalism Turned the Work Ethic Against Workers, and How Workers Can Take It Back (Cambridge UP, 2023).

Piano Program Faculty Recital: Sara Davis Buechner "Cocktails in New York and Paris"
2025-07-25 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Noted for her musical command, cosmopolitan artistry, and visionary independence, Sara Davis Buechner is one of the most original concert pianists of our time. Lauded for her “intelligence, integrity and all-encompassing technical prowess” (New York Times), “thoughtful artistry in the full service of music” (Washington Post), and “astounding virtuosity” (Philippine Star), Japan’s InTune magazine sums it up: “Buechner has no superior.”
Ms. Buechner has performed in every state and province of North America — as recitalist, chamber musician and soloist with top orchestras like the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra; and in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Hollywood Bowl. She is also a much sought after professor at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance.

School of Music: Masterclass with Ilya Kaler, violin
2025-07-25 16:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall
