Chautauqua Institution

Unity's Positive Path for Spiritual Living
2026-07-22 18:30, 2026-07-29 18:30, 2026-08-05 18:30, 2026-08-12 18:30 (America/New_York) | Turner Conference Room, Turner Conference Room
Programmed by Unity of Chautauqua

CHQ Dialogues
2026-07-22 18:30, 2026-07-24 12:30, 2026-07-29 18:30, 2026-07-31 12:30, 2026-08-05 18:30, 2026-08-07 12:30, 2026-08-12 18:30, 2026-08-14 12:30 | Lutheran House, Lutheran House

Chautauqua Opera Company presents: The Music Shop / A.E. Reverie / Ida by Lamplight
2026-07-22 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
THE MUSIC SHOP / A.E. REVERIE / IDA BY LAMPLIGHT
Three operas light up the Amphitheater stage on July 22, bringing both side-splitting laughter and heart-melting nostalgia. In Richard Wargo’s zany one-act The Music Shop (last seen at Chautauqua where it premiered in 1993) Dmitri and Masha try to help the hapless Ivan remember the title of the song his wife must sing at a royal wedding, while visions of her haunt and strike fear in him. This four-character, 60-minute farce promises a lively romp in the Amphitheater! Two installments from The Summer Place round out the evening. A.E. Reverie, which received its world premiere at Chautauqua in 2024, reflects on Amelia Earhart’s 1929 lecture at the Amphitheater, and how it inspired another young woman’s dream of flight. To close out the evening, the world premiere of Ida by Lamplight takes us back to the Chautauqua Literary and Science Circle’s early years, celebrating Ida Tarbell and Kate Kimball, whose pioneering work galvanized Chautauqua Institution’s mission. Commissioned by Chautauqua Opera Company, Ida by Lamplight celebrates the 150th anniversary of The Chautauquan Daily in 2026. Stage Director Ned Canty (The Mikado, Don Giovanni, and Love and Longing by the Lake) brings everything to life in a celebration of Chautauqua which you will not want to miss.

CHQ Mystic Heart - Bhante Chipamong Chowdhury, Theravada Buddhism / Mindfulness Meditation
2026-07-23 07:45, 2026-07-24 07:45 | Presbyterian House, Presbyterian House
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.

Episcopal Holy Eucharist
2026-07-23 07:45, 2026-07-24 07:45, 2026-07-26 07:45, 2026-07-26 09:00, 2026-07-27 07:45, 2026-07-28 07:45, 2026-07-29 07:45, 2026-07-30 07:45 and 15 more dates | Chapel of the Good Shepherd, Chapel of the Good Shepherd

Daily Word Meditation
2026-07-23 08:00, 2026-07-24 08:00, 2026-07-27 08:00, 2026-07-28 08:00, 2026-07-29 08:00, 2026-07-30 08:00, 2026-07-31 08:00, 2026-08-03 08:00 and 9 more dates | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions
(Programmed by Unity of Chautauqua)

Chautauqua Prays for Peace though Compassion
2026-07-23 08:55, 2026-07-24 08:55, 2026-07-27 08:55, 2026-07-28 08:55, 2026-07-29 08:55, 2026-07-30 08:55, 2026-07-31 08:55, 2026-08-03 08:55 and 9 more dates | Hall of Philosophy Grove

Cantor Olivia Brodsky
2026-07-23 09:15 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Cantor Olivia Brodsky serves as Cantor and Co-Clergy of East End Temple in Manhattan, alongside Rabbi Joshua Stanton. She is a vocalist dedicated to preserving Jewish culture and tradition while making it evermore applicable to daily life and accessible for people of all generations. Brodsky is passionate about engaging a diverse community of people with varying backgrounds and levels of religious and cultural observance, herself having been raised in the Conservative movement and now dually affiliated with both the Reform movement’s American Conference of Cantors and the Conservative movement’s Cantor’s Assembly.
Brodsky is deeply engaged in Jewish education, global Jewish travel, and interfaith
dialogue. In reaction to divisive politics plaguing both the US and the world at large, she founded an Adult Education series entitled “Complex Conversations with the Cantor,” where she facilitates respectful dialogue between people with a diverse array of views on controversial issues.
As an outspoken advocate for the Jewish community and a published writer, Brodsky contributes op-ed commentary to a variety of news outlets addressing Jewish identity, the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Zionism, and antisemitism. She brings a nuanced understanding of Jewish history, culture, Abrahamic faith traditions, Middle Eastern politics, social justice, and ethics to her ministry. Brodsky strives to create relevant, inclusive, intellectually engaging Jewish experiences for her community.
Brodsky attended a dual-degree program at Tufts University and the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC), earning a B.A. in Judaic Studies and studying Classical Vocal Performance. She received her Master of Sacred Music and Cantorial Ordination from the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion.

Service of Blessing and Healing
2026-07-23 10:15, 2026-07-24 10:15, 2026-07-27 10:15, 2026-07-28 10:15, 2026-07-29 10:15, 2026-07-30 10:15, 2026-07-31 10:15, 2026-08-03 10:15 and 9 more dates | Randell Chapel, UCC Headquarters

Katharine K. Wilkinson
2026-07-23 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Katharine K. Wilkinson is a human on Earth. As a bestselling writer, teacher and climate expert, she has inspired hundreds of thousands of climate journeys through transformational projects that shift our cultural narratives about what’s possible and nurture engagement in renewing our world. Her books include Climate Wayfinding — called “invaluable” by frequent Chautauqua lecturer Bill McKibben — the bestselling anthology All We Can Save and the New York Times bestseller Drawdown. Her remarks contributing to Chautauqua’s exploration of “Our Era of Disposability” will draw from Climate Wayfinding, which was released in May 2026.
Wilkinson co-founded and leads The All We Can Save Project, where she shaped the much-beloved programs All We Can Save Circles and Climate Wayfinding. She also co-hosts the podcast “A Matter of Degrees” and writes the newsletter “Human on Earth.” Previously, Wilkinson was the principal writer and editor-in-chief at Project Drawdown. With a singular blend of warmth and rigor, she facilitates and speaks widely — including a TED Talk with more than 2 million views — and periodically teaches as a visiting professor.
Wilkinson holds a Ph.D. in geography and environment from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and a B.A. in religion from Sewanee: The University of the South. In 2019, Time Magazine named her one of fifteen “Women Who Will Save the World.”

CTC Theater Chats
2026-07-23 12:15, 2026-07-30 12:15, 2026-08-06 12:15, 2026-08-13 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.

What's In Our Waters?
2026-07-23 12:30 | Heinz Beach, Heinz Beach
Join Nat Geo Explorer Rachael Zoe Miller and leading microplastics researcher Dr. Sam Mason for a fun workshop about trash in our waters and what we can do about it.

CHQ Mystic Heart - Bhante Chipamong Chowdhury, Theravada Buddhism / Mindfulness Meditation
2026-07-23 12:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

CHQ Dialogues
2026-07-23 12:30, 2026-07-28 15:30, 2026-07-30 12:30, 2026-08-04 15:30, 2026-08-06 12:30, 2026-08-11 15:30, 2026-08-13 12:30 | Everett Jewish Life Center, Everett Jewish Life Center

Duplicate Bridge ABCL Sanctioned
2026-07-23 12:45, 2026-07-30 12:45, 2026-08-06 12:45, 2026-08-13 12:45 | Sports Club, Sports Club
Don’t have a partner? One will be provided. Game managed by Shelley Dahlie. $10/person.

English Lawn Bowling Tips
2026-07-23 13:00, 2026-07-24 13:00, 2026-07-27 13:00, 2026-07-28 13:00, 2026-07-29 13:00, 2026-07-30 13:00, 2026-07-31 13:00, 2026-08-03 13:00 and 9 more dates | Sports Club, Lawn Bowling Green

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents Best for Baby
2026-07-23 14:00, 2026-07-23 19:30, 2026-07-24 16:00, 2026-07-26 14:00, 2026-07-26 19:30, 2026-07-29 14:00, 2026-07-29 19:30, 2026-07-30 19:30 and 4 more dates | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater
WORLD PREMIERE
By Sharyn Rothstein
Directed by Oliver Butler
Bratton Theater
Best for Baby and its devilishly funny emcee takes audiences inside Johnson & Johnson’s decades-long and still evolving baby powder scandal. A Big American Play ripped straight from the headlines, this world premiere is equal parts showbiz spectacle and intimate human storytelling, brought to you by a sensational comedic ensemble of professional guest artists — led by Broadway actors George Abud and Crystal Dickinson — alongside members of CTC’s beloved conservatory.
Best for Baby is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Leah Naomi Green
2026-07-23 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Leah Naomi Green is writer-in-residence at Washington and Lee University. She is the author of The More Extravagant Feast, selected by Li-Young Lee for the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets and named “one of the best books of 2020” by The Boston Globe. Green teaches English and environmental studies at Washington and Lee University as well as online creative writing workshops for Orion Magazine.
Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Paris Review, The Nation, Tin House, The Kenyon Review, “Poem-a-Day,” VQR, The Southern Review, Orion, The Georgia Review and Ecotone, among other journals.
Green has been featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and supported by fellowships and awards from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Guilford College Sherwood Anderson Visiting Writer Program and the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award for compassion, courage, truth-telling and commitment to justice.

Chautauqua Opera Company Presents: An Afternoon of Song
2026-07-23 15:15 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall
Join us for an afternoon of song, featuring our 2026 Young Artists.

Islam 101 Khalid and Sabeeha Rehman
2026-07-23 15:30 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary
“Shariah”

CHQ Dialogues
2026-07-23 15:30, 2026-07-30 15:30, 2026-08-06 15:30, 2026-08-13 15:30 | United Methodist House, United Methodist House

CHQ Dialogues
2026-07-23 15:30, 2026-07-30 15:30, 2026-08-06 15:30, 2026-08-13 15:30 | Baptist House, Baptist House

Programming Blackout
2026-07-23 15:30, 2026-07-28 15:30, 2026-07-30 15:30, 2026-08-04 15:30, 2026-08-06 15:30, 2026-08-10 15:30, 2026-08-11 15:30, 2026-08-13 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Play CHQ: Bird Feeders
2026-07-23 16:00, 2026-07-27 16:00, 2026-07-30 16:00, 2026-08-03 16:00, 2026-08-06 16:00, 2026-08-10 16:00, 2026-08-13 16:00 | Heinz Beach, Heinz Beach

CHQ Dialogues
2026-07-23 18:30, 2026-07-30 18:30, 2026-08-06 18:30, 2026-08-13 18:30 | Disciples of Christ House, Disciples of Christ House

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Hovhaness and Shostakovich
2026-07-23 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Rossen Milanov, conductor
The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra presents two notable symphonies of the twentieth century. Hovhaness’s Symphony No. 2, “Mysterious Mountain,” unfolds as a meditation on nature, drawing listeners into a sound world of serenity, chant-like melody, and rich expression. In contrast, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 12 is a work of momentum and scale, depicting history through bold orchestral force and intensity. Together, these symphonies highlight two distinct approaches to the symphonic form-one inward and contemplative, the other outward and declarative.
Program:
Hovhaness: Symphony No. 2 “Mysterious Mountain”
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 12, “The Year 1917”

Sunrise Paddle - Kayak/SUP
2026-07-24 06:00, 2026-07-29 06:00, 2026-07-31 06:00, 2026-08-05 06:00, 2026-08-07 06:00, 2026-08-12 06:00, 2026-08-14 06:00 | Sports Club, Waterfront
Enjoy the beauty of the lake during our sunrise paddle. This is not a guided tour but an opportunity to rent a kayak, SUP or canoe for an enjoyable hour at sunrise. Reservations accepted one day in advance at the Sports Club. Contact sportsclub@chq.org with questions.

Movement and Meditation with Monte Thompson
2026-07-24 08:30, 2026-07-27 08:30, 2026-07-29 08:30, 2026-07-31 08:30, 2026-08-03 08:30, 2026-08-05 08:30, 2026-08-07 08:30, 2026-08-10 08:30 and 2 more dates | 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.

Ecumenical Communion Service
2026-07-24 09:15, 2026-07-31 09:15, 2026-08-07 09:15, 2026-08-14 09:15 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Rainn Wilson
2026-07-24 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Drawing on his experience as a cultural commentator and advocate for spiritual renewal, Rainn Wilson closes Chautauqua’s Week Four theme “Wasted: Our Era of Disposability” in conversation, weaving humor with a sense of moral urgency to discuss how disposability affects not only our environment but also erodes our sense of meaning, relationships and community.
Wilson is an Emmy-nominated and SAG Award-winning actor best known for playing Dwight Schrute on NBC’s “The Office.” A longtime environmental activist, Wilson co-founded Climate Basecamp in 2022. With the organization, he has been working on climate communications and serves as a member on the advisory board.
On his podcast, “Soul Boom,” Wilson hosts a series of intimate conversations with some of the most brilliant and heart-felt artists, thinkers and doers to bring the listener toward transformation on both a personal and spiritual level. In 2009, he founded the digital media company Soul Pancake. He is the author of four books including The Bassoon King, SoulPancake: Chew on Life’s Big Questions, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution, and Soul Boom Workbook: Spiritual Tools for Modern Living.
Wilson is also known for “Lessons in Chemistry”; the unscripted travel series “Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss”; “Jerry & Marge Go Large”; “Utopia”; Roger Michell’s “Blackbird”; “The Meg”; “Star Trek: Discovery”; “Hesher”; “Super”; “Cooties”; “Juno”; “Galaxy Quest”; and “Almost Famous.” He has an MFA from New York University. On Broadway, Wilson was in The Tempest” and the Tony nominated “London Assurance.” He performed “Thom Pain (Based on Nothing)” at The Geffen and was the lead role in the political farce “The Doppelganger” at Steppenwolf Theater.
Later that afternoon, Wilson will host a Masters Series workshop engaging the Chautauqua community with his journal-style Soul Boom Workbook: Spiritual Tools for Modern Living — based on his New York Times bestselling book and hit podcast Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution.

Twelve Step Meeting
2026-07-24 12:15, 2026-07-26 12:15, 2026-07-29 12:15, 2026-07-31 12:15, 2026-08-02 12:15, 2026-08-05 12:15, 2026-08-07 12:15, 2026-08-09 12:15 and 2 more dates | Hurlbut Marion Lawrance

Introduction to Jumu'ah Muslim Prayer
2026-07-24 12:30, 2026-07-31 12:30, 2026-08-07 12:30, 2026-08-14 12:30 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary
Jumu’ah introduction for visitors is at 12:30 PM. Jumu’ah Service is at 1:05 PM

Mary Alice Monroe
2026-07-24 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle — Where the Rivers Merge: A Novel by Mary Alice Monroe
From the New York Times bestselling author, the first of two epic and triumphant novels celebrating one intrepid woman’s life across multiple generations in the American South.
1908: The Lowcountry of South Carolina is at the cusp of change. Mayfield, the grand estate held for generations by the Rivers family, is the treasured home of young Eliza. A free spirit, she refuses to be confined by societal norms and spends her days exploring the vast property, observing wildlife, and riding horses. But the Great War, coastal storms, and family turmoil bring unexpected challenges to Eliza, putting her on a collision course with the patriarchal traditions of a bygone era.
1988: At 88, Eliza is the scion of the Rivers/DeLancey family. She’s fought a lifetime to save her beloved Mayfield and is too independent and committed to quietly retire and leave the fate of the estate to her greedy son. She must make decisions that will assure the future of the land and her family—or watch them both be split apart.
Set against the evocative landscape of the twentieth-century Lowcountry, Where the Rivers Merge is a dramatic and sweeping multigenerational family story of unyielding love, lessons learned, profound sacrifices, and the indomitable spirit of a woman determined to persevere in the face of change in order to protect her family legacy and the land she loves.
Based in Charleston, South Carolina, is the New York Times best-selling author of thirty books–and counting, Mary Alice Monroe. Richly layered and rooted to place her Lowcountry-set novels defy literary labels. More than feel-good escapism or traditional beach reads, her engrossing stories deftly explore the intersections and parallels between Mother Nature and human nature, hooking readers emotionally and introducing them to characters and causes that live in their hearts and minds. Her robust library of work–from the popular Beach House series to her compelling fiction, to her newer middle grade series, The Islanders–engages readers across generational lines, inspiring them to take a harder look at the environment–and our impact on it. To ask the important questions. To seek answers. To create connections–both with nature and in our personal lives.

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents FutureNow New Play Lab 2: ERASERS: A Bloodthirsty Comedy
2026-07-24 14:00, 2026-07-25 14:00, 2026-07-25 18:00, 2026-07-26 18:00, 2026-08-01 17:00 | Roe Green Theater Center
In a world that looks remarkably like ours, the National Agency of Literary Advisors gives writers “gentle advice” about what kinds of stories the world wants to see. And then, the advice gets less gentle. ERASERS is a bloodthirsty comedy about office supplies and fascism.

Masters Series Masterclass: A Dialogue with Rainn Wilson
2026-07-24 15:30 | Norton Hall, Norton Hall
Chautauqua Lecture Series keynote speaker Rainn Wilson hosts a workshop engaging the Chautauqua community with his journal-style Soul Boom Workbook: Spiritual Tools for Modern Living—written in collaboration with Wilson’s SoulPancake co-founder and writer Shabnam Mogharabi. It is filled with hands-on prompts, inspired reflections, and ingenious creative activities. The session delves deeper into the indispensable companion book, based on his New York Times bestselling book—now a hit podcast—Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution. Wilson’s approach to spirituality is relatable and applies to people of all beliefs, even the skeptics. The journal enables readers to find more purpose, meaning, and spirituality in their hectic lives as they seek out practical and transformative answers to life’s biggest questions. Wilson posits that a “Soul Boom” is the potential for a spiritual revolution to instigate transformations, both individually and collectively. It’s the healing balm that our world needs in our contemporary mental health crisis.

Islam 101 Khalid and Sabeeha Rehman
2026-07-24 15:30 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary
“Islam in America”

CHQ Dialogues
2026-07-24 15:30, 2026-07-31 15:30, 2026-08-07 15:30, 2026-08-14 15:30 | Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

CHQ Dialogues
2026-07-24 15:30, 2026-07-31 15:30, 2026-08-07 15:30, 2026-08-14 15:30 | Episcopal Cottage, Episcopal Cottage

CHQ Dialogues
2026-07-24 15:30, 2026-07-31 15:30, 2026-08-07 15:30, 2026-08-14 15:30 | Christian Science House

School of Music: Violin Masterclass with Ilya Kaler
2026-07-24 15:30 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Kabbalat Shabbat Service
2026-07-24 17:00, 2026-07-31 17:00, 2026-08-07 17:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park

Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas with special guest Theo Lawrence
2026-07-24 19:30 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
For nearly four decades, Alison Krauss & Union Station have upheld their legacy as one of the most influential and widely celebrated acts in bluegrass and roots music. Known for an immaculately crafted but endlessly surprising sound that transcends the boundaries of roots, country, rock & roll, and pop, Alison Krauss & Union Station released their highly anticipated new album, Arcadia, in 2025. This marked their first studio album since the 2011 masterpiece Paper Airplane—a critically lauded, multiple Grammy Award winning LP that debuted at #1 on the Billboard Country, Bluegrass, and Folk Album charts. Over the years, Alison Krauss & Union Station have brought their phenomenal live show to sold-out performances at famed venues like Red Rocks Amphitheatre, The Greek Theatre, Radio City Music Hall, and London’s Royal Festival Hall, in addition to supporting Paul Simon in Hyde Park for his 2012 Graceland reunion. They now continue the celebration of their new music with the Arcadia 2026 Tour.
The players – Alison Krauss (fiddle, lead vocal), Jerry Douglas (Dobro, lap steel, vocals), Ron Block (banjo, guitar, vocals), Barry Bales (bass, vocals), and highly acclaimed and celebrated tenor vocalist Russell Moore (guitar, mandolin, lead vocal) – are five distinct personalities, each of whom enjoys a flourishing solo career. But when they come together, they transform into a peerless group of musicians who share a singular focus.

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents Conservatory Improv Night!
2026-07-24 22:00 | Roe Green Theater Center

CHQ Mystic Heart: Centering Prayer with Carol McKiernan
2026-07-25 07:15, 2026-08-01 07:15, 2026-08-08 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.

Shabbat Service, Rabbi Zalman Vilenken
2026-07-25 09:30, 2026-08-01 09:30, 2026-08-08 09:30 | Chabad Jewish House

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents Best for Baby (Live Audio Descriptions & Pick-Your-Price)
2026-07-25 16:00 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater

Catholic Mass
2026-07-25 17:00, 2026-08-01 17:00, 2026-08-08 17:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Carmina Burana
2026-07-25 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Rossen Milanov, conductor
The Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus joins the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for a captivating performance of the iconic Carmina Burana. Carl Orff’s masterpiece is drawn from medieval texts exploring fate, love, and the unpredictability of fortune. Best known for its electrifying opening, O Fortuna, the piece unfolds as a series of vivid scenes propelled by driving rhythms and striking orchestration. Immediate and powerful, Carmina Burana captures the raw intensity of human experience.
Program:
Orff: Carmina Burana

Song, Prayer, Communion & Meditation
2026-07-26 08:30, 2026-08-02 08:30, 2026-08-09 08:30 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary

United Church of Christ Worship Service
2026-07-26 09:00, 2026-08-02 09:00, 2026-08-09 09:00 | Randell Chapel, UCC Headquarters

Catholic Mass
2026-07-26 09:30, 2026-07-27 08:15, 2026-07-28 08:15, 2026-07-29 08:15, 2026-07-30 08:15, 2026-07-31 08:15, 2026-08-02 09:30, 2026-08-03 08:15 and 9 more dates | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary

Quaker Worship Service
2026-07-26 09:30, 2026-08-02 09:30, 2026-08-09 09:30 | Quaker House

Unity Service
2026-07-26 09:30, 2026-08-02 09:30, 2026-08-09 09:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

Unitarian Universalist Service
2026-07-26 09:30, 2026-08-02 09:30, 2026-08-09 09:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

The Rev. Zina Jacque
2026-07-26 10:45, 2026-07-27 09:15, 2026-07-28 09:15, 2026-07-29 09:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
The Rev. Zina Jacque serves as President and Chair of the Board of National Senior Communities, overseeing the largest not-for-profit network of continuing-care retirement communities in the nation. Across two distinguished careers in higher education and ministry, she has worked to lift people, strengthen communities, and send good into the world. She continues to guide nonprofit boards and faith-based organizations nationwide.
For two decades, Jacque shaped the student experience at several leading universities. After transitioning to ministry, Jacque’s pastoral path has taken her from small urban parishes to historic pulpits, notably as the lead minister for the Villages of Alfred Street at the renowned Alfred Street Baptist Church.
Extending her service well beyond church walls, Jacque was the first executive director of the Boston Ten Point Coalition — a violence reduction initiative credited with nearly two homicide-free years among Boston’s youth under 21. Later, she founded the Pastoral Counseling Center at Trinity Church Boston. Jacque also co-founded Courageous Conversations, a national dialogue series fostering belonging and understanding in a polarized age.
Jacque’s impact has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Boston University School of Theology, the 2022 Citizen of the Year Award from Barrington, Ill. and the Women of Distinction Award from the Barrington Chamber of Commerce. Jacque’s most recent work, “A Sacred Pause,” is a collection of meditations, journals, and reflections which has drawn a growing online following for its mix of stillness, wisdom, and grace.
Jacque holds a Bachelor of Arts from Northwestern University, Master of Arts from Columbia University, Master of Divinity and Ph.D. in Theology from Boston University.

"Cutwork" Exhibition: July 26–August 25
2026-07-26 13:00 | Strohl Art Center: Main Galleries
“Cutwork” exhibition runs July 26-August 25. “Cutwork” is a broad exploration of work using methods of cutting into or removing material. Featuring hand-cut paper, metal, fibers, and ceramics, these artists explore the weight and gravity of their material and subject matter. Layered and lacy textures reveal what is built and what is left behind. This exhibition is generously sponsored by Brenda and Larry Thompson. Curated by Erika Diamond.
Artists: Elizabeth Alexander, Teresa Faris, Piper Shephard, Justin Stewart, Lydia C. Thompson, and Michael Velliquette.

"A Different Light: Landscapes by Gwen Norton" Exhibition: July 26–August 25
2026-07-26 13:00 | Strohl Art Center 2nd Floor
“A Different Light: Landscapes by Gwen Norton” exhibition – July 26-August 25. Gwen Norton is currently in her thesis year of the MFA program at the School of Visual Arts in Photography, Video, and Related Media Department. Her work has been exhibited solo, two-person, and group shows in New York City and Martha’s Vineyard and is included in the collection of the Whitney Museum of Art Library. This exhibition is generously sponsored by the Friends of CVA. Curated by Judy Barie, the Susan & John Turben Director of CVA Galleries.

"Cutwork" Opening Reception
2026-07-26 15:00 | Strohl Art Center: Main Galleries
“Cutwork” opening reception. Exhibition runs July 26-August 25. “Cutwork” is a broad exploration of work using methods of cutting into or removing material. Featuring hand-cut paper, metal, fibers, and ceramics, these artists explore the weight and gravity of their material and subject matter. Layered and lacy textures reveal what is built and what is left behind. This exhibition is generously sponsored by Brenda and Larry thompson. Curated by Erika Diamond.
Artists: Elizabeth Alexander, Teresa Faris, Piper Shephard, Justin Stewart, Lydia C. Thompson, and Michael Velliquette.

"A Different Light: Landscapes by Gwen Norton" Exhibition Opening Reception
2026-07-26 15:00 | Strohl Art Center 2nd Floor
“A Different Light: Landscapes by Gwen Norton” opening reception. Exhibition runs July 26-August 25. Gwen Norton is currently in her thesis year of the MFA program at the School of Visual Arts in Photography, Video, and Related Media Department. Her work has been exhibited solo, two-person, and group shows in New York City and Martha’s Vineyard and is included in the collection of the Whitney Museum of Art Library. This exhibition is generously sponsored by the Friends of CVA. Curated by Judy Barie, the Susan & John Turben Director of CVA Galleries.

School of Music: Piano Program Showcase
2026-07-26 15:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Nicola Melville, Chair
Alexander Kobrin, 2026 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.

Jim Daniels and Kristin Kovacic
2026-07-26 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Writers’ Center Faculty Reading — Featuring Jim Daniels (Poetry) and Kristin Kovacic (Prose)
Jim Daniels is the recipient of the 2025-26 Michigan Author Award for lifetime achievement from the Library of Michigan and the Michigan Center for the Book. His new book, Late Invocation for Magic: New and Selected Poems, was published in January. He has authored over thirty collections of poetry, seven collections of fiction, four produced screenplays, and one collection of essays, An Ignorance of Trees, published in 2025. He has also edited many anthologies, including RESPECT: The Poetry of Detroit Music. He is a recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and two from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Other writing awards include the Brittingham Prize, the Blue Lynx Prize, the Tillie Olsen Creative Writing Award, the Milton Kessler Award, and three Gold Medals in the Independent Publisher Book Awards, and his films have won awards in film festivals around the world. His work has been published in The Best American Poetry and Pushcart Prize volumes. A native of Detroit, he lives in Pittsburgh, where he is the Thomas Stockham Baker University Professor Emeritus of English at Carnegie Mellon University. He currently teaches in the Alma College low-residency MFA Program.
Kristin Kovacic’s essays have won the Pushcart Prize, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship, and the Orison Books Prize for Best Spiritual Writing, among other awards. Her work has appeared recently in Slate, Belt, The Coachella Review, Chautauqua, Table Magazine, The Iowa Review, and other publications. She is the author of the essay collection History of My Breath, the poetry chapbook, House of Women, and co-editor (with Lynne Barrett) of Birth: A Literary Companion. She has taught nonfiction writing at every level, including at Winchester Thurston School, the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, and in the graduate programs of Carlow University and Chatham University. She lives and works in a deconsecrated Catholic Church on the South Side of Pittsburgh.

Church of the Wild with Kriss Miller
2026-07-26 16:00, 2026-08-02 16:00, 2026-08-09 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.

New Visitors Orientation
2026-07-26 16:00, 2026-08-02 16:00, 2026-08-09 16:00 | 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 introduce you to the rich history, diverse programs, and unique experiences that Chautauqua offers. 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.

Newcomers Reception
2026-07-26 17:00, 2026-08-02 17:00, 2026-08-09 17:00 | 3 Taps
Join us for the Newcomers Reception, a welcoming gathering open to all first-time and new visitors to Chautauqua Institution. This lovely event is a chance to meet fellow newcomers, connect with members of the community, and learn more about all that Chautauqua has to offer. Guests will enjoy light refreshments while taking in the beautiful lake views, making it a perfect way to begin your Chautauqua experience. We look forward to welcoming you!

Blessing of the Animals (weather permitting)
2026-07-26 17:15, 2026-08-02 17:15, 2026-08-09 17:15 | Hall of Philosophy Grove

Hebrew Congregation, Shirley Lazarus Sunday Evening Lecture Series- Cantors Jodi Sufrin and Roy Einhorn
2026-07-26 19:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall

Palestine Park Tour
2026-07-26 19:00, 2026-08-02 19:00, 2026-08-09 19:00 | Palestine Park, Palestine Park

Sacred Song Service
2026-07-26 20:00, 2026-08-02 20:00, 2026-08-09 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater

CHQ Mystic Heart - Mateo Mortellarto, Tibetan Meditation
2026-07-27 07:45, 2026-07-28 07:45, 2026-07-29 07:45, 2026-07-30 07:45, 2026-07-31 07:45 | Presbyterian House, Presbyterian House
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.

The Crossover Panel with Kwame Alexander, Candrice Jones, Christopher Jackson and Jade King Carroll
2026-07-27 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
The highly anticipated musical adaptation of Kwame Alexander’s Newbery medal-winning novel, The Crossover, was commissioned and is being developed for the stage by the Chautauqua Theater Company. Hosted by Jade King Carroll, the producing artistic director of the Chautauqua Theater Company and director of The Crossover musical, the dynamic creative team behind the musical will gather on the Amphitheater stage for a conversation about the creative process, collaboration and what it means to be generative artists. The musical adaptation is being developed and workshopped both in Chautauqua and New York City, with Tony Award-winner Thomas Kail as creative consultant.
Kwame Alexander is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of 45 books, including Why Fathers Cry at Night; The Mighty Macy; Black Star, a Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book; J vs. K, an illustrated novel he penned with Jerry Craft; the motivational primer for graduates, creatives and professionals entitled Say Yes; and The Crossover, his Newbery Medal-winning novel turned Emmy Award-winning Disney+ TV series and forthcoming musical. Alexander is a 2026 Sine 250+ Fellow at American University and the founder of the literacy non-profit One Word at a Time.
He is also the co-creator and executive producer of the Emmy-nominated “Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band and Acoustic Rooster: Jazzy Jams,” a PBS KIDS special and series of shorts produced by GBH Kids based on his beloved children’s book of the same name.
Alexander regularly shares his passion for literacy, books and the craft of writing around the world, including Ghana, West Africa, where he opened the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic. He is the recipient of the 2025 NAACP Image Award.
Candrice Jones is a playwright and educator from Dermott, Arkansas. As a rising voice in American theater, she brings her poetic sensibility and powerful storytelling to the adaptation of The Crossover. She serves as a board member and educational outreach specialist of The Weekend Theater as well as Ozark Living Newspaper.
Jones’ primary goal as a writer is to write love letters for and to women of the American South. She is best known for writing “FLEX,” a play developed while she was a resident at the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA) Playwrights Festival, Ground Floor. FLEX premiered at Lincoln Center Theater in New York and Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota. Jones is also the author of the full-length play, “Crackbaby.” She has received virtual commissions from the People’s Light and Actors Theatre of Louisville.
Jones is a CalArts Critical Studies MFA recipient. She was a fellow at Callaloo for poetry at Brown University. She was also a former resident at MacDowell’s Colony of the Arts.
Christopher Jackson is a Tony Award- nominated actor, as well as a Grammy and Emmy Award-winning songwriter/composer best known for starring as George Washington in the critically acclaimed, award-winning musical “Hamilton” on Broadway and Disney+. As the creator of “The Crossover” musical score, he incorporates high-energy jazz and hip-hop to reflect the world full of dreams, melodies and rhythms.
In 2021, Jackson starred in Freestyle Love Supreme on Broadway alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda. His other Broadway credits include Holler if Ya Hear Me, After Midnight, The Bronx Bombers, In the Heights, Memphis and The Lion King. Off Broadway credits include Bronx Bombers, The Jammer, In the Heights, Cotton Club Parade, and Lonely, I’m Not.
Jackson’s TV and film credits include “And Just Like That,” “Bull,” “Freestyle Love Supreme,” “Person of Interest,” “A Gifted Man,” “Fringe,” “Gossip Girl,” “Tracers,” “Afterlife” and the 2021 film adaptation of “In the Heights.” Jackson voiced “Where You Are” for the Disney film “Moana,” and served as composer/songwriter for “Sesame Street,” garnering seven Emmy nominations and one win. He was also the co-music supervisor and writer for “The Electric Company” on PBS.
In 2018, “One Last Time (44 Remix)” was released which featured Jackson alongside President Barack Obama and BeBe Winans. Jackson won an Emmy Award for his song with Will.I.Am, “What I Am.”
Jackson has performed sold-out concerts all over the United States, including Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center, and a command performance at the White House in 2023.
Jade King Carroll is a distinguished director specializing in new play development, and the Producing Artistic Director of Chautauqua Theater Company (CTC).
She has directed over 60 classical and contemporary productions nationwide at renowned venues. Most recently, she directed Chisa Hutchinson’s “Amerikin” at Primary Stages. Notable credits include “Proof of Love,” “Detroit ’67,” “Having Our Say,” “Red Velvet,” and multiple productions of August Wilson’s work—she is one of the few directors to have worked on every play in Wilson’s Century Cycle.
At CTC, Carroll is programming innovative new works, including the world premieres of “tiny father” by Mike Lew (a co-production with Barrington Stage Company) and commissioned pieces, “The Light and The Dark (the Life and Times of Artemisia Gentileschi)” by Kate Hamill (co-produced with off-Broadway’s Primary Stages in NYC) and the world premiere of “The Witnesses” by C.A. Johnson. Under her leadership, CTC has secured three NYSCA grants and partnered with the Telsey Office for casting and the Drama League to expand its directing fellows’ program, with the new addition of playwrighting fellows in 2026.
As a director of audio plays, Carroll’s work can be found with Audible, Marvel, and Broadway Podcast Network. She is also an educator that has guest lectured and directed at Juilliard, Rutgers, NYU, Princeton, and many more schools. She has an award from the August Wilson Estate as well as from her alma mater, SUNY New Paltz.

Guided Kayak Eco Tour
2026-07-27 12:45, 2026-08-03 12:45, 2026-08-10 12:45 | Sports Club, Waterfront
Enjoy paddling while learning about ecological info along the shores of Chautauqua Institution during this hour-long guided kayak tour. The tour begins and ends at the Sports Club. The cost is for rental of single or tandem kayak plus $12 per person for the tour guide. Limited spots so please reserve one day before the event. For more info, please contact sportsclub@chq.org.

Conversations with Kyle
2026-07-27 13:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Join us for “Conversations with Kyle”, an open, drop in conversation for members of the entire community. These informal gatherings offer the opportunity to ask questions and engage directly with Interim President Kyle Keogh. All are welcome.

Peter Lawson Jones
2026-07-27 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Peter Lawson Jones is a professional actor, former elected official, acting instructor, master of ceremonies and dramatist.
Jones, a member of SAG-AFTRA and Actor’s Equity, can be seen later this year playing the lead in the feature-length indie, “The Last Shop on Walnut.” Jones has appeared in well over twenty films including “A Man Called Otto,” “White Boy Rick,” “Alex Cross,” “The Assassin’s Code” and “Starve.” On network television he can be seen on NBC’s “Chicago Fire” and ABC’s “Detroit 1-8-7.” He received the 2025 Hard Faith Fest NYC Best Actor Award for his performance in the short film, “Unexpected,” and the 2016 Indie Gathering International Film Festival Best Ohio Supporting Actor Award for his work in the feature-length film, “How to Change the World.” He has also been inducted into the Karamu House Hall of Fame, the oldest multicultural theatre in the country.
From February 2002, through December 2010, Jones was a member of the Board of Cuyahoga County Commissioners, and its president for three of those years. He previously served two and one-half terms in the Ohio House of Representatives, where he was the ranking member of the House Finance and Appropriations Committee and second vice president of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus. Jones was formerly the vice mayor and a councilman in the City of Shaker Heights, Ohio.
Jones’s play, The Bloodless Jungle, enjoyed a regional premiere last year at the Black Repertory Group Theater in Berkeley, California and two full productions at The Ensemble Theatre in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. The drama has enjoyed staged readings at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Dallas Convention Center, the National Black Theatre Festival, Duquesne University and in Harlem. Jones’s most recent play, The Phoenix Society, enjoyed its world premiere in 2022 at Playwrights Local in Cleveland, Ohio. Jones is a graduate of Harvard College with a degree in government, and Harvard Law School.

The 22nd Annual Robert H. Jackson Lecture on the Supreme Court of the United States — Michael R. Dreeben
2026-07-27 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

"Courageous Conversation on Death and Dying" Shahid Aziz
2026-07-27 15:30, 2026-08-03 15:30, 2026-08-10 15:30 | Presbyterian Chapel

Chautauqua Chamber Music: Verona Quartet
2026-07-27 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Join the acclaimed Verona Quartet for an afternoon of expressive performances and dynamic ensemble artistry. Hailed for their “sensational” playing and deep musical insight, the Verona Quartet brings passion and precision to every work they perform. Their program showcases a vibrant mix of classical masterpieces and contemporary voices, reflecting their commitment to storytelling through sound. Experience the emotional power and refined elegance of one of today’s leading string quartets.

Film & Filmmaker Talk: Emmy Award-Winning "Troubled Waters" with Rory Fielding and panel of experts.
2026-07-27 16:30 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Exploring the impact of human behavior on our environment from the perspective of one of South Florida’s most beloved and fragile underwater creatures: the sea turtle. A critical look at the effects of global warming, water pollution, and our “throw-away” plastic lifestyle on this keystone species…and inevitably ourselves.
Post film discussion led by Rory and Courtney Fielding featuring a panel of experts featured in the film, joining by Zoom: Whitney Crowder, Turtle Rehab Manager; John Hocevar, Ocean Director Greenpeace USA; Maria Chatham, veterinarian (sea turtles); and Dave Anderson, Sea Turtle Director Gumbo Limbo Nature Center.
Rory Fielding is an Emmy Award–winning director and producer and the Executive Producer of Rory Fielding Films. His environmental documentaries have earned nine Emmy nominations and four wins. Rory Fielding Films creates films to the highest production and journalistic standards that inform and inspire. Their mission is to tell stories that matter, crafted with excellence and purpose to help shape a better world.

Taize and Tea Meditation Worship
2026-07-27 19:00, 2026-08-03 19:00, 2026-08-10 19:00 | Randell Chapel, UCC Headquarters

Chautauqua Opera Conservatory with the Music School Festival Orchestra "L’Enfant Prodigue & Les Mamelles de Tiresias"
2026-07-27 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Music by: Claude Debussy & Francis Poulenc
Librettist: Édouard Guinand & Guillaume Apollinaire
Stage Director: Emma Griffin
Conductor: Timothy Muffitt
Two masters of French music share the stage in a sparkling double bill. Francis Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias (1945) bursts with surreal satire, flipping gender norms topsy-turvy in a wildly imaginative romp of music and mischief. It’s paired with Claude Debussy’s luminous early masterpiece L’enfant prodigue (1884), a one-act cantata suffused with longing, redemption, and sumptuous lyricism. Together, these works deliver an evening of operatic drama and delight.
The Chautauqua Opera Conservatory is a premier, immersive summer program offering the highest caliber of training for young singers ages 18 and older. Under the leadership of Director Jonathan Beyer, participants join a select community of singers who study, coach, and perform in the inspiring and idyllic setting of the Chautauqua Institution in western New York State.
Our program combines rigorous artistic preparation with a warm, encouraging environment that puts each singer’s growth and well-being first. Voice lessons, role study, vocal coachings, and masterclasses are led by a distinguished full-time faculty of voice teachers, coaches, and stage directors, alongside renowned guest artists from the world’s leading opera houses and conservatories. Students explore and perform repertoire spanning Opera, Art Song, Oratorio, Chamber Music, and Crossover styles.
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.

Mike Thornton & The Midnight Quartet
2026-07-27 22:00 | Roe Green Theater Center
Mike Thornton, jazz vocalist of grit and sophistication, takes center stage with The Midnight Quartet in a performance charged with high-octane energy and deep blues soul. Blending hard-swinging standards with electrifying improvisation, Thornton’s commanding voice rides effortlessly over the band’s tight, driving rhythms. Each tune ignites with hot, explosive solos, delivering a night where smoky storytelling meets virtuosic fire—classic jazz reborn with urgency, swagger, and unmistakable style.

Masters Series Masterclass: The Picture Book with Kao Kalia Yang
2026-07-28 09:00 | Alumni Hall Ballroom, Alumni Hall Ballroom
Kao Kalia Yang is known for her work for adults, but since 2019, she’s cultivated an award-winning body of work in children’s literature. Join Yang in this Masters Series session as she reads from some of her picture books and speaks to the movement across age groups and genre lines in a life dedicated to sharing stories that a child can grow up with and an adult can grow old with.
Kao Kalia Yang is an award-winning Hmong American teacher, speaker, and writer. Her work crosses genres and audiences and centers Hmong children and families who live in our world, who dream, hurt, and hope in it. Yang’s writing and speaking are concerned with the plight of refugees from around our world, ideas of belonging, and the depths of the human experience. She holds an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Carleton College, was the 2024 Star Tribune Artist of the Year, and is a Guggenheim Fellow. Kao Kalia Yang lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with her family.

David Michaels, PhD, MPH, Protecting the integrity of science underpinning public health and environmental protections
2026-07-28 09:15 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary
Chautauqua Science Group Weekly Lecture
David Michaels PhD, MPH, is an epidemiologist and professor at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. He has held high-level, Senate-confirmed public health positions in the administrations of Presidents Barack Obama and President Bill Clinton.
Dr. Michaels is a leader in efforts to protect the integrity of the science underpinning public health and environmental protections. His book The Triumph of Doubt: Dark Money and the Science of Deception (Oxford University Press, 2020) was called “a tour de force” by the reviewer in Science Magazine and “a brave and important book,” by the reviewer in Nature. He is also the author of Doubt is Their Product, which was published by Oxford University Press in 2008 and reissued in 2023.

Stephanie Elizondo Griest
2026-07-28 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Stephanie Elizondo Griest is a globetrotting author from the Texas-Mexico borderlands. Currently a professor of creative nonfiction at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, she has performed on five continents in capacities ranging from a Moth storyteller to a literary ambassador for the U.S. State Department.
Her six books include Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana; Mexican Enough; All the Agents and Saints; and Art Above Everything: One Woman’s Global Exploration of the Joys and Torments of a Creative Life. Widely anthologized, Elizondo Griest has written for The New York Times, Washington Post, The Believer, BBC, Orion, VQR, and Oxford American, among others.
Griest’s work has won a Margolis Award for Social Justice Reporting, an International Latino Book Award, a PEN Southwest Book Award and two Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism prizes. She has been supported by the Henry Luce Foundation, Lannan Foundation, and the Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University.

Todd Paglia, CEO Stand.Earth: Delivering large-scale solutions to climate and environmental problems worldwide
2026-07-28 12:30 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Bird, Tree & Garden Club lunchtime lecture series
When Todd Paglia joined Stand.earth in 1999, he had a vision of transforming the environmental impact of something so ubiquitous that it’s often forgotten – paper. He saw that major corporations in the office supply and catalog industries were purchasing and selling millions of tons of paper with no accountability for, or even knowledge of, the environmental devastation that paper caused. As Executive Director of Stand.earth, Todd can be credited with transforming the paper policies of multi-billion-dollar Fortune 500 companies, including Staples, Office Depot, Williams-Sonoma, Dell, Victoria’s Secret, 3M and many more. Under Todd’s leadership, Stand.earth has saved more than 65 million acres of endangered forests. In addition, recycled pulp mills have seen major companies requesting more sustainable fiber as a result of Stand’s campaigns.
In 2023 under Todd’s leadership Stand was named one of the world’s most innovative companies by Fast Company Magazine and Stand won the 2023 Keeling Curve Prize for innovation in climate advocacy.

CHQ Mystic Heart - Mateo Mortellarto, Tibetan Meditation
2026-07-28 12:30, 2026-07-30 12:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

CHQ Dialogues
2026-07-28 12:30, 2026-07-29 12:30, 2026-08-04 12:30, 2026-08-05 12:30, 2026-08-11 12:30, 2026-08-12 12:30 | Presbyterian House, Presbyterian House

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents Best for Baby (Live Audio Descriptions)
2026-07-28 16:00 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater

School of Music Piano Faculty Recital: Sara Davis Buechner
2026-07-28 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.

Play CHQ: Bird Feeders
2026-07-28 16:00, 2026-07-29 16:00, 2026-08-04 16:00, 2026-08-05 16:00, 2026-08-11 16:00, 2026-08-12 16:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park

CVA Lecture Series: Glenn Goldberg, School of Art Faculty
2026-07-28 18:30 | CVA: Large Drawing Room
The Chautauqua School of Art proudly welcomes Glenn Goldberg as a member of our 2026 visiting faculty. Glenn Goldberg will participate in the School’s Summer Lecture Series, sharing insights and practices with our artistic community.
Glenn Goldberg was born in the Bronx in 1953 and attended the New York Studio School and Queens College during his undergraduate education. He later continued his graduate studies at Queens College to receive his MFA. In 1996 he was named the Heilman Artist and since has received grants from The Guggenheim Foundation, The Edward Albee Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and The Joan Mitchell Foundation. Goldberg’s work has been shown extensively throughout the US and internationally, and is held in numerous collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Academy of Arts and Letters, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, among others. Goldberg has taught at various institutions including The Cooper Union, NY Studio School, Brandeis University, Queens College, Parsons School of Design, and Lodestar School of Art in Ireland. He has also been a panelist and visiting artist for MFA painting programs at Yale, Columbia, Boston University, American University, Hunter College, and others. In 2023, Goldberg was commissioned to create a public arts project at the E. 149th St subway station in the Bronx by the New York MTA Arts and Design Commission. Goldberg lives and works in New York City.

Labyrinth History and Meditation
2026-07-28 18:30 | Turner (Outside of Building)
Bring gate pass. Adjacent to Turner Community Center

Opera & Pops Concert with CSO
2026-07-28 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Stuart Chafetz, conductor
Chautauqua Opera Company Apprentice and Studio Artists join Stuart Chafetz, Principal Pops Conductor, and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for the annual Opera & Pops concert. This popular summer event showcases Chautauqua Opera’s young artists in music from Opera, Operetta and Broadway.

Meshelle: Funny on Purpose
2026-07-28 22:00 | Roe Green Theater Center
In partnership with the African American Heritage House
MESHELLE The Indie-Mom of Comedy, is an award-winning comedian, writer, and solo performer whose work sits at the intersection of arts, culture, and impact, shaped by the lens of a Black woman honoring mothering, family, personal growth, and the undeniable cultural influence of our people. Her stand-up has been featured on Nickelodeon, TruTV, BET, and STARZ, bringing her sharp, insightful voice to audiences nationwide. A TEDx speaker, Open Society Foundations Community Fellow Alumna, and Baker Artist Award winner, she uses comedy as a tool for connection, reflection, and change. Through storytelling rooted in lived experience, MESHELLE creates work that is as thought-provoking as it is hilarious.

School of Music: Opera Conservatory Masterclass with Jonathan Beyer
2026-07-29 10:00 | McKnight Hall, McKnight Hall

Natalie Merchant
2026-07-29 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Natalie Merchant has earned recognition among America’s most respected recording artists, drawing audiences with her captivating performances and intentional songwriting over her 40-year career. Her music blends folk, rock and world music influences, and she continues to be regarded as a pioneering figure in alternative music. She joins the Chautauqua Lecture Series during our week on “Art and Artists Against the Odds” to speak on her passion for arts education for young people.
Her latest record, “Keep Your Courage” (released in 2023 on Nonesuch Records), finds Merchant in peak form. The album dives into love and human connection in its many forms—with Merchant’s voice to keep you hanging on every word.
Merchant has also distinguished herself as a social justice and environmental activist through her work with a wide variety of non-profit organizations, and by creating documentary films and large-scale community arts projects.
Merchant began her musical career as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the pop music band 10,000 Maniacs in 1981 and released two platinum and four gold records with the group. She left the band in 1993 and has subsequently released nine albums as a solo artist with combined sales of seven million copies.
In 2007, Merchant was appointed by Governor Elliot Spitzer to serve on the New York State Council on the Arts, and in 2022 Senator Chuck Schumer appointed her to the board of trustees of The American Folklife Center at The Library of Congress. Merchant’s awards for artistic excellence and philanthropic work include: the ASCAP Champion Award, The Library Lion Award from the New York Public Library and The John Lennon Real Love Award. In 2025 the National Head Start Association made Merchant their national artist-in-residence.
A few days following her lecture, at 3 p.m. on Sunday, August 2, 2026, Merchant will be joined by the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for a free family concert, “Cabinet of Wonder Live!” Under the baton of Principal Pops Conductor Stuart Chafetz, the concert will be a joyful reimagining of Mother Goose developed in collaboration with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and will also include classic children’s poetry that she adapted to music for her highly praised double-album release, Leave Your Sleep.

Organ Recitals Owen Reyda
2026-07-29 12:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Owen Reyda is an organ performance major at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, studying with Jonathan Moyer. At Oberlin, he has also studied piano with Yulia Fedoseeva, choral conducting with Gregory Ristow, and improvisation with Christa Rakich. He has played for local churches in his hometown Westfield, NY and participated in summer organ events and academies, including at Trinity College and Yale University. He has served as Organ Scholar in the Sacred Music program at Chautauqua since 2024.
His program for Chautauqua will include works by August Gottfried Ritter, Robert Schumann, and Louis Vierne

Women In Ministry
2026-07-29 12:15, 2026-08-05 12:15, 2026-08-12 12:15 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

All Denomination Chaplain of the Week with Rabbi Samuel Stahl
2026-07-29 12:30, 2026-08-05 12:30, 2026-08-12 12:30 | Everett Jewish Life Center, Everett Jewish Life Center

Guided Kayak Historic Tour
2026-07-29 12:45, 2026-08-05 12:45, 2026-08-12 12:45 | Sports Club, Waterfront
Enjoy paddling while learning about historic sites along the shores of Chautauqua Institution during this hour-long guided kayak tour. The tour begins and ends at the Sports Club. The cost is for rental of single or tandem kayak plus $12 per person for the tour guide. Limited spots so please reserve one day before the event. For more info, please contact sportsclub@chq.org.

School of Music: Chamber Music Concert #1
2026-07-29 13:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Natalie Wigg-Stevenson
2026-07-29 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Natalie Wigg-Stevenson is a theologian, minister, author and associate professor of contextual education at Emmanuel College (Victoria University, University of Toronto). Natalie brings to her teaching a spirit of play alongside rigorous theological thinking and deep pastoral attentiveness.
Based out of Toronto, she is the author of Ethnographic Theology: An Inquiry into the Production of Theological Knowledge and Transgressive Devotion: Theology as Performance Art, as well as numerous scholarly articles. A creative non-fiction writer, she is a frequent contributor to Sojourners Magazine and has created the open-access, interactive devotional website, Transgressive Devotional.

Chautauqua Arts Education 101: Panel Discussion
2026-07-29 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 local educators 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.

CHQ Dialogues
2026-07-29 15:30, 2026-08-05 15:30, 2026-08-12 15:30 | Catholic House, Catholic House

School of Music: Chamber Music Concert #2
2026-07-29 16:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Film and Filmmaker Talk: Emmy Award-Winning "We Are All Plastic People Now" with Rory Fielding and panel of experts.
2026-07-29 16:30 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
According to Ted Danson, “‘We’re All Plastic People Now’ is alarming, but it shows us that change is possible and should spark the kind of real conversation necessary for us to turn the tide on the plastic pollution crisis.”
Post-film discussion led by Rory and Courtney Fielding with panel of experts featured in the film, joining by Zoom: Dr. Shanna Swan, Dr. David Davis, and Dr. Rolf Halden.
With a gift for making difficult science concepts graspable for average people, JD continues his decades-long career as a science educator, sharing insights from mainstream conventional science as a source of unifying inspiration, from stages, webinars, pulpits, and workshops. He offers insights from how nature works that help us discern who we are and our place in the world.
Rory Fielding is an Emmy Award–winning director and producer and the Executive Producer of Rory Fielding Films. His environmental documentaries have earned nine Emmy nominations and four wins. Rory Fielding Films creates films to the highest production and journalistic standards that inform and inspire. Their mission is to tell stories that matter, crafted with excellence and purpose to help shape a better world.

CHQ Mystic Heart - Therapeutic Gong Meditation with Kim Hehr
2026-07-29 16:45, 2026-08-05 16:45, 2026-08-12 16:45 | Hall of Christ: 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.

Party on the Art Quad
2026-07-29 17:30 | CVA: Arts Quad
The Friends of CVA and Chautauqaua Visual Arts will once again host our annual ticketed fundraising event in the heart of the CVA Arts Quad. The proceeds benefit CVA School of Art residency program scholarships. This event provides an opportunity to connect with fellow art lovers and to bid on original pieces of art as well as experiences, Amphitheater performance tickets and more!

School of Music: Art Song Recital
2026-07-29 18:30 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall

Chautauqua School of Dance presents: "Wuthering Heights"
2026-07-29 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Directed and Choreographed by Sasha Janes, Bonnefoux McBride Artistic Director of Chautauqua School of Dance
On the wild, windswept moors of Yorkshire, this ballet adaptation of Wuthering Heights brings to life the haunting story of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw—two souls bound by a fierce, unbreakable love that defies class, reason, and even death. Through powerful movement and evocative music, passion turns to obsession and betrayal ignites a ruthless quest for revenge, leaving a legacy of heartbreak and longing. Dark, powerful, and unforgettable, this ballet captures the raw intensity of Emily Brontë’s timeless tale of love at its most destructive.
This ballet will showcase both former and current students of the Chautauqua School of Dance.
Contains suggestive content; not recommended for children under 13.

Rev. Zina Jacque
2026-07-30 09:15 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Micah Hendler
2026-07-30 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Micah Hendler is the founder and artistic director of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus (JYC), an Israeli-Palestinian music and dialogue project he has brought from a dream to the global stages of TED and “America’s Got Talent” to The New York Times and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” JYC’s work and mission will frame Hendler’s contributions to the Chautauqua Lecture Series weeklong celebration of “Art and Artists Against the Odds.”
Through the co-creation of music and the sharing of stories, JYC empowers young singers from East and West Jerusalem to speak and sing their truths as they become leaders in their communities and inspire singers and listeners around the world to join them in their work for peace, justice, inclusion and equality. Even in times of war, JYC continues to meet, and its singers’ commitment to each other, and the power of their voices raised in harmony, has only grown. In addition to his ongoing bridge-building work in Jerusalem, Hendler has brought his JYC experience to the U.S. and around the world, collaborating with several organizations working to depolarize America (including Braver Angels, the One America Movement, Convergence, New Pluralists, and Constructive Dialogue Institute), and global organizations including the United Nations, Abu Dhabi Festival, El Sistema Greece, and the first World Congress of Music and Social Change.
Hendler has a degree in music and international studies from Yale and has decades of musical experience from different global traditions. He has also been involved in dialogue work for 20 years and has written and presented in many local and global fora about his work with JYC. Selected for the Forbes “30 Under 30” list for Music in 2017, Hendler has written extensively for Forbes.com on music, society and social change in a global context, using this platform to uplift marginalized voices that are not often heard in mainstream media. He currently lives in Washington, D.C., where he leads regular community sings.

School of Music: Chamber Music Concert #3
2026-07-30 13:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents New Play Workshop 2: The Motions by Zora Howard
2026-07-30 14:00, 2026-07-31 14:00, 2026-08-01 14:00 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater
In the wake of an untimely prognosis, a father and son must relearn how to share space after years of estrangement. They pass the time with quiet rituals – making coffee, playing chess – navigating what is left to say and what is better left unsaid. Funny, tender, and deeply human, The Motions is an ode to the small movements that make a life, and the possibility of beginning again even at our very ends.

Micah Hendler
2026-07-30 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

School of Music: Chamber Music Concert #4
2026-07-30 16:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

School of Music: Chamber Music Concert #5
2026-07-30 18:30 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Sounds of Strauss
2026-07-30 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Rossen Milanov, conductor
The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra presents two of Richard Strauss’s most compelling tone poems. In Also sprach Zarathustra, Strauss explores themes of human striving and philosophical inquiry. Death and Transfiguration offers a contrasting perspective, portraying the final moments of an artist’s life and the transformation that follows. Together, these works showcase Strauss’s extraordinary command of orchestral color and dramatic form.
Program:
Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30
Strauss: Death and Transfiguration, op. 24

Sally Love & Friends: Sleep is the New Sex
2026-07-30 22:00 | Roe Green Theater Center
Usually in bed by 10, but willing to stay up and entertain us with her hilarious takes on sleep, sex and the indignities of our aging bodies,
Sally Love and friends will perform their stand up routines alongside improv artists in a brand new and exciting collaboration.
Ticket sales for this performance benefit Friends of Chautauqua Theater.

Fredrik Backman
2026-07-31 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Fredrik Backman is the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, Us Against You, Anxious People, and The Winners. In 2025, he released his latest book, My Friends, which features an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a complete stranger’s life 25 years later. It is this tale of the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art that frames this capstone presentation of the Chautauqua Lecture Series week on “Art and Artists Against the Odds.” This program is presented in collaboration with the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, and My Friends is a 2026 CLSC selection.
Backman has also written two novellas and one work of nonfiction. His books are published in more than 40 countries. In 2021, he engaged with the Chautauqua audience through its online platform to speak about his novel, Anxious People. That Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle book selection explores the nature of humanity through the lens of comedy and failed bank robbers.

Tessa Hulls
2026-07-31 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle — Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls
An astonishing, deeply moving graphic memoir about three generations of Chinese women, exploring love, grief, exile, and identity.
In her acclaimed graphic memoir debut, Tessa Hulls traces the reverberations of Chinese history across three generations of women in her family. Tessa’s grandmother, Sun Yi, was a Shanghai journalist swept up by the turmoil of the 1949 Communist victory. After fleeing to Hong Kong, she wrote a bestselling memoir about her persecution and survival—then promptly had a mental breakdown from which she never recovered.
Growing up with Sun Yi, Tessa watches both her mother and grandmother struggle beneath the weight of unexamined trauma and mental illness, and bolts to the most remote corners of the globe. But once she turns thirty, roaming begins to feel less like freedom and more like running away. Feeding Ghosts is Tessa’s homecoming, a vivid, heartbreaking journey into history that exposes the fear and trauma that haunt generations, and the love that holds them together.
Tessa Hulls is an artist/writer/adventurer illuminating the connections between the present and the past. Her graphic memoir Feeding Ghosts explores the reverberations of her Chinese grandmother’s escape from the Communist regime and her subsequent mental illness. Her work addresses racial justice, the immigrant experience, generational trauma, mental health, the creative process, and the surprising feminist history of the bicycle. Her graphic memoir Feeding Ghosts has earned the Pulitzer Prize, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize for First Book, 2024 Libby Award and was named a Best Book of 2024 by Time, Forbes, NPR, the Minnesota Star Tribune, LitHub, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Chicago Public Library and others.

School of Music: Opera Conservatory Sing-Out
2026-07-31 14:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

School of Music: Piano Program Play-Out
2026-07-31 16:00 | Sherwood-Marsh 101

Film & Filmmaker Talk: Emmy Award-Winning "Descent: Into the Blue" with Rory Fielding and panel of experts.
2026-07-31 16:30 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
A powerful documentary narrated by Peter Coyote, showcasing the best of the human spirit – the fight to save our ocean’s ecosystem and critically endangered coral reefs.
Post film discussion led by Rory and Courtney Fielding with a panel of experts featured in the film joining by Zoom: Film participants Mike Goldberg, Eric Wehemeyer, John Hocevar, and Ken Nedimeyer (“Father of Coral Restoration”); Renee Sunbird and Christophe Chagnard, Emmy winners for Original Musical Composition.
Rory Fielding is an Emmy Award–winning director and producer and the Executive Producer of Rory Fielding Films. His environmental documentaries have earned nine Emmy nominations and four wins. Rory Fielding Films creates films to the highest production and journalistic standards that inform and inspire. Their mission is to tell stories that matter, crafted with excellence and purpose to help shape a better world.

School of Music: Chamber Music Concert #6
2026-07-31 18:30 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall
No piano

An Evening with Amy Grant
2026-07-31 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Amy Grant’s career spans more than 40 years and stretches from her roots in gospel into becoming an iconic pop star, songwriter, television personality and philanthropist. With three multi-platinum albums, six platinum albums and four gold albums, her total career album sales have exceeded 30 million and over 1 billion global streams. Grant’s chart success has been consistent throughout her career with six No. 1 hits, 10 Top 40 pop singles, 17 Top 40 Adult Contemporary tracks and multiple Contemporary Christian chart-toppers. In addition to her six GRAMMY® Awards, Grant has earned 26 GMA Dove Awards (including four Artist of the Year Awards) and has been awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as well as the Music City Walk of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Conventional wisdom has it that Grant put Contemporary Christian Music on the map becoming the first Contemporary Christian artist to have a platinum record, the first to hit No. 1 on the Pop charts and the first to perform at the GRAMMY® Awards. With that, her legacy as one of the most influential artists of the past four decades is assured. In 2022, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts included Grant as one of their five distinguished Honorees to receive the 45th Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements. Grant continues to actively tour each year playing 70+ solo shows in addition to the annual Christmas At The Ryman residency with Vince Gill which celebrated over 100 headline shows at the Ryman, the first co-headliners to mark this incredible milestone. In the spring of 2026, Grant will release her first new album of new music in over a decade entitled “The Me That Remains” dropping May 8, 2026. Produced by legendary Mac McAnally, this very personal album is a journey through themes of healing, human & spiritual connection, unity, & hope. The album features collaborations with guest artists Ruby Amanfu & Vince Gill along with co-writing partners Jon Foreman (Switchfoot), Tom Douglas, Mike Reid, Mac McAnally and more. The title song reflects Amy’s journey over the last few years overcoming heart surgery and a bike accident that nearly took her life. Amy’s music always looks through a lens of hope & faith while probing the human condition with honest commentary inviting a conversation. “The Me That Remains” album sounds and reads somewhat like a ‘life manual’ written from the perspective of an artist that has lived through it all, knows who she is as an artist and human, and as Amy has said,‘I want to be present for whatever emerges in my time’. The story is not over; it is just the beginning of new chapters to come.
We will also host a Masters Series Masterclass with Amy Grant at 12:30 pm on 7/31 in Norton Hall (separate ticket required).

Old First Night Race and Kids Races
2026-08-01 08:00 | Sports Club, Sports Club
The Sports Club is hosting the popular 50th Annual Old First Night Run/Walk Race and Kids Fun Runs. The OFN 2.75 mile chip-timed race follows the perimeter of Chautauqua’s beautiful grounds. This year we will also host two kids races – a 1 mile non-chip timed race and little kids short fun run. Kids hats included with race registration. If you are not on the grounds August 1, you can participate in the virtual Around the World race. Race registration includes t-shirt. Sign up at oldfirstnight.com. Questions? Contact sportsclub@chq.org

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents FutureNow New Play Lab 1: The Bone Wars
2026-08-01 11:00 | Roe Green Theater Center
Paleontologists O.C. Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope race against each other to uncover the secrets of the prehistoric world. Between them, they discover and named 136 new species of dinosaurs, including Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Coelophysis, and Allosaurus. Their rivalry also led to their professional and personal ruin. The Bone Wars brings to life the explosive true story of the legendary rivalry between two American paleontologists in the late 1800s.

Dolly Parton's Threads: My Songs in Symphony with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
2026-08-01 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs in Symphony features Dolly’s songs and the stories behind them in an innovative multimedia symphonic experience featuring Dolly on screen, leading audiences in a visual-musical journey of her songs, her life, and her stories. Guest vocalists and musicians bring new and innovative orchestrations of Dolly’s hit songs together into a full-evening multimedia symphonic story-telling experience. Dolly Parton says, “The threads of my life are woven together through my songs. That’s why this project, Threads: My Songs in Symphony, is so special to me. It’s all about sharing my music and my musical journey with audiences in a new way.”
Co-produced by Dolly Parton together with Schirmer Theatrical and Sony Music Publishing.
Please Note: Dolly Parton is not performing or attending this event.

Rev. Anna Carter Florence
2026-08-02 10:45, 2026-08-03 09:15, 2026-08-04 09:15, 2026-08-05 09:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
The Rev. Anna Carter Florence is the Peter Marshall Professor of Preaching at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church. She is also currently serving as Co-Director of the Columbia Preachers Studio for Renewal, a Lilly-funded Compelling Preaching grant.
Before joining the Columbia faculty in 1998, Florence served as an associate pastor for youth and young adults at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis. Based on her 2012 Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching at Yale Divinity School is her first book, Preaching as Testimony, Inscribing the Word, Rehearsing Scripture: Discovering God’s Word in Community. Florence’s most recent title, A Is for Alabaster: 52 Reflections on the Stories of Scripture, has a forthcoming sequel titled, B Is for Banquet: 52 More Reflections on the Stories of Scripture. She has published articles and chapters in numerous books and journals, including a year’s worth of lectionary text commentaries for WorkingPreacher.org.
Florence is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and holds a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University as well as a Master in Divinity and Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary.

Art in the Park
2026-08-02 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 & Klezmer Band
2026-08-02 11:30 | Miller Park, Miller Park

6-Week Residency Open Studios
2026-08-02 14:00 | CVA: Arts Quad
Join us at the Arts Quad where visitors are invited to step inside our 6-week resident artists’ studios, learn more about their processes, and engage with the residents before gathering for a reception celebrating the exhibition next door at the School of Art Gallery. This event provides a glimpse into the ideas, experiments, and conversations that have shaped the School of Art 6-week residency experience.

Cabinet of Wonder Live! A Free Family Concert with Natalie Merchant & The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
2026-08-02 15:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Stuart Chafetz, Conductor
Natalie Merchant, Composer and Vocals
American singer-songwriter, recording artist, and activist Natalie Merchant will be in residence at Chautauqua Institution this summer (July 25-August 2, 2026) for Week Five’s programmatic theme, “Art & Artists Against the Odds.”
Merchant will give a matinee family-friendly concert performance with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Principal Pops Conductor Stuart Chafetz, which will be free to the public. The concert will center on the music of Merchants’ Cabinet of Wonder, a joyful reimagining of Mother Goose developed in collaboration with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and will also include classic children’s poetry that she adapted to music for her highly praised double-album release, Leave Your Sleep (2010 Nonesuch Records).
A Chautauqua County native, Merchant was strongly influenced by local artists and her summer encounters with arts at the Institution during her formative years. At the age of fifteen, she spent a summer volunteering in a therapeutic arts camp for developmentally and physically challenged children in Ashville. It was there that she first witnessed the transformative power of art education and was inspired to become an art therapist. Although her life path led her to a career as professional musician, she has continued to honor her commitment to the healing power of music. Merchant will combine her performances on the grounds of Chautauqua site visits to locally sponsored children’s programs for workshops and sing-a-longs. Since leaving the area in 1988, she has returned several times over the years to perform solo and with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.
Merchant will also appear in the Chautauqua Lecture Series on July 29th at 10:45am; her talk will focus on her life-long commitment to using music as powerful means of communication, community building, and a tool for social justice.

6-Week Residency Exhibition Opening
2026-08-02 15:00 | CVA: Arts Quad
We are excited to announce the culmination of the Chautauqua School of Art’s 6-Week Residency Program with an opening reception, following our open studios event.
Over the course of six weeks, resident artists have immersed themselves in focused studio practice, meaningful dialogue, and creative exploration. This special evening offers an opportunity to experience the work that emerged during their time at Chautauqua through both an open studio event and this group exhibition.
We hope you’ll join us in celebrating this talented cohort of artists and the work they have developed during their summer at Chautauqua.

John Hoppenthaler and Roy Hoffman
2026-08-02 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Writers’ Center Faculty Reading — Featuring John Hoppenthaler (Poetry) and Roy Hoffman (Prose)
John Hoppenthaler’s books of poetry are Night Wing Over Metropolitan Area, Domestic Garden, Anticipate the Coming Reservoir, and Lives of Water, all with Carnegie Mellon UP. He has co-edited a volume of essays on the poetry of Jean Valentine, This-World Company (U of Michigan P). A Professor of English at East Carolina University, his poetry appears in Ploughshares, Virginia Quarterly Review, TriQuarterly, Southern Review, Poetry Northwest, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and many other journals and anthologies.
Roy Hoffman is a novelist and journalist with an interest in family, history, and characters of diverse backgrounds struggling to connect. He is the author of four novels: “The Promise of the Pelican,” about an 82-year-old lawyer defending an undocumented worker accused of a crime; “Come Landfall,” about love, war, and hurricanes; “Chicken Dreaming Corn,” inspired by his Jewish immigrant grandparents to Alabama, praised by Harper Lee; and “Almost Family,” set in the Civil Rights era South. He’s written two nonfiction books, “Back Home,” and “Alabama Afternoons.” Roy worked for many years in New York as a journalist and speechwriter, covered features and religion for his hometown newspaper in Mobile, AL., and has written essays for the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall St. Journal. He resides in Fairhope, AL., and is on the faculty of the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing in Louisville, KY. On the web: www.royhoffmanwriter.com

Hebrew Congregation, Shirley Lazarus Sunday Evening Lecture Series- Sheldon Goldberg
2026-08-02 19:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall

CHQ Mystic Heart - Dhara Kowal, Zen Buddhism Meditation Practice
2026-08-03 07:45, 2026-08-04 07:45, 2026-08-05 07:45, 2026-08-06 07:45, 2026-08-07 07:45 | Presbyterian House, Presbyterian House
Sensei Dhara Kowal- Kowal is Dharma Successor to Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede, who sanctioned her as a Zen teacher in 2022 and gave her Dharma Transmission in 2025. As a resident teacher and priest (ordained in 2023), she serves as Co-Director of the Rochester Zen Center, in partnership with Sensei John Pulleyn.
In the preceding years, she joined the Center’s staff in 2019. She served as both Head of Zendo at Chapin Mill, the Center’s country retreat facility, and Manager of the Sangha Programs Office, which coordinates educational and social programming.
Born and raised in Staten Island, New York, Dhara-sensei first learned about Zen practice while training in martial arts. She joined the Center in 1998 and was a local Sangha member for some 20 years prior to joining staff. During that time, she committed herself to attending as many sesshins as possible and serving the Center as a volunteer, including Editor of Zen Bow for 14 years. She also had a successful career in academia as an award-winning professor and author (Ph.D. in Rhetoric & Communication, University of Pittsburgh).

Ken Burns and Jeffrey Rosen
2026-08-03 10:45, 2026-08-04 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Celebrating the United States semiquincentennial, Chautauqua presents Week Six, “America at 250: In Partnership with The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.” The milestone anniversary offers an opportunity to survey the previous quarter millennium – how a collection of British colonies became the world’s pre-eminent constitutional democracy, with major successes, failures and continued struggles along the way – alongside world-renowned leaders in historical education. To begin this weeklong commemoration, Chautauqua welcomes Ken Burns and Jeffrey Rosen back to the Amphitheater stage for a two-day conversation on themes and threads from the pair’s latest projects: for Burns, the November 2025 PBS documentary “The American Revolution,” and for Rosen, his October 2025 book The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton and Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America.
Ken Burns has been making documentary films for almost fifty years. Since the Academy Award nominated “Brooklyn Bridge” in 1981, Burns has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including “The Civil War”; “Baseball”; “Jazz”; “The War”; “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea”; “Prohibition”; “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History”; “The Vietnam War”; “Country Music”; “The U.S. and the Holocaust”; “The American Buffalo”; “Leonardo da Vinci”; and, most recently, “The American Revolution.”
Future film projects include “Emancipation to Exodus” and “LBJ & the Great Society,” among others.
His films have been honored with dozens of major awards, including seventeen Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards and two Oscar nominations. In September of 2008, at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards, Burns was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award. In November of 2022, he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
Jeffrey Rosen is chief executive officer emeritus of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization whose mission is to educate the public about the U.S. Constitution. His latest book, The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton and Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America, was released in October 2025. It highlights how the opposing constitutional visionaries continue to drive the debate over the power of government today. Rosen appeared as part of the 2025 Chautauqua Forum on Democracy, where he was publicly announced and recognized for the first time as the newly appointed 2025–26 Chautauqua Perry Fellow in Democracy.
Rosen is currently a professor of law at the George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. He was previously the legal affairs editor of The New Republic and a staff writer for The New Yorker. In his former role at the National Constitution Center, he was the host of “We the People,” a weekly podcast of constitutional debate.
Rosen is the author of seven other books, including the New York Times bestseller Conversations with RBG: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law, as well as biographies of Louis Brandeis and William Howard Taft. He is a graduate of Harvard College; Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar; and Yale Law School.

Rosemarie Zagarri
2026-08-03 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Rosemarie Zagarri is Distinguished University Professor and professor of history at George Mason University. A specialist in Early American political and women’s history, she is the author of a numerous articles and several books, including The Politics of Size: Representation in the United States, 1776-1850, A Woman’s Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution, and Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic.
She has contributed several amicus briefs to the Supreme Court and is a member of the Brennan’s Center’s Historians Council on the Constitution. She has been a historical consultant for the Statue of Liberty Museum as well as on various digital projects, such the Mapping Early American Elections project and When Women Lost the Vote. A former president of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR), she is also an elected member of the American Antiquarian Society and the Society of American Historians.
Zagarri has received numerous scholarly awards, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Philosophical Society, and the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University.

Masters Series Masterclass: A Conversation with Ken Burns
2026-08-03 15:30 | Norton Hall, Norton Hall
Join Ken Burns for an in-depth conversation about his latest work, “The American Revolution.” A filmmaker for almost 50 years, Burns will expand upon his morning lecture on the Amphitheater stage. An opportunity for Q & A, patrons can ask about Burns’ awards, career, research and future plans.

Chautauqua Chamber Music: Ruckus with Keir GoGwilt, violin
2026-08-03 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Experience the electrifying energy of Ruckus, a boundary-pushing baroque ensemble redefining early music performance. With virtuosic flair and a fresh, improvisatory spirit, Ruckus brings 17th- and 18th-century works vividly to life. Their performances blend historical authenticity with modern vitality, creating concerts that feel both timeless and daringly new. Don’t miss this exuberant celebration of baroque music at its most alive and joyful.

Chautauqua School of Dance with the Music School Festival Orchestra
2026-08-03 20:00 | 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.
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.

Judi Greewald, CEO of the Nuclear Innovation Alliance
2026-08-04 09:15 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary
Chautauqua Science Group Weekly Lecture
Judi Greenwald is the President and CEO of the Nuclear Innovation Alliance.
Ms. Greenwald has over 35 years of energy and environmental policy leadership experience in the public and nonprofit sectors, including the U.S. Congress, the White House, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES, formerly the Pew Center on Global Climate Change). Highlights of her distinguished career include working on the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments as congressional committee staff; overseeing energy and environmental programs at C2ES and DOE; co-founding the Carbon Capture Coalition; advising U.S. state and regional greenhouse gas initiatives; and collaborating with stakeholders to advance both economic and environmental goals.
She has focused extensively on deep decarbonization through the interplay of public policy, technology innovation, human behavior, and markets. She served as Deputy Director for Climate, Environment, and Energy Efficiency at US DOE’s Energy Policy and Systems Analysis Office, and the Senior Climate Advisor to the Energy Secretary. She was a fellow at Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. Ms. Greenwald received a B.S. in Engineering, cum laude, from Princeton University, and an M.A. in Science, Technology, and Public Policy from George Washington University.

Sigrid Jakob: "Fruiting Bodies and Big Ideas: a Citizen Science Adventure"
2026-08-04 12:30 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Bird, Tree & Garden Club lunchtime lecture series
Sigrid Jakob is a freelance marketing strategist during the day and mycophile in her spare time. She’s an avid member and president of the New York Mycological Society, a mushroom club that goes out and observes fungi in New York City’s parks 52 weeks a year. She extracts fungal DNA in her home lab, incubates dung fungi, writes and lectures.

CHQ Mystic Heart - Dhara Kowal, Zen Buddhism Meditation Practice
2026-08-04 12:30, 2026-08-06 12:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

Manisha Sinha
2026-08-04 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Manisha Sinha is the Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut and immediate Past President of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. She received her Ph.D from Columbia University where her dissertation was nominated for the Bancroft Prize. She was nominated to the OAH Distinguished Lecture Series in 2003. A Guggenheim fellow for 2022-2023, she has received several other fellowships from the NEH and the Mellon foundation. She is the author of The Counterrevolution of Slavery: Politics and Ideology in Antebellum South Carolina which was cited in the New York Times’ 1619 project and named one of the ten best books on slavery in Politico. She is also the author of the multi award winning The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition, which was long listed for the National Book Award for Non-Fiction and translated into Chinese in 2025. She taught at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst for over twenty years where she received the Chancellor’s Medal, the highest honor bestowed on faculty. She was a visiting Professor at the University of Paris, Diderot in 2018 and at the University of Heidelberg in 2022, where she received the 2021 Pennington award. She has published widely in the mainstream press, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, The Boston Globe, and The Nation, to name a few and has been interviewed in the national and international press. Her recent book The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920 won the President’s Book Prize from the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era in 2026.

School of Music: Open Recital
2026-08-04 14:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Time and Water film and filmmaker talk
2026-08-04 16:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Time and Water
A National Geographic documentary film inspired by Andri Snær Magnason’s 2019 non-fiction On Time and Water, directed by Sara Dosa, premiered at the Sundance Festival on 27th January 2026.
Facing the death of his country’s glaciers and the loss of his beloved grandparents, Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason turns his archives into a time capsule to hold what is slipping away — family, memory, time, and water.
Writer, filmmaker, and poet Andri Magason is one of Iceland’s leading creative forces who has twice met with Chautauqua Travels groups in Reykjavik, and visited Chautauqua Institution in 2023.

Masters Series Masterclass: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation presents Becoming History with Stephen Seals, Nation Builder James Lafayette and Fifes & Drums Experience: Tuesday
2026-08-04 16:30 | Norton Hall, Norton Hall
Location Hold

Old First Night
2026-08-04 18:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Old First Night is Chautauqua’s birthday party, and all are invited!
In the early years of Chautauqua, the season’s first night was not in late June but early August. Therefore, Old First Night (OFN) is a celebration of the original first night of the season at Chautauqua.
This event begins with music from Thursday Morning Brass at 6 p.m., followed by vespers and a traditional Chautauqua salute called the Drooping of the Lilies, which honors Chautauquans who are no longer with us. The program continues with music and audience participation events, and all generations are involved, including Children’s School and Boys’ and Girls’ Club. The program concludes with a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” accompanied by the Massey Memorial Organ.

Puppy Pals Live - The Action-Packed Comedic Stunt Dog Show
2026-08-04 19:30 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
As Seen on America’s Got Talent, Puppy Pals Live is a family fun action-packed show where adopted and rescued dogs perform spectacular stunts and breathtaking feats. Watch as Puppy Pals Live leads the puppies and audience through challenging and comical tricks as the pooches show everyone who is really boss! Full of canine stunts and laugh-out-loud canine comedy, it is no surprise this show has been a hit all over the USA!

David W. Blight and Tiya Miles
2026-08-05 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Continuing Chautauqua’s weeklong commemoration of “America at 250,” two of the country’s pre-eminent historians present a mainstage conversation about the moral foundations of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and how they have been interpreted and reinterpreted throughout American history.
David W. Blight is Sterling Professor of History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. In 2020, Yale President Peter Salovey appointed him as chair of the Yale and Slavery Working Group. With his Working Group colleagues, Blight authored the book Yale and Slavery: A History, a narrative study of Yale’s historic involvement and associations with slavery and its aftermaths, published by Yale University Press in February of 2024.
Blight is the immediate past president of the Organization of American Historians. He previously taught at North Central College in Illinois, Harvard University and Amherst College. He is the author or editor of a dozen books, including Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom; American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era; Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory; and annotated editions of Douglass’s first two autobiographies. Blight has worked on Douglass much of his professional life, and been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, the Abraham Lincoln Prize, and the Frederick Douglass Prize, among others. He writes frequently for the popular press, including The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many other journals.
In 2020, Blight was elected to the American Philosophical Society and awarded the Gold Medal for History by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. At the beginning of his career, he spent seven years as a high school history teacher in his hometown of Flint, Michigan.
Tiya Miles is a public historian and the author of eight books that explore Black, Indigenous and women’s history; place and environment; and contemporary uses of the past. These works include four prize-winning histories and one prize-winning novel about slavery and its legacies. Her 2021 National Book Award winner, All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake, was a New York Times bestseller that won eleven historical and literary prizes.
Miles’ latest work is Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. Her other books include Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation; The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits; The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story; Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom; Tales from the Haunted South: Dark Tourism and Memories of Slavery from the Civil War Era; and the novel The Cherokee Rose.
Miles publishes frequently in national periodicals, and her work has been supported by the MacArthur Foundation (“genius award”), the Guggenheim Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and she currently serves as the Michael Garvey Professor of History at Harvard University.

School of Music: Brass Chamber Concert
2026-08-05 14:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Masters Series Masterclass: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation presents Becoming History with Katharine Pittman, Nation Builder Martha Washington and Fifes & Drums Experience: Wednesday
2026-08-05 16:30 | Norton Hall, Norton Hall

Dance Preview: Alonzo King "LINES"
2026-08-05 18:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Chautauqua Dance Circle-Anita Lin
alin@chqdancecircle.org

CVA Lecture Series: Susan Lichtman, School of Art Faculty
2026-08-05 18:30 | Hultquist 101, Hultquist 101
The Chautauqua School of Art proudly welcomes Susan Lichtman as a member of our 2026 visiting faculty. Susan Lichtman will participate in the School’s Summer Lecture Series, sharing insights and practices with our artistic community.
Susan Lichtman is a figurative painter of domestic spaces, working out of her home studio in southeastern Massachusetts. She graduated from Brown University and received an MFA in Painting from Yale University School of Art.
Lichtman has had solo exhibitions at Steven Harvey Fine Arts Projects, (NY, NY); Fahrenheit Gallery (Madrid, Spain); Gross McCleaf Gallery, (Philadelphia, PA); and Wilson Museum at Hollins University, (Roanoke, VA.) Recent group exhibitions have been at Steven Harvey Fine Arts Project and Nathalie Karg Gallery, (NY, NY); Wege Center for the Arts, (Fairfield, IA); Chazen Gallery, (Providence, RI); Page Gallery, (Camden, ME); and Crosstown Arts, (Memphis, TN). A recipient of a fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, she also holds awards from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Susan Lichtman is Professor and Charles Bloom Chair, Emerita, of the Department of Fine Arts at Brandeis University. She has been a visiting artist at universities and art schools throughout the US. She was the Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence at Hollins University, the Guest of Honor at JSS Civita, IT and has taught in summer programs at Yale Norfolk, Pont-Aven School of Art and MassArt New England.

School of Music: Double Bass Concert
2026-08-05 18:30 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Alonzo King LINES Ballet
2026-08-05 19:30 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Alonzo King LINES Ballet is a celebrated contemporary ballet company that has been guided since 1982 by the unique artistic vision of award-winning choreographer Alonzo King. Since 1982, LINES Ballet has collaborated with noted composers, musicians and visual artists from around the world to create performances that alter the way we look at ballet today. Its unique artistic vision adheres to the classical form — the linear, mathematical and geometrical principles that are deeply rooted in the pre-existing East-West continuum.

The Sarah James Trio
2026-08-05 22:00 | Roe Green Theater Center
Chautauqua’s own award-winning singer-songwriter and recording artist Sarah James from Scottsdale, AZ, brings her trio to our late-night series at the Roe Green Theater. From Pittsburgh, PA, accompanying Sarah will be notable guitarist and musical artist Doug Edgell and Aaron Majiros on bass and keys. Sarah James has been a staple at 3Taps here at CHQ and other CHQ County venues bringing her own blend of what she calls “Americana-Fusion” covering a wide variety of genres from rock, pop, indie and a dab of country.
Performing solo and with her band in a variety of venues in the Phoenix market, Sarah’s music video “Take It or Leave It” recently won Bronze at the Berlin Music Video Awards in Germany and First Place in the Los Angeles Wildwood LGBT film festival. Her recent release and lyric video “Better Than This” is currently seeing nearly 250K streams on YouTube. She is also the founder and host of the popular YouTube channel “Vintage Guitar Legacies” which features a presentation and demo of rare and collectable guitars.

Rev. Anna Carter Florence
2026-08-06 09:15 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Melody Barnes
2026-08-06 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Melody Barnes is the founding executive director of the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy, where she leads the Institute on an action-oriented path to realizing the promise of democracy in both principle and practice. She joins Chautauqua’s weeklong exploration of “America at 250” with remarks reflecting on the foundations of democracy and justice, tracing throughlines from the country’s founding to the work of democracy today.
In addition to her leadership at the Karsh Institute, Barnes is the W.L. Lyons Brown Family Director for Policy and Public Engagement in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences’ Democracy Initiative, a professor of practice at UVA’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, and a distinguished fellow at UVA’s School of Law. She is also co-founder of the domestic policy strategy firm MB2 Solutions. In 2024–25, Barnes was an inaugural recipient of the Chautauqua Perry Fellowship in Democracy alongside New York Times columnist David French; she is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves on the boards of several corporate, nonprofit, and philanthropic organizations.
A committed public servant, Barnes brings more than 25 years of experience shaping public policy at the highest levels of government and the non-profit sector. She served as assistant to the president and director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under President Barack Obama. Previously, she was executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress and chief counsel to the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. She began her career in law as an associate at Shearman & Sterling in New York.
Barnes holds a B.A. with honors in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a J.D. from the University of Michigan.

Jane Kamensky
2026-08-06 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Jane Kamensky is president and CEO of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. A leading historian of early America and the United States, she worked for three decades as a professor and higher education leader, most recently as Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard University and Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Harvard Radcliffe Institute.
A former Commissioner of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and past Trustee of the Museum of the American Revolution, Kamensky is a member of the National Advisory Council of More Perfect as well as on the executive committee of the national history-civics initiative Educating for American Democracy, among many other public history roles. From 2018 through 2025, she served as a scholarly advisor and on-camera expert for the Florentine Films/Ken Burns documentary, “The American Revolution.”
Kamensky is the author or editor of numerous books spanning four centuries of American history, including A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley, which won four major prizes and was a finalist for several others. Her most recent book, Candida Royalle and the Sexual Revolution, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography.

Chautauqua Opera Company Workshop: Anne of Green Gables and A Prayer for Owen Meany
2026-08-06 15:15 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall
Chautauqua Opera Company will host the first workshops of two new works by GRAMMY Award nominated composer Luna Pearl Woolf. Toronto’s Against the Grain Theatre has commissioned a new adaptation of Anne of Green Gables by Woolf and librettist Royce Vavrek (Lincoln in the Bardo). Pacific Opera Victoria and Opéra Magnolia have commissioned the first operatic adaptation of John Irving’s internationally best-selling novel A Prayer for Owen Meany, for which Woolf will provide both libretto and music. Through these inventive new operas two of Canadian literature’s most iconic characters, Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne Shirley and Irving’s Owen Meany, will come to life. The public presentation with piano accompaniment which concludes these workshops will be the first time any music from these works has been heard, and will give Chautauqua audiences a unique opportunity to watch the development of these groundbreaking works.

Beach-to-Beach Color Sprint
2026-08-06 16:30 | Sports Club, Sports Club
Ages 6+ are invited to run the color sprint. $13 fee includes white t-shirt. Powdered paint tossed at participants as they run from the children’s beach to Heinz beach.Great photo opp at the end! Questions? contact sportsclub@chq.org

Masters Series Masterclass: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation presents Pursuing Happiness with Thomas Jefferson and Fifes & Drums Experience: Thursday
2026-08-06 16:30 | Norton Hall, Norton Hall

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra with Aubree Oliverson, violin
2026-08-06 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Rossen Milanov, conductor
Aubree Oliverson, violin
Experience an evening of myth, melody, and modernity with The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and guest violinist Aubree Oliverson. Missy Mazzoli’s Orpheus Undone reimagines the ancient myth with driving energy and striking orchestral color. Dvořák’s beloved Violin Concerto brings lyrical warmth and Romantic sweep to the spotlight, showcasing Oliverson’s expressive artistry. The program concludes with Kevin Puts’ Concerto for Orchestra, a dazzling display of rhythmic vitality and instrumental flair that highlights the full power of the ensemble.
Program:
Mazzoli: Orpheus Undone
Dvorak: Violin Concerto
Puts: Concerto for Orchestra

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange
2026-08-06 22:00 | Roe Green Theater Center
CTC’s 2026 Acting Conservatory student Mengwe Wapimewah performs For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange

Robert P. George
2026-08-07 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. Currently, he also chairs the New Jersey Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. George is general editor of New Forum Books, a Princeton University Press series of interdisciplinary works in law, culture and politics. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is of counsel to the law firm of Robinson & McElwee. He will help close Chautauqua’s week commemorating “America at 250” with his perspective on the significance of “freedom of conscience” in the American founding and ongoing experiment.
George has frequently been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, teaching philosophy of law and related subjects. In addition, he has served as chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, on the President’s Council on Bioethics, as a presidential appointee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, and as the U.S. member of UNESCO’s World Commission on the Ethics of Science and Technology.
George is the author of several books; his most recent is Seeking Truth and Speaking Truth: Law and Morality in Our Cultural Moment. He has written numerous academic articles and review essays along with pieces for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
A graduate of Swarthmore College, George holds the degrees of J.D. and MTS from Harvard University and the degrees of PhD, BCL, DCL, and D.Litt. from Oxford University, in addition to 23 honorary doctorates. He is a recipient of the U.S. Presidential Citizens Medal, the Honorific Medal for the Defense of Human Rights of the Republic of Poland, the Canterbury Medal of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and Princeton University’s President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching.

The Age of the Imaginals: A Musical Performance
2026-08-07 12:45 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Following last year’s lecture presentation, Just the Right Climate for Metaphors, Caitlyn Kamminga returns to premiere The Age of the Imaginals. With music by Adam Walters, and poetry by Kamminga, this chamber work blends music and spoken word to explore transformation on a metamorphosing planet. This performance offers an accessible entry point for audiences of all ages to engage with climate change, resilience, and possibility.

Laurie Halse Anderson and Adrian Matejka
2026-08-07 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle – Rebellion 1776 by Laurie Halse Anderson and Be Easy: New & Selected Poems by Adrian Matejka
Laurie Halse Anderson and Adrian Matejka will join us in conversation in a joint CLSC Author Presentation on Friday, August 7, 2026, in the Hall of Philosophy. Reading Be Easy: New & Selected Poems by Adrian Matejka alongside Rebellion 1776 by Laurie Halse Anderson creates a powerful conversation about race, resistance, and the meaning of freedom in America. Together, the books highlight how the promises of liberty in 1776 were unevenly distributed and how the struggle for dignity and self-definition continues across centuries. In dialogue, they invite readers to question who freedom was—and is—for, and how rebellion can be both a public act and a deeply personal one.
Rebellion 1776
From New York Times bestselling author Laurie Halse Anderson comes an “thoroughly researched, emotionally resonant” (Booklist, starred review) historical fiction middle grade adventure about a girl struggling to survive amid a smallpox epidemic, the public’s fear of inoculation, and the seething Revolutionary War.
In the spring of 1776, thirteen-year-old Elsbeth Culpepper wakes to the sound of cannons. It’s the Siege of Boston, the Patriots’ massive drive to push the Loyalists out that turns the city into a chaotic war zone. Elsbeth’s father—her only living relative—has gone missing, leaving her alone and adrift in a broken town while desperately seeking employment to avoid the orphanage.
Just when things couldn’t feel worse, the smallpox epidemic sweeps across Boston. Now, Bostonians must fight for their lives against an invisible enemy in addition to the visible one. Elsbeth, who had smallpox as a small child and is now immune, finds work taking care of a large, wealthy family with discord of their own as they await a turn at inoculation, but as the epidemic and the revolution rage on, will she find her father? This book will serve as a joint CLSC and CLSC Young Reader selection.
Laurie Halse Anderson is a New York Times bestselling author known for tackling tough subjects with humor and sensitivity. She’s twice been a National Book Award finalist, for Chains and Speak; Chains also received the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction. Laurie was chosen for the 2009 Margaret A. Edwards Award and received the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2023, presented to her by the Crown Princess of Sweden. She lives in Pennsylvania, and you can follow her adventures on X @HalseAnderson or visit her at MadWomanintheForest.com.
Be Easy: New & Selected Poems
Revered for his “patient, clever, controlled, [and] visionary” (Hanif Abdurraquib) poems, Adrian Matejka has been a mainstay of contemporary American poetry for over two decades. Gathering hits from six extraordinary collections, Be Easy showcases his singular sonics and narrative vision in fresh, dynamic poems that lyrically complicate place, race, and identity.
Traversing the Midwest from Indianapolis to Chicago, new poems explore the twitchy unease of unintentional migration and economic instability as the country faces a future every bit as unsettling and circus-like as parking lot carnivals of the poet’s childhood. Selections from Mixology (2008)—“a post-soul tour de force” (Kevin Young)—reverberate with the rhythm of ’80s hip-hop, while “revelatory” (Gabrielle Calvocoressi) odes from Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist The Big Smoke (2013) reimagine the legacy of prizefighter Jack Johnson and transcendent poems from Map to the Stars (2017) brim with cosmic jazz.
Matejka’s smooth lyricism flows into a singular, indispensable collection of memories lost and found again. Tracing the continuum of a “rocket-powered” (Campbell McGrath) writer, Be Easy affirms Matejka as one of the most exciting voices of our time.
Adrian Matejka is the author of six poetry collections and the graphic novel Last on His Feet. He has been nominated for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, served as the poet laureate of the state of Indiana from 2018–2019, and is editor–in–chief of Poetry magazine. He lives in Chicago.

Chautauqua Opera Company Orchestral Workshop: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
2026-08-07 15:15 | Norton Hall, Norton Hall
In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Grammy award-winning composer and librettist Herschel Garfein has created the first ever operatic adaptation of a play by Tom Stoppard. Chautauqua Opera Company’s young artists will be joined by internationally heralded baritone Keith Phares and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for a ten-day workshop of the complete opera, which concludes with a public presentation of excerpts and panel discussion with Garfein and Phares. Reviewing excerpts presented at Fort Worth Opera’s Frontiers Festival, the Wall Street Journal said, “composer-librettist Herschel Garfein set the diamond-bright dialogue of the Tom Stoppard play with clarity and wit, heightening the comedy through skillful ensemble writing and characterization.”

School of Music: Percussion Ensemble Concert
2026-08-07 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents How I Learned What I Learned
2026-08-07 18:00, 2026-08-09 14:00, 2026-08-09 18:00, 2026-08-11 18:00, 2026-08-12 18:00, 2026-08-13 18:00 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater
By August Wilson
Directed by Jade King Carroll
Bratton Theater
August Wilson’s celebrated classic solo piece is an autobiographical tour de force that follows Wilson’s journey through the streets of Pittsburgh’s Hill District — through artistic awakenings, odd jobs and heartbreaks — capturing the moments that forged his identity. From the hustle of his early days to the love affair that almost got him killed, Wilson weaves his youth into a series of deliciously compelling stories. With his trademark wit, lyricism, and truth-telling, he invites audiences into the dynamic world that shaped both the man and the master storyteller he became.

Flame of Revolution: A Colonial Williamsburg 250th Commemoration
2026-08-07 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Two hundred and fifty years ago, a handful of visionary minds gathered in Williamsburg, Virginia to do something few had ever dared – they declared their independence, and in doing so, changed the course of human history.
Flame of Revolution is an immersive, multimedia journey into the birth of the Declaration of Independence – the debates that nearly derailed it, the courage that carried it forward and the timeless ideals that continue to challenge and inspire us today.
As the nation’s foremost living history museum, Colonial Williamsburg has spent nearly a century helping Americans not merely remember their founding but truly understand it. Through engaging storytelling, rigorous scholarship, and transformative civic programming, Colonial Williamsburg has educated generations of students, teachers, and lifelong learners on the enduring principles that shaped our nation so that the future may learn from the past.

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents How I Learned What I Learned (Pick-Your-Price)
2026-08-08 16:00 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater

Alonzo King LINES Ballet with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
2026-08-08 19:30 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Alonzo King LINES Ballet is a celebrated contemporary ballet company that has been guided since 1982 by the unique artistic vision of award-winning choreographer Alonzo King. Since 1982, LINES Ballet has collaborated with noted composers, musicians and visual artists from around the world to create performances that alter the way we look at ballet today. Its unique artistic vision adheres to the classical form — the linear, mathematical and geometrical principles that are deeply rooted in the pre-existing East-West continuum. The Company brings two separate programs to the Amphitheater, with Saturday’s program featuring live music from the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra under the baton of music director Rossen Milanov.

The Rev. Frank A. Thomas
2026-08-09 10:45, 2026-08-11 09:15, 2026-08-12 09:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
The Rev. Frank A. Thomas currently serves as the Director of the Compelling Preaching Initiative and the Nettie Sweeney and Hugh Th. Miller Professor of Homiletics at Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, Indiana. For many years, Thomas has also taught preaching to doctoral and master’s level students at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Memphis Theological Seminary in Memphis, Tennessee, and United Theological Seminary of Dayton, Ohio. With a long history of excellence in preaching and preaching method, Thomas was inducted into the prestigious Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers of Morehouse College in 2003. Thomas also serves as a member of the International Board of Societas Homiletica, an international society of teachers of preaching.
Thomas is the author of several books including, The God of the Dangerous Sermon, Surviving a Dangerous Sermon, How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon, and Introduction to the Practice of African American Preaching. He also co-edited the anthology Preaching with Sacred Fire: An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present. Thomas is also the author of several other books on subjects from matters of prayer to spiritual maturity.
Previously, Thomas served with distinction as the senior pastor for two remarkable congregations: New Faith Baptist Church of Matteson, Illinois and Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church of Memphis, Tennessee.
Thomas holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Communications from the University of Memphis, a Doctor of Divinity from Christian Theological Seminary and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Chicago Theological Seminary and United Theological Seminary. He also holds a Master of Fine Arts from Alma College, Master of Divinity from Chicago Theological Seminary and a Master of Arts from Northeastern Illinois University.

Bandits on the Run
2026-08-09 15:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Bandits on the Run are a musical trio from the Brooklyn-Queens border. Born from a chance encounter busking on the subway, Adrian Blake Enscoe, Sydney Shepherd, and Regina Strayhorn defy convention with an impressive trade-off of lead vocals and instruments. The Bandits marry acoustic, electric, and bass guitar sounds with cello, accordion, suitcases-turned-kickdrums, and (if you’re lucky) sometimes even a megaphone.
The Bandit’s three-part harmonies have been heard filling iconic venues while opening for The Wood Brothers’ 2025 East Coast tour, on the main stages at Colorado’s Rocky Mount Folks Fest and Michigan’s Blissfest, and in a sold out residency at Manhattan’s Bowery Electric. Their songs have been featured by NPR’s Tiny Desk and The Moth Story Slam, as well as in Netflix’s Ask the StoryBots and the feature film The Same Storm. The Bandits tour nationally and internationally, with appearances at Cambridge Folk Festival, Floydfest, Summerfest Milwaukee, Americanafest, F1 Singapore Grand Prix, Mile of Music, and more. Their theatrical indie-folk lends itself quite well to storytelling and their work adapting text for a musical production of As You Like It later became their EP The Shakespeare Tapes.
In addition to all their touring and recording work, Bandits on the Run are also in the business of writing musicals, sometimes as a trio and sometimes with collaborators. They are currently creating the stage musical adaptation of the novel What’s Eating Gilbert Grape with actor-musician-longtime friend Christopher Sears and newfound friend Academy Award Nominee Peter Hedges, supported by MCC Theater. Bandits on the Run are also developing an original musical, Yukon Ho, about a group of Black prospectors in the Alaskan gold rush, Yukon Ho was researched on the ground in Skagway, Alaska with support from the NEA, and has been workshopped with support from Prospect Musicals. They are alumni of several musical theater writing development programs, including Berkeley Rep Ground Floor, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, and the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Grove at Goodspeed Musicals.
Adrian, Sydney, and Regina bring their individual corners of the creative universe into the room when they collaborate. Adrian Blake Enscoe made their Broadway debut in The Avett Brothers’ Swept Away in 2024 and can be seen playing Austin Dickinson in the Apple TV+ Series Dickinson. Sydney Shepherd was most recently seen in the 2025 world premiere of The Ruins at the Guthrie Theater. Regina Strayhorn also works in casting, bringing to life shows for HBO, Amazon, Apple TV, CBS & Hulu, as well as a freelance photographer.
The Bandits will be on the run again soon, touring behind their new full length album “Rough Magic”.
They hope to see you there.

Deborah A. Miranda and A. J. Eversole
2026-08-09 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Writers’ Center Faculty Reading — Featuring Deborah A. Miranda (Poetry) and A. J. Eversole (Prose)
Deborah A. Miranda is a writer and enrolled member of the Ohlone-Costanoan Esselen Nation in California, with Santa Ynez Chumash ancestry. Her hybrid project, Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir, won the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award; the 10th anniversary edition of Bad Indians was released in 2023 as a hardback with 50+ additional pages of material. Miranda is also the author of four poetry collections (Indian Cartography, The Zen of La Llorona, Raised by Humans, and Altar for Broken Things) and co-editor of the Lambda finalist Sovereign Erotics: An Anthology of Two-Spirit Literature. Her scholarship focuses on California Indian experiences within and after Missionization and California Indian storyteller and culture bearers such as Isabel Meadows. She is Thomas H. Broadus, Jr. Professor of English emerita at Washington and Lee University, where she taught Native American Literatures and Creative Writing, and was an affiliate of the Shepherd Poverty Studies Program and the Women and Gender Studies Programs. She and spouse Margo Solod now live in Eugene, Oregon.
A.J. Eversole grew up in rural Oklahoma where the wide open spaces fed her imagination. An enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, she works across adult and children’s literature to explore themes of cultural reclamation, resilience, and the ways ancestral knowledge persists in modern worlds. Her stories appear in Legendary Frybread Drive-In (Heartdrum/HarperCollins), Beyond the Glittering World (Torrey House Press), and the forthcoming Never Whistle At Night Part II. When not writing, she reports on Native Voices in literature for Cynsations News Website. Visit her on socials: @ajeversole

Hebrew Congregation, Shirley Lazarus Sunday Evening Lecture Series- Lindsey Cormack
2026-08-09 19:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall

CHQ Mystic Heart - Kainat (Felicia) Norton and Muinuddin (Charles) Smith, Sufi Meditation
2026-08-10 07:45 | Presbyterian House, Presbyterian House
Kainat Felicia Norton and Muinuddin Charles Smith are senior Sufi teachers, retreat guides, and interfaith ministers within the Inayati Sufi Order. Together they founded and facilitate the Light of Guidance Center for Sufi Studies in New York City. Charles teaches leadership and sustainability studies at Hofstra University and Felicia teaches at the United Nations International School. They are married and live in New York City. Felicia has been touring the solo dance/theatre piece ‘NOOR’, depicting the life of Noor Inayat Khan, Sufi WW2 heroine, in London, Edinburgh, UK, France, and NYC. Together Felicia and Charles co-authored the book, ‘An Emerald Earth–Cultivating a Natural Spirituality and Serving Creative Beauty in Our World.’ Their book offers basic practices, poetry, and wisdom teachings from the Sufi tradition with the theme of joining inner cultivation and sacred ecology. They travel and offer retreats and workshops throughout the US, Canada, Asia, and Europe.

Thr Rev. Frank A. Thomas
2026-08-10 09:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater

Nancy Youssef
2026-08-10 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Nancy Youssef is a staff writer at The Atlantic. Before that, she was a longtime national security correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and also worked at BuzzFeed News and The Daily Beast. Youssef spent much of her career at McClatchy Newspapers where she served as national security correspondent and Middle East bureau chief based in Cairo covering the Middle East and the Islamic world. Prior to that she was McClatchy’s chief Pentagon correspondent, focusing on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She traveled frequently to those two nations to see how the policies crafted in Washington reached Afghans, Iraqis and the troops alike. She is also the founder of the Pentagon Press Association.
Before covering the Pentagon, Youssef spent four years covering the Iraq war, including a stint as Baghdad bureau chief. Her pieces focused on the everyday Iraqi experience, civilian casualties and how U.S. military strategy was reshaping Iraq’s social and political dynamics. She began her career at the Detroit Free Press, covering legal issues. While at the Free Press, she traveled throughout Jordan and Iraq for Knight Ridder, covering the Iraq war from the time leading up to it through the post-war period. Her journalism career started at The Baltimore Sun.
A Washington, D.C.-area native, Youssef earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from University of Virginia and master’s degree in security studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Youssef’s parents are from Egypt, and she speaks Arabic. Throughout her life, she has been a frequent visitor to the region. She is currently based in Washington, D.C. and is an advocate for supporting neurodiverse children.

Chautauqua Chamber Music: JACK Quartet
2026-08-10 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Join the groundbreaking JACK Quartet for a concert of fearless innovation and extraordinary musicianship. Renowned for their precision, passion, and adventurous programming, JACK champions new works that redefine the possibilities of the string quartet. Their performances are both intellectually bold and emotionally gripping, inviting listeners into the cutting edge of contemporary music. Experience why JACK Quartet is hailed as one of the most influential ensembles of its generation.

Music School Festival Orchestra
2026-08-10 20:00 | 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.

CHQ Mystic Heart - Kainat (Felicia) Norton and Muinuddin (Charles) Smith, Sufi Meditation
2026-08-11 07:45, 2026-08-12 07:45, 2026-08-13 07:45, 2026-08-14 07:45 | Presbyterian House, Presbyterian House

Meghan Collins: Locally specific climate projections for the Chautauqua region
2026-08-11 09:15 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary
Chautauqua Science Group Weekly Lecture
Meghan Collins is an Associate Research Scientist, Science Communication, at the Desert Research Institute at University of Nevada Reno.
Meghan joined DRI in June 2015. There are two dimensions to her work: the first is to advance the ways that science and scientists meaningfully translate the results of research to society, and the second is to create partnerships to involve people in DRI science. As faculty of science communication, she has one foot in research and one foot in practice. Her work is synergistic with scientists in many fields, and she looks for ways to elevate science and engage students and community members meaningfully in DRI’s work through internships, citizen science, and other immersive experiences.

Nazanin Boniadi, Karim Sadjadpour and Amna Nawaz
2026-08-11 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Continuing Chautauqua’s exploration of “Global Power and Our Evolving International Order,” “PBS News Hour” co-anchor Amna Nawaz hosts a special onstage conversation between actress and activist Nazanin Boniadi and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace senior fellow Karim Sadjadpour. Both have Iranian roots and Nawaz will engage them on their lives and their families, their respective areas of work, and, whatever the status of world events at that moment, their perspectives on the state of Iran, the Iranian people, and what comes next.
Nazanin Boniadi is an Iranian-born, SAG and AACTA Award-nominated actress, producer and human rights advocate. Her television credits include “Homeland,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “Counterpart,” and the first season of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.” In film, Boniadi won acclaim for her memorable role in “Bombshell” and leading role in “Hotel Mumbai.” Her producing debut, “A Mosquito in the Ear,” in which she stars alongside Jake Lacy, won the Panavision Spirit Award at the 2026 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. She is most recently seen in “The Saviors,” opposite Adam Scott and Danielle Deadwyler.
As an activist, Boniadi has campaigned for the rights of the Iranian people since 2008, with a focus on the unjust conviction and treatment of youth, women and political prisoners. She is also a Council on Foreign Relations member and serves on the board of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center. Appointed an Amnesty International UK ambassador in 2020, Boniadi has spoken at esteemed institutions, including the Oxford Union, Munich Security Conference and World Economic Forum, and she has addressed the U.S. Capitol, the U.K., German, Australian, Canadian parliaments and the U.N. Her numerous recognitions include the 2023 Sydney Peace Prize.
Karim Sadjadpour is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he focuses on Iran, Gulf security, and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic, a CNN Global Affairs Analyst and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He has testified numerous times before Congress for both Democratic and Republican leadership.
Sadjadpour is currently writing a book on radicalism for Random House/Knopf and appears frequently on media outlets such as the “PBS News Hour,” NPR and CNN. Recognized for his sharp analytical prose, his work was selected as a Foreign Affairs “Best Essay of the Year” in both 2025 (for “The Autumn of the Ayatollahs”) and 2024 (on the battle between Saudi “Vision 2030” and Iran “Vision 1979”). In 2023, he received an Emmy Award as consulting producer for the HBO documentary Hostages. Previously an analyst with the International Crisis Group based in Tehran and Washington, he has lived in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. He speaks Persian, Italian and Spanish, and is proficient in Arabic.
Karim holds degrees from the University of Michigan and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Amna Nawaz is an Emmy, Peabody and Cronkite award-winning journalist who currently serves as co-anchor and co-managing editor of the “PBS News Hour.” In addition to anchoring PBS News’ flagship national news broadcast, Nawaz co-hosts the podcast “Settle In,” featuring thought leaders from all walks of life. She has also hosted a primetime arts show and documentaries on everything from America’s childcare crisis to global plastic pollution to life after incarceration.
Nawaz’s reporting ranges from politics and foreign affairs, to immigration and education, to culture and sports. She has anchored the show from the U.S. Southern border, Israel after the Oct. 7 attacks and Kyiv, Ukraine, during its war with Russia. Nawaz has interviewed presidents and heads of state, White House officials and lawmakers, professional athletes and musicians, and citizens around the world in the communities they call home.
Prior to joining PBS, Nawaz was anchor and correspondent at ABC News, anchoring breaking news coverage and leading the network’s livestream coverage of the 2016 presidential election. She also hosted the “Uncomfortable” podcast and reported a documentary on the Texas county with the highest rate of support for Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Before ABC, Nawaz was a foreign correspondent and Islamabad Bureau Chief for NBC News, where she regularly reported on the war in Afghanistan and the broader region.

Jessamine Finch, Atlanta Botanical Garden: "Wild Seeds in a Warming World"
2026-08-11 12:30 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Bird, Tree & Garden Club lunchtime lecture series
Jessamine Finch is a Research Scientist in the Conservation Seed Bank at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. She has over fifteen years of experience working with public gardens in many capacities including horticulture, curation, education, conservation, and research. Prior to her work with ABG, she managed the seed bank of the New England Plant Conservation Program with Native Plant Trust. She holds a PhD in Plant Biology and Conservation from Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden.

CHQ Mystic Heart - Kainat (Felicia) Norton and Muinuddin (Charles) Smith, Sufi Meditation
2026-08-11 12:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

Jeremy Ben-Ami
2026-08-11 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Jeremy Ben-Ami is the president of J Street, bringing to the role both deep experience in American politics and government and a passionate commitment to the state of Israel. Ben-Ami’s family connection to Israel goes back 140 years to the first aliyah when his great-grandparents were among the first settlers in Petah Tikva. His grandparents were one of the founding families of Tel Aviv, and his father was an activist and leader in the Irgun, working for Israel’s independence and on the rescue of European Jews before and during World War II.
Ben-Ami’s political resume includes serving in the mid-1990s as the deputy domestic policy advisor in the White House to President Bill Clinton and working on seven presidential and numerous state and local campaigns, including helping to manage a mayoral campaign in New York City in 2001. For nearly three years in the late ’90s, he lived in Israel, where he started a consulting firm working with Israeli nonprofit organizations and politicians. Ben-Ami received a law degree from New York University and is a graduate of the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Generational Voices Masterclass with Denyce Graves
2026-08-11 16:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall
Join internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves for a public masterclass featuring emerging vocal artists in an engaging and educational performance setting. Audiences will gain a rare behind-the-scenes look at the artistic process as Graves shares her insights on vocal technique, musical interpretation, and stage presence. Whether you are a performer, educator, or music lover, this inspiring event offers a unique opportunity to witness artistry in development under the guidance of one of opera’s most respected voices.

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Fate and Fury
2026-08-11 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Hannah Schendel, conductor
Under the baton of Hannah Schendel, The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra presents a night of symphonic drama. Wagner’s Flying Dutchman Overture surges with storm-tossed intensity, capturing the restless seas and legend of the cursed mariner. Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 follows, unfolding from brooding introspection to triumphant resolve in an emotionally compelling journey. Together, these masterworks showcase the passion, grandeur, and expressive force of the Romantic era.
Program:
Wagner: Flying Dutchman Overture
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5

Robert Chatterton Dickson
2026-08-12 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Robert Chatterton Dickson is an international affairs consultant based in London. Until June 2026 he was a senior member of the British Diplomatic Service. His 36-year career combined leadership in complex and dangerous environments with London-based appointments at the heart of U.K. foreign policy and national security. His remarks as part of Chautauqua’s probe into “Global Power and Our Evolving International Order” will provide “a view from across the Atlantic,” and in particular on the state of relations among geopolitical powers including the U.K., U.S., European Union, Russia and NATO.
Chatterton Dickson served overseas as ambassador to the Republic of North Macedonia, consul general in Chicago, deputy ambassador in Afghanistan during the Afghan Republic, high commissioner in Bangladesh and chargé d’affaires of the U.K. Mission to Afghanistan following the return of the Taliban. In London, he was head of the Foreign Office Counter Terrorism Department and a director in the Cabinet Office National Security Secretariat. In all these roles he worked closely with American colleagues.
Chatterton Dickson’s early diplomatic career included working at HQ on Iraq, NATO, UN peacekeeping, arms exports and nuclear arms control and postings to the British embassies in Manila and Washington. Before joining the Diplomatic Service, he worked in investment management and was educated at Cambridge University.
Chatterton Dickson knows the U.S. well: besides diplomatic postings in Washington and the Midwest he has been married to an American artist for over 30 years and has four dual-citizen children and family across the country. He first experienced the U.S. at 19, when a cross-country road trip in an unreliable car introduced him to American kindness and hospitality. At Chautauqua he is speaking in a strictly personal capacity.

"Setting the Table: CVA Members Exhibition" August 12–26
2026-08-12 11:00 | Fowler-Kellogg Art Center: 1st Floor
“Setting the Table: CVA Members Exhibition” runs August 12-August 26. Once again, we will feature works by the 2026 CVA Members, who will interpret week eight’s theme, The Future of Food, Climate Technology and the Next Agricultural Revolution. A variety of styles, mediums, and techniques will be shown by these talented artists with their personal thoughts on the future of food.

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents How I Learned What I Learned (Live Audio Descriptions)
2026-08-12 14:00 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater

Naaborle Sackeyfio
2026-08-12 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Naaborle Sackeyfio is an associate professor of global and intercultural studies at Miami University of Ohio. She focuses on energy and resource politics, gender and sustainable development in Sub-Saharan Africa and is the author of Energy Politics and Rural Development: The Case of Ghana.
Her publications have appeared in the journals such as New Political Science and African Affairs. She was a Science Communication Fellow with The University of Rhode Island’s Metcalf Institute, Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, and the URI Science and Story Lab in 2023.

"Setting the Table: CVA Members Exhibition" Opening Reception
2026-08-12 15:00 | Fowler-Kellogg Art Center: 1st Floor
“Setting the Table: CVA Members Exhibition” opening reception. Exhibition runs August 12 – August 26. Once again, we will feature works by the 2026 CVA Members, who will interpret week eight’s theme, The Future of Food, Climate Technology and the Next Agricultural Revolution. A variety of styles, mediums, and techniques will be shown by these talented artists with their personal thoughts on the future of food.

UU Cultural Ethics Series: Fish Stark, Executive Director of the American Humanist Association
2026-08-12 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

School of Dance: Student Gala II
2026-08-12 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Chautauqua School of Dance presents an outstanding mixed repertoire evening 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.

Bandits on the Run
2026-08-12 22:00 | Roe Green Theater Center

The Rev. Frank A. Thomas
2026-08-13 09:15 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Miles Yu
2026-08-13 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Miles Yu is a senior fellow and director of the China Center at Hudson Institute. He is also a professor of East Asia and military and naval history at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Yu specializes in Chinese military and strategic culture, U.S. and Chinese military and diplomatic history, and U.S. policy toward China. He joins Chautauqua’s weeklong exploration of “Global Power and Our Evolving International Order” to offer an up-to-the-minute assessment of the global ambitions and actions of China and other East Asian countries, and how the U.S. and the West are responding.
Previously, Yu served in the first Trump administration as the China policy adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. In that capacity, he advised the secretary on all China-related issues, helped overhaul U.S. policy toward China, and participated in key U.S. government interagency deliberations on major policy and government actions with regard to China and other East Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
From 2011 to 2016, Yu wrote the weekly column “Inside China” for The Washington Times; since 1996, he has been an editorial consultant to Radio Free Asia, and a contributor to various media outlets including The Wall Street Journal and “PBS News Hour.” His books include OSS in China: Prelude to Cold War and The Dragon’s War: Allied Operations and the Fate of China, 1937–1947. Yu’s numerous awards include the U.S. Naval Academy’s top researcher award, U.S. Navy Special Action Awards, and U.S. Navy Meritorious Service Award. He received a doctorate in history from the University of California, Berkeley, a master’s degree from Swarthmore College, and a bachelor’s degree from Nankai University.

Is the US losing its edge in global clean energy leadership? With Clint Wilder
2026-08-13 12:30 | Alumni Hall Ballroom, Alumni Hall Ballroom
Clint Wilder is editor at large at Clean Edge. Founded in 2000, Clean Edge was the first analyst firm to promote the concept of “clean tech” to a business audience. Activities have spanned custom market research, benchmarking and indexing, and industry events
Clint plays a key role in the editorial production of the firm’s publicly available content. He has co-authored two books with managing director Ron Pernick, Clean Tech Nation (HarperCollins, 2012) and The Clean Tech Revolution (HarperCollins, 2007). Clint has covered the high-tech and clean-tech industries as a business journalist for nearly three decades. A recognized expert on current trends in clean-energy technology, policy, and finance, Clint is a frequent speaker and panelist at industry events.
Clint graduated from Yale University with a BA in History and did graduate work in Business Journalism at Boston University.

CHQ Mystic Heart - Kainat (Felicia) Norton and Muinuddin (Charles) Smith, Sufi Meditation
2026-08-13 12:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents New Play Workshop 3: As You Like It by William Shakespeare (a musical adaptation)
2026-08-13 14:00, 2026-08-14 14:00 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater
As You Like It
by William Shakespeare
Adapted by Peter Andersen
Original score by Bandits on the Run
Shakespeare’s most musical comedy springs to life in a playful and vibrant new adaptation by Peter Andersen, featuring original music by indie-pop-folk trio and Chautauqua favorites Bandits on the Run. Two lovers meet in the Forest of Arden, but all is not as it seems in this sweet and subversive classic brought to life by the full 2026 CTC Acting Conservatory and professional guest artists. This exciting workshop explores Shakespeare’s text alongside those of his queer contemporaries, riffing on the play’s original lyrics with newly composed music by Bandits. All the world’s a stage!

BROADWAY AND BEYOND The Music of Jason Robert Brown
2026-08-13 18:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall
BROADWAY AND BEYOND
The Music of Jason Robert Brown
Featuring the Generational Voices Artists
The Denyce Graves Foundation proudly presents Broadway and Beyond: The Music of Jason Robert Brown, an exhilarating evening celebrating one of the most influential and beloved musical theater composers of our time.
Performed by the artists of Generational Voices, this special concert explores the extraordinary music and storytelling of Jason Robert Brown, the award-winning composer, lyricist, conductor, arranger, orchestrator, and performer whose work has helped redefine contemporary American musical theater.
Hailed as “one of Broadway’s smartest and most sophisticated songwriters since Stephen Sondheim,” Brown has created some of the most iconic and enduring works of the modern stage, including Parade, The Last Five Years, The Bridges of Madison County, 13, Honeymoon in Vegas, and the groundbreaking song cycle Songs for a New World. His music is known for its emotional depth, dazzling complexity, unforgettable melodies, and profound ability to capture the hopes, dreams, heartbreaks, and triumphs of the human experience.
From Broadway stages to concert halls around the world, Brown’s songs have been performed by some of the most celebrated artists of our generation, including Audra McDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, Billy Porter, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Nettles, Brandi Carlile, and Renée Fleming. His Tony Award-winning scores and extraordinary body of work continue to inspire performers and audiences alike.
This exciting concert will feature selections spanning Brown’s remarkable career, from beloved Broadway favorites and powerful ballads to lesser-known gems that showcase the full breadth of his artistry. Through these unforgettable songs, the artists of Generational Voices will bring to life stories of love, ambition, resilience, hope, and transformation.

Josh Groban: Stage, Screen & Symphony
2026-08-13 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Tony®, EMMY®, and five-time GRAMMY® Award-nominated singer, songwriter, actor and philanthropist Josh Groban possesses one of the most outstanding and instantly recognizable voices in music. With a career spanning chart-topping albums, global tours and acclaimed stage and screen performances, he has sold more than 35 million albums worldwide and headlined legendary venues across multiple continents.
His catalog includes a series of chart-topping blockbuster albums, including Josh Groban (5x platinum), Closer (6x platinum), Noël (7x platinum), Awake (2x platinum), Illuminations, All That Echoes, Stages — his first U.K. No. 1 album — Bridges, Harmony and Gems.
A dynamic presence on Broadway, Groban earned Tony® nominations for his roles in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 and the 2023 revival of Sweeney Todd, which also garnered him a GRAMMY® nomination and widespread critical acclaim. His versatility extends to film and television appearances ranging from Glee and The Office to Crazy, Stupid, Love and Netflix’s The Good Cop, as well as starring as the Beast in ABC’s Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration.
Beyond performance, Groban remains an active arts education philanthropist and advocate. His Find Your Light Foundation helps enrich the lives of young students through arts education and cultural awareness.
Groban will release his new album, CINEMATIC, on May 8 via Reprise Records. Produced by Greg Wells and recorded in Los Angeles and London, the 10-track collection pays tribute to iconic songs from beloved films including The Godfather, Casablanca, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Stand by Me.
Groban recently launched his GEMS World Tour with sold-out performances across Asia and Australia before continuing through Europe this spring. He will also tour North America this summer alongside special guest Jennifer Hudson. In the fall, he returns to The Colosseum at Caesars Palace for Josh Groban: GEMS — The Las Vegas Residency. With new music and performances throughout the year, Groban continues to connect with audiences through his unmistakable voice and timeless repertoire.

Robert Kagan
2026-08-14 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Robert Kagan is the Stephen & Barbara Friedman Senior Fellow with the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings, and a contributing writer for The Atlantic. Until recently, he also served as a contributing columnist at The Washington Post. Kagen served in the State Department from 1984 to 1988 as a member of the policy planning staff, as principal speechwriter for Secretary of State George P. Shultz, and as deputy for policy in the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs. He will conclude Chautauqua’s weeklong examination of “Global Power and Our Evolving International Order” with remarks providing up-to-the-minute analysis, based on his decades of experience in shaping and studying foreign policy, national security and statecraft.
Kagan’s latest book, Rebellion: How Antiliberalism Is Tearing America Apart — Again, was released in April 2024. One of his previous books was The New York Times bestseller, The World America Made. He is also the author of The Ghost at the Feast: America and Collapse of World Order, 1900-1941; The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World; Return of History and the End of Dreams; Dangerous Nation: America’s Place in the World from its Earliest Days to the Dawn of the 20th Century; Of Paradise and Power; and A Twilight Struggle: American Power and Nicaragua, 1977-1990.
Politico Magazine named Kagan one of the “Politico 50” in 2016, recognizing the “thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics in 2016.” He is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and holds a doctorate in American history from American University.

Rebecca Nagle
2026-08-14 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle — By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land
An “impeccably researched” (Washington Post) work of reportage and American history that braids the story of the forced removal of Native Americans onto treaty lands in the nation’s earliest days, and a small-town murder in the 1990s that led to a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming Native rights to that land more than a century later.
Before 2020, American Indian reservations made up roughly 55 million acres of land in the United States. Nearly 200 million acres are reserved for National Forests—in the emergence of this great nation, our government set aside more land for trees than for Indigenous peoples.
In the 1830s Muscogee people were rounded up by the US military at gunpoint and forced into exile halfway across the continent. At the time, they were promised this new land would be theirs for as long as the grass grew and the waters ran. But that promise was not kept. When Oklahoma was created on top of Muscogee land, the new state claimed their reservation no longer existed. Over a century later, a Muscogee citizen was sentenced to death for murdering another Muscogee citizen on tribal land. His defense attorneys argued the murder occurred on the reservation of his tribe, and therefore Oklahoma didn’t have the jurisdiction to execute him. Oklahoma asserted that the reservation no longer existed. In the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court settled the dispute. Its ruling that would ultimately underpin multiple reservations covering almost half the land in Oklahoma, including Nagle’s own Cherokee Nation.
Here Rebecca Nagle recounts the generations-long fight for tribal land and sovereignty in eastern Oklahoma. By chronicling both the contemporary legal battle and historic acts of Indigenous resistance, By the Fire We Carry stands as a landmark work of American history. The story it tells exposes both the wrongs that our nation has committed and the Native-led battle for justice that has shaped our country.
Rebecca Nagle is an award-winning journalist and a citizen of Cherokee Nation. She is the writer and host of the podcast This Land. Her writing on Native representation, federal Indian law, and tribal sovereignty has been featured in the Atlantic, the Washington Post, the Guardian, USA Today, Indian Country Today, and other publications. She is a Peabody Award nominee and the recipient of the American Mosaic Journalism Prize, Women’s Media Center’s Exceptional Journalism Award, and numerous honors from the Native American Journalist Association. Nagle lives in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
Indigenous communities deserve the same standard of journalism as the rest of the country, but rarely receive it from non-Native media outlets. Nagle’s journalism seeks to correct this.
