Catholic Mass
2025-07-16 08:45, 2025-07-17 08:45, 2025-07-18 08:45, 2025-07-21 08:45, 2025-07-22 08:45, 2025-07-23 08:45, 2025-07-24 08:45, 2025-07-25 08:45 (America/New_York) and 7 more dates | Chapel of the Good Shepherd, Chapel of the Good Shepherd

Chautauqua Prays for Peace though Compassion
2025-07-16 08:55, 2025-07-17 08:55, 2025-07-18 08:55, 2025-07-21 08:55, 2025-07-22 08:55, 2025-07-23 08:55, 2025-07-24 08:55, 2025-07-25 08:55 and 7 more dates | Hall of Philosophy Grove

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

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

Service of Blessing and Healing
2025-07-16 10:15, 2025-07-17 10:15, 2025-07-18 10:15, 2025-07-21 10:15, 2025-07-22 10:15, 2025-07-23 10:15, 2025-07-24 10:15, 2025-07-25 10:15 and 7 more dates | Randell Chapel, UCC Headquarters

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

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

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

Twelve Step Meeting
2025-07-16 12:15, 2025-07-18 12:15, 2025-07-20 12:15, 2025-07-23 12:15, 2025-07-25 12:15, 2025-07-27 12:15, 2025-07-30 12:15, 2025-08-01 12:15 and 1 more date | Hurlbut Marion Lawrance

Women in Ministry
2025-07-16 12:15, 2025-07-23 12:15, 2025-07-30 12:15 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

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

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-16 12:30, 2025-07-22 12:30, 2025-07-23 12:30, 2025-07-29 12:30, 2025-07-30 12:30, 2025-08-05 12:30 | Presbyterian House, Presbyterian House

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Play CHQ: STEM by the Water
2025-07-16 16:00, 2025-07-23 16:00, 2025-07-30 16:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park
Play CHQ invites families to discover, create, and play together all season long! Enjoy a variety of engaging activities including games, crafts, STEM experiments, and more at pop-up locations throughout the Chautauqua grounds.
In case of inclement weather, all Play CHQ events will be relocated to Sheldon Hall of Education, Room 202.

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

Men's Softball League
2025-07-16 17:00, 2025-07-18 17:00, 2025-07-21 17:00, 2025-07-23 17:00, 2025-07-25 17:00, 2025-07-28 17:00, 2025-07-30 17:00, 2025-08-01 17:00 and 1 more date | Sharpe Field, Sharpe Field
Interested in playing slow pitch softball? Contact co-commissioner Wes Delancey
at markernalt21@gmail.com to be added to a team roster. Fee per team for league play.

Chautauqua Theater Company presents Execution of Justice
2025-07-16 18:00, 2025-07-17 14:00, 2025-07-17 19:30, 2025-07-18 14:00, 2025-07-18 19:30, 2025-07-19 16:00, 2025-07-20 14:00, 2025-07-20 19:30 and 6 more dates | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater
Written and Directed by Emily Mann
It’s 1978, and San Francisco is a divided city. The brutal murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk—the nation’s first openly gay elected official—shocked a nation. This gripping documentary play examines the trial of Dan White, the disgruntled former city supervisor whose reduced voluntary manslaughter conviction, rather than murder in the first degree, sparked outrage and introduced the infamous “Twinkie defense.” Ripped from the headlines, personal interviews, and court documents of the past but still resonating powerfully today, this play confronts themes of justice, prejudice, and privilege and grapples with the issues of gun violence and systemic homophobia. This contemporary classic challenges us to reflect on our identity as a nation.
Recommended for audiences ages 13 and older.

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

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

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-16 18:30, 2025-07-18 12:30, 2025-07-23 18:30, 2025-07-25 12:30, 2025-07-30 18:30, 2025-08-01 12:30 | Lutheran House, Lutheran House

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

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

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

Episcopal Holy Eucharist
2025-07-17 07:45, 2025-07-18 07:45, 2025-07-20 09:00, 2025-07-21 07:45, 2025-07-22 07:45, 2025-07-23 07:45, 2025-07-24 07:45, 2025-07-25 07:45 and 9 more dates | Chapel of the Good Shepherd, Chapel of the Good Shepherd

Daily Word Meditation
2025-07-17 08:00, 2025-07-18 08:00, 2025-07-21 08:00, 2025-07-22 08:00, 2025-07-23 08:00, 2025-07-24 08:00, 2025-07-25 08:00, 2025-07-28 08:00 and 6 more dates | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions
(Programmed by Unity of Chautauqua)

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

CTC Theater Chats
2025-07-17 12:15, 2025-07-24 12:15, 2025-07-31 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.

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

CHQ Dialogue
2025-07-17 12:30, 2025-07-24 12:30, 2025-07-31 12:30 | Everett Jewish Life Center, Everett Jewish Life Center

Duplicate Bridge
2025-07-17 12:45, 2025-07-24 12:45, 2025-07-31 12:45 | Sports Club, Sports Club
Don’t have a partner? One will be provided. Game managed by Shelley Dahlie. $10/person.

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

Chautauqua Opera Company presents An Afternoon of Song
2025-07-17 15:15, 2025-07-29 15:15 | Athenaeum Parlor, Athenaeum Parlor
Join us for an afternoon of song, featuring our 2025 Young Artists.

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

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

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-17 15:30, 2025-07-24 15:30, 2025-07-31 15:30 | United Methodist House, United Methodist House

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-17 15:30, 2025-07-24 15:30, 2025-07-31 15:30 | Baptist House, Baptist House

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

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-17 16:00, 2025-07-31 16:00 | AAHH African American Heritage House
The Dialogue is devoted to the AAHH Lecture on Wednesday at 3:30pm

Play CHQ: Get your Game On!
2025-07-17 16:00, 2025-07-24 16:00, 2025-07-31 16:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park

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

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

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-17 18:30, 2025-07-24 18:30, 2025-07-31 18:30 | Disciples of Christ House, Disciples of Christ House

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

Movement and Meditation with Monte Thompson
2025-07-18 08:30, 2025-07-21 08:30, 2025-07-23 08:30, 2025-07-25 08:30, 2025-07-28 08:30, 2025-07-30 08:30, 2025-08-01 08:30, 2025-08-04 08:30 | 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.

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

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

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

Introduction to Jumu'ah Muslim Prayer
2025-07-18 12:30, 2025-07-25 12:30, 2025-08-01 12:30 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary
Jumu’ah introduction for visitors is at 12:30 PM. Jumu’ah Service is at 1:05 PM

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

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

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-18 15:30, 2025-07-25 15:30, 2025-08-01 15:30 | Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-18 15:30, 2025-07-25 15:30, 2025-08-01 15:30 | Episcopal Cottage, Episcopal Cottage

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-18 15:30, 2025-08-01 15:30 | Alumni Hall Ballroom, Alumni Hall Ballroom

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

Hebrew Congregation Evening Kabbalat Shabbat Service
2025-07-18 17:00, 2025-07-25 17:00, 2025-08-01 17:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park

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

A Service of Compline
2025-07-18 19:30, 2025-07-25 19:30, 2025-08-01 19:30 | Episcopal Chapel

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

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

CHQ Mystic Heart Meditation: Carol McKiernan
2025-07-19 07:15, 2025-07-26 07:15, 2025-08-02 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.

Torah Study
2025-07-19 09:30, 2025-07-26 09:30 | Hurlbut Marion Lawrance

Chabad Jewish House, Community Shabbat Service, Rabbi Zalman Vilenken
2025-07-19 09:30, 2025-07-26 09:30, 2025-08-02 09:30 | Chabad Jewish House

Sabbath Morning Worship, Hebrew Congregation
2025-07-19 10:30, 2025-07-26 10:30, 2025-08-02 10:30 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary

Kiddish Luncheon
2025-07-19 11:30, 2025-07-26 11:30, 2025-08-02 11:30 | Hurlbut Truesdale

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

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

Catholic Mass
2025-07-19 17:00, 2025-07-26 17:00, 2025-08-02 17:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

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

Episcopal Holy Eucharist
2025-07-20 07:45, 2025-07-27 07:45, 2025-08-03 07:45 | Chapel of the Good Shepherd, Chapel of the Good Shepherd

Song, Prayer, Communion & Meditation
2025-07-20 08:30, 2025-07-27 08:30, 2025-08-03 08:30 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary

United Church of Christ Worship Service
2025-07-20 09:00, 2025-07-27 09:00, 2025-08-03 09:00 | Randell Chapel, UCC Headquarters

Catholic Mass
2025-07-20 09:15, 2025-07-27 09:15, 2025-08-03 09:15 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary

Unity Service
2025-07-20 09:30, 2025-07-27 09:30, 2025-08-03 09:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

Quaker Worship Service
2025-07-20 09:30, 2025-07-27 09:30, 2025-08-03 09:30 | Quaker House
Quaker Worship Sevice

Unitarian Universalist Service
2025-07-20 09:30, 2025-07-27 09:30, 2025-08-03 09:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Sunday School
2025-07-20 10:15, 2025-07-27 10:15 | Children’s School, Children's School
Weekly Sunday School Program for Ages 3-11. Children of all faiths and no faith are welcome.

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

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

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

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

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

Church of the Wild
2025-07-20 16:00, 2025-07-27 16:00, 2025-08-03 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.

Orientation for New Chautauquans
2025-07-20 16:30, 2025-07-27 16:30, 2025-08-03 16:30 | Hultquist 101, Hultquist 101
Join us for lemonade and cookies at the Orientation for New Chautauquans, where we warmly welcome you to our vibrant community. This event is designed to acquaint you with the rich history, diverse programs, and unique experiences that Chautauqua has to offer. Meet fellow newcomers, engage with staff, and learn about the array of cultural, educational, and recreational opportunities available. Whether you’re here for a day, a week, or the entire season, this orientation will help you make the most of your visit and feel right at home.

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

Palestine Park Tour
2025-07-20 17:00, 2025-07-27 17:00, 2025-08-03 17:00 | Palestine Park, Palestine Park
“A Journey Through the Holy Land in the times of Jesus”

Hebrew Congregation, Shirley Lazarus Sunday Evening Lecture Series
2025-07-20 19:00, 2025-07-27 19:00, 2025-08-03 17:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Courageous Conversations on Death and Dying" Shahid Aziz
2025-07-21 15:30, 2025-07-28 15:30, 2025-08-04 15:30 | Presbyterian Chapel
Seminar

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

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

CHQ @ 150 - ALL RISE
2025-07-21 16:00, 2025-07-28 16:00, 2025-08-04 16:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Celebrate the sesquicentennial of our iconic institution, while exploring the ever-evolving definition of democracy through powerful stories and performances that have unfolded here, with a stirring performance of Wynton Marsalis’ All Rise and appearances by Kathryn Hahn, Kwame Alexander, Misty Copeland and more. (NR, 55m)

Play CHQ: Art and Nature Meet
2025-07-21 16:00, 2025-07-28 16:00, 2025-08-04 16:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park

Taize' and Tea Meditation Worship
2025-07-21 19:00, 2025-07-28 19:00, 2025-08-04 19:00 | Randell Chapel, UCC Headquarters

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Social Hour at Denominational Houses
2025-07-22 15:15, 2025-07-29 15:15 | Denominational Houses (Selected)
Social hour at the Baptist House, Catholic House, Christian Church, Everett Jewish Life Center, Episcopal Cottage, Lutheran House, Unitarian House and United Methodist House

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

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

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

Play CHQ: Crafting by the Water
2025-07-22 16:00, 2025-07-29 16:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park

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

Labyrinth History and Meditation
2025-07-22 18:30, 2025-07-29 18:30 | Turner (Outside of Building)
Bring gate pass. Adjacent to Turner Community Center

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON
2025-07-25 17:15, 2025-07-26 20:00, 2025-07-27 14:10, 2025-07-27 17:15, 2025-07-28 17:50 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Crafted with loving fidelity to the 2010 animated classic by original co-director Dean DeBlois, this live-action adaptation starring Mason Thames and Nico Parker reaches enchanting heights of its own. “Those who adored it the first time around will be satisfied with the care with which it’s handled, those unfamiliar with its magic will be charmed as if the story is brand-new.” -Adam Graham, Detroit News “Toothless is as charismatic as ever; the flying sequences and natural landscapes are appropriately breathtaking.” -Bob Mondello, NPR (PG, 125m)

Guster & The Mountain Goats
2025-07-25 19:30 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
GUSTER
Not long before the making of their new album Ooh La La, Guster celebrated three decades together as a band—a journey that’s included landing a series of hits on the Billboard charts, working with luminaries like Steve Lillywhite and Richard Swift, launching their own music festival, and amassing an ardent fanbase partly on the strength of their relentless touring and deeply communal live show. But despite reaching a milestone few musical acts ever come close to attaining, Guster’s ninth studio LP reveals a band fully in touch with the voracious creative energy that first inspired their formation. A major leap forward for lead vocalist Ryan Miller, guitarist Adam Gardner, drummer Brian Rosenworcel, and multi-instrumentalist Luke Reynolds, Ooh La La ultimately matches that wide-eyed spirit with a newly heightened sense of confidence, conviction, and commitment to the raw sincerity that’s made them so beloved.
“In all the time we’ve been together, we’ve never really felt our age as a band—we’re still so hungry, still excited to create,” says Gardner. “A lot of people have told us they’re amazed at how democratic our process is, but I think that’s a big part of why we’re still able to open up this space where the ideas just flow. It also helps that we’ve built a relationship with our fans where there’s a real sense of trust and a desire for us to keep growing and keep pushing ourselves. It’s such a gift that allows us to be truly free, and to make whatever music we want to make.”
The Mountain Goats
Jenny from Thebes began its life as many albums by the Mountain Goats do, with John Darnielle playing the piano until a lyric emerged. That lyric, “Jenny was a warrior / Jenny was a thief / Jenny hit the corner clinic begging for relief,” became “Jenny III,” a song that laid down a challenge he’d never taken up before: writing a sequel to one of his most beloved albums. The Mountain Goats catalog is thick with recurring characters—Jenny, who originally appears in the All Hail West Texas track bearing her name, as well as in “Straight Six” from Jam Eater Blues and Transcendental Youth side two jam “Night Light,” is one of these, someone who enters a song unexpectedly, pricking up the ears of fans who are keen on continuing the various narrative threads running through the Mountain Goats’ discography before vanishing into the mist. In these songs, Jenny is largely defined by her absence, and she is given that definition by other characters. She is running from something. These features are beguiling, both to the characters who’ve told her story so far and to the listener. They invite certain questions: Who is Jenny, really? What is she running from? Well, she’s a warrior and a thief, and, this being an album by the Mountain Goats, it’s a safe bet whatever she’s fleeing is something bad. Something catastrophically bad.
Jenny from Thebes is the story of Jenny, her southwestern ranch style house, the people for whom that house is a place of safety, and the west Texas town that is uncomfortable with its existence. It is a story about the individual and society, about safety and shelter and those who choose to provide care when nobody else will.

BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN
2025-07-25 20:15, 2025-07-26 17:00, 2025-07-27 20:15, 2025-07-28 20:50 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Interviews, performances and never-before-seen footage provide insight into the origins of Led Zeppelin and their meteoric rise to musical stardom. “The master-musicianship that the press initially overlooked, and which the tales of bad behaviour obscure, is front and centre here.” -Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Financial Times “A hagiographic look at the group’s beginnings, the movie is as straightforward as it is headbangingly diverting.”-Manohla Dargis, New York Times “It”s like being at a concert. That sound is incredible.” -Christy Lemire, FilmWeek (PG-13, 122m)

Piano Faculty Master Class: Sara Davis Buechner
2025-07-26 13:00 | Sherwood-Marsh 101

Contemporary Issues Forum: Jim Laurie
2025-07-26 15:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Jim Laurie has been a journalist, broadcaster, producer and media consultant for more than 50 years. For nearly three decades, Laurie was an international correspondent for NBC News and ABC News, reporting from all continents and covering some of the major stories of the late 20th century.
His first assignments in Asia landed him in Vietnam and Cambodia in 1970 to cover the Indochina War. After flying out of Phnom Penh on the American helicopter evacuation of April 12, 1975, he returned to Vietnam and became the only American network correspondent to witness the communist takeover of Saigon at month’s end. In 2020, Laurie published his memoir The Last Helicopter: Two Lives in Indochina, which forms the basis of his Contemporary Issues Forum lecture for the Chautauqua Women’s Club.
Laurie has been at the helm of numerous documentaries and longform TV programs; director of broadcasting at the Journalism and Studies Centre of the University of Hong Kong; head of news and current affairs in Asia for News Corp’s STAR-TV as it built TV channels in India; and founder of his consulting and production company, FocusAsia Productions.
His reporting for NBC News in 1975 earned Laurie a George Foster Peabody Award. Other honors over the decades include multiple Emmies, the Overseas Press Club Award, New York Festival prizes, and Amnesty International Awards for human rights reporting.

School of Music Faculty Spotlight Series: Dominic Armstrong, tenor, and Joel Harder, piano
2025-07-26 16:15 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Join us for an afternoon of beautiful song, featuring two of our esteemed Opera Conservatory faculty members. This program will include Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel and Finzi’s A Young Man’s Exhortations, two poignant and expressive works that highlight the depth and emotion of the human experience. Don’t miss this captivating musical journey.

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra with Time For Three
2025-07-26 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Rossen Milanov, conductor
Time For Three
Grammy and Emmy-winning ensemble Time For Three returns to the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for an electrifying evening of genre-defying music. Known for their unique blend of classical, jazz, and pop, this trio pushes the boundaries of traditional performance. Their high-energy style and incredible musicianship create an exhilarating experience that captivates audiences. Consisting of Charles Yang (violin, vocals), Nicolas “Nick” Kendall (violin, vocals), and Ranaan Meyer (double bass, vocals), their instruments and voices combine in a remarkable sound, establishing a distinct voice of expression that resonates with listeners worldwide.
Time For Three also performs on Monday, July 28, as part of the Chautauqua Chamber Music series.
Program:
Zoltán Kodály: Dances of Galánta
Kevin Puts: Contact
Antonin Dvorak: Selections from Slavonic Dances, Op. 46

Rabbi Peter Berg
2025-07-27 10:45, 2025-07-28 09:15, 2025-07-29 09:15, 2025-07-30 09:15, 2025-07-31 09:15, 2025-08-01 09:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Peter Berg became the fifth senior rabbi of The Temple since 1895 in July of 2008. Rabbi Berg is passionate about Jewish learning and meaningful worship, and he is an advocate for social change. Prior to coming to The Temple, he served as rabbi of Temple Beth Or in Washington Township, New Jersey and as the Associate Rabbi of Temple Emanuel-El in Dallas, Texas.
Over the years, Rabbi Berg has spent a great deal of time working with advocacy groups on issues including but not limited to: poverty & homelessness, criminal justice reform, preventing the human trafficking of minors, civil rights, religious freedom, ending mass incarceration, gun safety, hate crimes, the environment, combatting antisemitism, and strengthening the U.S.- Israel relationship. Rabbi Berg has served extensively in community and national board service. He currently serves on the Board of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Anti-Defamation League, Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students (GEEARS), Faith In Public Life, OUTCRY: Faith Voices Against Gun Violence, Three Star, Home First, Georgia Interfaith Public Policy Center, The Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta, and the Commission On Social Action for Reform Judaism. He is Past President of the Atlanta Rabbinical Association. Rabbi Berg serves on the advisory Boards of: The American Jewish Archives (Vice-Chair), The Jewish Fertility Foundation, JumpSpark Teen Initiative, The Islamic Speakers Bureau, and the Grady Hospital Foundation.
A native of Ocean Township, New Jersey, Rabbi Berg holds a degree in Education and Human Development, with a focus in human services, counseling, and Judaic Studies, from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He earned his M.A. in Hebrew Literature and his rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion in New York and Jerusalem, where he was a Steinhardt Fellow. Rabbi Berg also holds a certificate in Chemical Dependency and Spiritual Counseling and is a trained Disaster, Fire, and Police Chaplain. He serves as a Chaplain for The Georgia State Patrol.
In 2009, Rabbi Berg was inducted into the College of Preachers at Morehouse College. Rabbi Berg was a member of the 2012 Leadership Atlanta class and is an active member of the Downtown Atlanta Rotary Club. He was recently re-appointed to the Georgia Holocaust Commission by the Lt. Governor. In 2013, Rabbi Berg was named by Newsweek and The Daily Beast as one of the top 50 most influential rabbis in the United States of America. From 2016-2022, he was named annually by Georgia Trend as one of the Most Influential Georgians and from 2019-2023 as one of Atlanta’s Most Powerful Leaders. In 2023 he received Atlanta’s highest honor from Mayor Dickens, the Phoenix Award, as well as the Distinguished Advocate Award from The American Jewish Committee.
Rabbi Berg lives in Atlanta with his wife Karen, a teacher and tutor, and their three children.

Community Building and It's Importance, a panel discussion
2025-07-27 13:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall

CVA Open Studios
2025-07-27 14:00 | CVA: Arts Quad
We are excited to invite you to CVA Open Studios, occurring prior to the annual 6-week Resident Group Exhibition. Celebrate the work our resident artists have created during their time at Chautauqua Visual Arts. This event is free and open to the public.

Family Entertainment: 123 Andrés
2025-07-27 15:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Christina and Andrés are 123 Andrés, the Grammy and Latin Grammy-winning duo for kids and families known for their interactive, high energy shows. They bring fresh original songs that blend Spanish and English, with an eclectic mix of sounds from all corners of Latin America. 123 Andrés pack their show with positive vibes and energetic songs that get the whole family dancing and learning.
Christina y Andrés son 123 Andrés, ganadores de Grammy y Latin Grammy, que hacen música para niños y sus familias. Presentan un show infantil, en inglés y en español, lleno de energía y que pone a bailar a todos, chicos y grandes. Ven a disfrutar canciones con valores positivos, letras pegajosas y movimientos graciosos, al son de la Cumbia, la Bachata y más ritmos que los pondrán a bailar.

CVA Six Week Residency exhibition reception
2025-07-27 15:00 | CVA: Arts Quad
CVA is honored to share our annual Resident Group Exhibition. Please join us to celebrate our 6-week resident artists at the CVA School of Art Gallery on the Art Quad. Join us to see the work our residents have created during their time at Chautauqua Visual Arts. This event is free and open to the public.

Sharon G. Flake and Caroline Starr Rose
2025-07-27 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Writers’ Center Faculty Reading — Week Six — Featuring Sharon G. Flake (Young Adult Fiction) and Caroline Starr Rose (Middle Grade Fiction)
Sharon G. Flake is the author of the groundbreaking novel, The Skin I’m In, which brought a bold dimension to literature for young readers. Now considered a modern classic, the book is used in classrooms worldwide and studied by experts in education and literature. Flake has authored over a dozen books, with more than 1.5 million in print globally. Her work has been translated into multiple languages including Korean, Italian, French and Portuguese. Her work has been recognized with several Coretta Scott King Author Honors; an NAACP Award Nomination; the YWCA Racial Justice Award, and numerous top ten best books for teens citations by libraries and industry organizations. Flake is a Kirkus Prize Award finalist. She has mentored aspiring authors for years virtually with the Virginia C. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University. The Family I’m In, her much anticipated YA novel, is due out April 1, 2025.
Caroline Starr Rose is a middle grade and picture book author whose books have been ALA-ALSC Notable, Junior Library Guild, ABA New Voices, Kids’ Indie Next, Amazon’s Best Books of the Month for Kids, and Bank Street College of Education Best Books selections. In addition, her books have been nominated for almost two dozen state award lists. Caroline was named a Publisher’s Weekly Flying Start Author for her debut novel, May B. She spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico and taught social studies and English in four different states. Caroline now lives with her family in her hometown, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Children's Organ Tour
2025-07-27 17:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater

Sacred Song Service - Ecumenical Communion
2025-07-27 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater

CHQ Mystic Heart: David Gluck
2025-07-28 00:00, 2025-07-29 07:45, 2025-07-30 07:45, 2025-07-31 07:45, 2025-08-01 07:45 | Presbyterian Chapel
David Gluck began his study of meditation and yoga in 2001, with Jivamukti Yoga. He received accreditation as a certified yoga teacher in 2003, directly from Jivamukti founders, Sharon Gannon and David Life. Shortly thereafter, he began formal studies in the Gelug lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, primarily under the tutelage of Douglas Veenhof, current Resident Teacher at B. Alan Wallace’s Center for Contemplative Research, Miyo Samten Ling, in Crestone, Colorado. In 2022, he became an-accredited mindfulness teacher, studying with David Nichternand the Dharma Moon community. David has taught classes, workshops, and teacher training’s both nationally and abroad. In 2013, David developed and led the Yoga Philosophy, Training and Certification course at George Brown College, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In addition, he served as faculty for the Yoga Sanctuary Teacher Training program as Director of Philosophy, from 2013 until 2017. In 2017, David transitioned to working with children. Currently, his dharma teaching consists of private sessions wherein he helps practitioners develop and deepen their practice, and his annual participation in Chautauqua’s Mystic Heart program

Celina Stewart
2025-07-28 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Celina Stewart is the chief executive officer of the League of Women Voters of the United States. In this role, she is charged with executing the mission to empower voters and defend democracy and managing the century-strong voting rights organization’s operations and resources. She joins the Chautauqua Lecture Series to discuss the League’s work to combat democratic backsliding and protect voters’ rights, opening a week exploring “The Global Rise of Authoritarianism.”
Stewart first joined the League in 2018 as director of advocacy and litigation and was promoted to senior director in April 2019 and to chief counsel in July 2020. In these roles, she worked to incorporate broader strategic vision and implementation by building stronger relationships with legal partners, strengthening relationships and visibility of the League on the Hill; executing the League’s redistricting initiative, People Powered Fair Maps; and launching the League’s multi-decade One Person One Vote campaign to end the Electoral College.
Prior to joining the League, she was acting chief operating officer and director of philanthropy at an electoral reform nonprofit. Other previous positions include litigation consultant to several Am 100 law firms handling complex merger and acquisition transactions; legislative aide at the Michigan legislature handling the public interest portfolio for the House Tax Chair; legal counsel to the Minority Leader Stacey Abrams at the Georgia House of Representatives; and executive director for the Congressional Black Caucus Institute’s 21st Century program. She earned her J.D. from Western Michigan University Law School and her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Spelman College.

Climate Change & Authoritarianism, with Micah Loewinger, co-host NPR On the Media
2025-07-28 12:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Micah Loewinger is co-host of WNYC’s On the Media, a nationally-syndicated public radio show that can be heard on over 400 stations across the country. His investigation into Zello, a walkie-talkie app used for recruitment and organizing by far-right militia groups in the lead up to January 6th, won the John M. Higgins Award for Best In-Depth/Enterprise Reporting and was featured on 60 Minutes. In Chautauqua’s weeklong exploration of the Global Rise of Authoritarianism, Loewinger will explore the link between the growing number and severity of climate-fueled natural disasters and rising support for authoritarian leaders. Researchers have documented how the rise in climate-driven migration drives countries at the receiving end toward anti-immigration populist authoritarianism. Loewinger’s groundbreaking investigative reporting has demonstrated how in the United States, right wing militia groups have capitalized on natural disasters as a powerful recruiting tool, preying on people’s distrust of the government to raise both funds and new supporters. Loewinger’s lecture will take you deep inside these militia movement strategies to leverage climate-fueled natural disasters in the service of authoritarian populism.

CLSC Book Discussion
2025-07-28 12:15 | Alumni Hall Porch, Alumni Hall Porch
Presenters Vanessa Weinert and Susan Allen will lead a community discussion on our Week Six CLSC selection Chain-Gang All-Stars: A Novel by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Piano Faculty Masterclass: HaeSun Paik
2025-07-28 14:00 | Sherwood-Marsh 101

Susan Hayward
2025-07-28 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Susan Hayward is a specialist on religion, peace, and human rights and a senior research fellow at the Georgetown University Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. From 2007 to 2021, she worked with the Religion and Inclusive Societies team at the U.S. Institute of Peace, partnering with religious actors worldwide to transform violence and advance just peace with a particular focus on Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Colombia. In this role, she strengthened religious literacy in U.S. foreign policy and global diplomacy, partnering with the State Department, USAID, and the European Union, among others.
From 2020 to 2023, Hayward supported the establishment of the Religion and Public Life program at Harvard Divinity School, building a graduate level certificate program for students seeking careers advancing religious literacy for just peace in vocations such as policymaking, humanitarian action, and organizing.
Hayward’s co-edited book Women, Religion and Peacebuilding: Illuminating the Unseen (2015), highlights the role of women religious peacebuilders worldwide.
She has served or currently serves on the selection committee for international awards recognizing religious peacebuilders, and as an advisor to Templeton Religion Trust and Churches for Middle East Peace.
Hayward studied Buddhism in Nepal and is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, currently serving as Minister of Justice and Formation at Creekside UCC in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
She holds degrees from Tufts University, Harvard University, and is pursuing her doctorate from Georgetown University. Hayward is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Jeremy Ben-Ami & Eugene Taylor Sutton
2025-07-28 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
With Geoffrey Kemp unable to join us, Chautauqua in 2025 pivots from its celebrated annual Middle East Update to an interfaith conversation between two esteemed leaders in that space.
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.
His 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, Jeremy lived in Israel, where he started a consulting firm working with Israeli non-profit 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.
The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton is the senior pastor of Chautauqua Institution. Formerly the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland and Canon Pastor of Washington National Cathedral, he has also served as a college chaplain, parish priest, and a professor of homiletics and liturgy at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Sutton is a frequent leader at conferences focused on spirituality, nonviolence, racial and social justice, and he has led multiple missions focused on peace and reconciliation to South Africa, Israel, and the Holy Land. He co-founded Contemplative Outreach of Maryland and Washington (COMW), an ecumenical network of those committed to the daily practice of centering prayer, and is a contributor to the books The Diversity of Centering Prayer, and Reclaiming the Gospel of Peace: Challenging the Epidemic of Gun Violence.
His board memberships have included the Institute for Christian, Jewish and Islamic Studies, the Institute for Sustainable Communities, the Ecumenical Leaders Group of Central Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and Bishops United Against Gun Violence. Bishop Sutton has been named by the Center for American Progress as one of “Fourteen Faith Leaders to Watch” for his faith-led efforts to promote nonviolent solutions to conflicts.

Chautauqua Chamber Music: Time For Three
2025-07-28 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Grammy and Emmy-winning ensemble Time For Three (TF3) defies convention and boundaries by showcasing excellence across different genres, including classical music, Americana, and singer-songwriter. Their unique sound captivates audiences, immersing them in a musical experience that merges various eras, styles, and traditions of Western music. TF3, consisting of Charles Yang (violin, vocals), Nicolas “Nick” Kendall (violin, vocals), and Ranaan Meyer (double bass, vocals), combines their instruments and voices in a remarkable sound, establishing a distinct voice of expression that resonates with listeners worldwide.
Time for Three also joins the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, July 26, with Rossen Milanov conducting.
Program to be announced.

CHQ Mystic Heart: Suzanne Watters
2025-07-28 16:45 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary
Suzanne Watters is a Pratt Institute MFA graduate with a concentration in painting/drawing. Her art practice centers around woven pieces made with found textiles painted with pigments and/or dyed with food waste and other organic matter. She has attended training in New York City and received a certification in sound meditation from the Sound Healing Academy. She has also done additional sound healing training at a retreat and session with Wyatt Mylius at Rooted In Sound in Pittsburgh, PA (trained with Peter Hess) and with indigenous sound healing practitioner Moises Tort in Mandarina, Mexico. Watters sees her sound meditation sessions as being led by an artist and guided with the relaxation tools and techniques of poetry, breath, and sound

CVA Lecture Series: Matt Bollinger
2025-07-28 18:30 | Hultquist 101, Hultquist 101
CVA Lecture Series: School of Art faculty
Matt Bollinger
Matt Bollinger received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. His work has been exhibited in solo shows in New York, Los Angeles, Dublin, London, and elsewhere. Recent museum exhibitions have been at the Akron Art Museum (2022), Westmoreland Museum of American Art (2022), South Bend Museum of Art (2020), the Schneider Museum (2018) and Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Saint-Étienne Métropole (2016). Residencies include the Seven Below Arts Initiative in Burlington, VT, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA, and the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program in Brooklyn, NY. In 2016 and 2021, he received NYFA fellowships in Painting. He is represented by mother’s tankstation and François Ghebaly Gallery. He lives and works in New York state.

Chautauqua Opera Conservatory with the Music School Festival Orchestra: La Vida Breve
2025-07-28 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
La Vida Breve, with music by Manuel de Falla and a libretto by Carlos Fernández Shaw, is considered one of the greatest operas written in Spanish. Written in 1905, it’s a kind of “tragic zarzuela”, a hothouse verismo opera that mixes Andalusian folk songs into a score shimmering with French Impressionism. This vivid and engrossing opera centers on Salud, the working-class heroine, a victim of passion and betrayal. Salud loves Paco, a sophisticated cad, who offers her pledges of love but marries another, wealthier, girl, leaving Salud desolate with heartbreak. Only one hour long, La Vida Breve is sonically thrilling, with richly sung emotion and vivacious rhythms — a gripping story of the human condition.
The Chautauqua Opera Conservatory is designed to guide and empower young artists through training and vast performance opportunities in a wide array of repertoire with excellent faculty. Under the leadership of Denyce Graves-Montgomery, Artistic Advisor, and Jonathan Beyer, Director, a dynamic group of singers study, coach, and perform in an idyllic setting on the grounds of the Chautauqua Institution.
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.

Javier Corrales
2025-07-29 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
The Dwight W. Morrow 1895 Professor of Political Science at Amherst College, Javier Corrales’ research focuses on democratization, presidential powers, ruling parties, democratic backsliding, populism, political economy of development, oil and energy, the incumbent’s advantage, foreign policies, and sexuality. He has published extensively on Latin America and the Caribbean, and his latest book — Autocracy Rising: How Venezuela Transitioned to Authoritarianism — argues that deep democratic backsliding is determined by party system features, variations in autocratic legalism, institutional capture, and innovations in the use of coercion. It is this scholarship that will frame his presentation for the Chautauqua Lecture Series in a week focused on “The Global Rise of Authoritarianism.”
Corrales’ other books include Fixing Democracy: Why Constitutional Change Often Fails to Enhance Democracy in Latin America — which develops the concept of power asymmetry between government and opposition forces to explain whether new constitutions will expand presidential powers, and in the process, hurt democracy — and The Politics of LGBTQ Rights Expansion in Latin America and Caribbean.
Corrales has taught at the Center for Latin American Research at the University of Amsterdam and at the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University, and has offered short courses at the Institute of Higher Studies in Administration in Caracas, the School of Government at the University of the Andes in Bogotá, and at the Universidad de Salamanca.
In 2000, he became one of the youngest scholars ever to be selected as a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Twice a Fulbright scholar, in 2005 in Caracas and 2016 in Bogotá, Corrales obtained his Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University.

BTG Brownbag. Richard Piacentini: Green Innovation by Botanical Gardens
2025-07-29 12:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens is a world leader in sustainable practices among gardens, zoos and aquariums. Its Center for Sustainable Landscapes (CSL) hosts one of the world’s greenest buildings, which generates all of its own energy and treats all storm and sanitary water captured on-site. It is the first and only building to meet seven of the highest green certifications. Phipps’ green evolution has taken it from its first LEED-certified campus structure to the pursuit of worldwide regenerative collaboration through The Climate Toolkit, a collaborative opportunity for museums, gardens, zoos, science centers, nature centers, field stations and related institutions who want to learn how to aggressively address climate change within their own organizations and inspire the communities they serve to follow their lead.

CHQ Mystic Heart: David Gluck
2025-07-29 12:30, 2025-07-31 12:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

Justus Baird
2025-07-29 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Rabbi Justus Baird is Senior Vice President at the Shalom Hartman Institute, a pluralistic Jewish think tank and educational institute. He directs the North American Kogod Research Center, oversees the Institute’s interfaith and intergroup work, and is publisher of Sources: a Journal of Jewish Ideas. Prior to joining Hartman in 2019, he was Dean of Auburn Seminary.
Rabbi Baird has led and studied interfaith initiatives since 2002, including extensive work in Israel/Palestine, faith-rooted social movement work, an international multifaith teen leadership camp, interfaith learning for religion scholars, and most recently, Black/Jewish initiatives.
Raised in Texas, he lives in Montclair, NJ, with his rabbi-wife and their three children.

Heritage Lecture Series: Jonathan D. Schmitz
2025-07-29 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
As part of the Oliver Archives Center’s Heritage Lecture Series, Chautauqua Institution Archives and Historian, Jonathan D. Schmitz will present “Science and Religion (and Art) at Chautauqua”.

Piano Program Faculty Recital: HaeSun Paik. Music of Beethoven, Schumann, and Bartok.
2025-07-29 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Pianist HaeSun Paik has been hailed as a “sensitive and thinking musician first and an awesome technician second” (Los Angeles Times) with a “big and individual personality” (New York Times), whose performances are “a wonder — elastic, mercurial, charged with meaning, surprising” (Boston Globe) and “a rare example of technique actually serving both idea and feeling, head and heart” (Musical America). She performed with numerous orchestras including the Boston, National, London, City of Birmingham, Belgium National, Osaka, NHK, and KBS Symphony Orchestras, the Munich, Radio France, Tokyo, Warsaw, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestras, and the Russian National Orchestra among others.
One of the most sought-after pedagogical influences in Korea, Ms. Paik was the youngest pianist of her generation to be appointed as a music professor at Seoul National University, where she taught for ten years. She was on the piano faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music and currently is a member of the piano faculty at New England Conservatory.

BTG: Masterclass
2025-07-29 16:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Biophelia

I'M STILL HERE
2025-07-29 17:30, 2025-07-30 20:30, 2025-07-31 20:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
As Brazil faces the tightening grip of a military dictatorship, Eunice Paiva (Fernanda Torres), a mother of five, must reinvent herself and her family when authorities abduct her husband. “Director Walter Salles returns to the political filmmaking he employed in The Motorcycle Diaries. Like that film, this one follows a protagonist who becomes an activist after being jarred by political events.” -Odie Henderson, Boston Globe “In the face of inhumanity, Salles’s film simply radiates love.” -Nick Howells, London Evening Standard (PG-13, 137m, In Portuguese with subtitles)

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: A Beethoven Evening
2025-07-29 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Teddy Abrams, conductor
Alexander Kobrin, piano
Musical America’s 2022 Conductor of the Year and Louisville Orchestra music director Teddy Abrams returns to the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for an all-Beethoven evening featuring his bold and exuberant Symphony No. 7. The concert opens with Alexander Kobrin in Beethoven’s elegant and lyrical Piano Concerto No. 3. Praised for his brilliant technique, musicality and emotional engagement with the audience, Kobrin currently serves as the Chautauqua Piano Program Heintzelman Family Artistic Advisor.
Program:
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92

EVERY LITTLE THING
2025-07-29 20:30, 2025-07-30 18:00, 2025-07-31 14:30 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Author and rehabber Terry Masear wants to save every injured hummingbird in Los Angeles. Over the course of Sally Aitken’s intimate and moving documentary, we become invested in Terry’s hummingbird patients — including Cactus, Jimmy, Wasabi, Raisin, and Mikhail. “These are small, scary steps for hummingbirds, seeding faith in giant leaps for humankind.” -Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times “Every Little Thing comes to embody the fragile yet uncontainable mystery of all life.” -Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine (NR, 93m)

Cultural Ethics Series - Larry Rizzolo
2025-07-30 09:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
“Science and Ethics at the Beginning and End of Life”

School of Music: Chamber Concert #1
2025-07-30 10:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Joan Donovan
2025-07-30 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Joan Donovan is an assistant professor of journalism and emerging media studies in the College of Communications at Boston University. She is also the founder of The Critical Internet Studies Institute, a nonprofit that develops cutting-edge research and educational programs advancing public knowledge of emerging technologies and the paradoxes of innovation. After first speaking for the Chautauqua Lecture Series remotely in 2020, Donovan will now make her in-person Amphitheater debut during the Week Six study of “The Global Rise of Authoritarianism,” sharing how alternative political media has evolved in recent years, particularly with regard to the swift advancements in AI, and how social media can be abused to enable and empower authoritarian regimes.
Donovan is co-author of the book Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America, which analyzes how meme culture became an important political communication strategy bridging social movements with contemporary political parties from Occupy to the Jan. 6 insurrection. Formerly, she was the research director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media Politics and Public Policy, where she oversaw the Technology and Social Change Research Project, which studied media manipulation, disinformation, and adversarial media movements. In 2023, she blew the whistle on corporate influence over that research program.
Previously, Donovan was the research lead for Data & Society’s Media Manipulation Initiative, which mapped how interest groups, governments, political operatives, corporations, and others use the internet and media to disrupt social institutions. She completed her Ph.D. in sociology and science studies at the University of California San Diego, and subsequently was a postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics, where she studied white supremacists’ use of DNA ancestry tests, social movements, and technology.

Organ Recitals
2025-07-30 12:15 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary

CLSC Young Readers Book Discussion
2025-07-30 12:15 | Alumni Hall Porch, Alumni Hall Porch
Presenters Stephaine Dawson and Mary Pat McFarland will lead a community discussion on our Week Six CLSC Young Readers selection Squire: A Graphic Novel by Nadia Shamas and Sara Alfageeh

Anantanand Rambachan
2025-07-30 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Anantanand Rambachan is of Professor Emeritus of Religion at Saint Olaf College, Minnesota, USA (1985-2021). He was also Forum Humanum Visiting Professor at the Academy for the Study of World Religions at the University of Hamburg in Germany (2013-2017).
Prof. Rambachan has been involved in interreligious relations and dialogue for over 40 years, as a Hindu contributor and analyst. He is a Co-President of Religions for Peace, the largest global interfaith network. and serves as President of the Board of Arigatou International NY, a global organization advocating for the rights of children and mobilizing the resources of religions to overcome violence against children. He also Chairs the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Multifaith Network. He is active in the dialogue programs of the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue at the Vatican, and currently participates in the Ethics in Action dialogues at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. In 2008, at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Professor Rambachan delivered the distinguished Lambeth Interfaith Lecture at the Lambeth Palace in London. Professor Rambachan led the first two White House Celebrations of the Hindu Festival of Diwali in 2003 and 2004.
His books include Accomplishing the Accomplished: The Vedas as a Source of Valid Knowledge in Ṡaṅkara; The Limits of Scripture: Vivekananda’s Reinterpretation of the Authority of the Vedas, The Advaita Worldview: God, World and Humanity, A Hindu Theology of Liberation: Not-Two is Not-One; Essays in Hindu Theology and Pathways to Hindu-Christian Dialogue. In addition, Professor Rambachan has authored numerous book-chapters and journal essays. The British Broadcasting Corporation transmitted a series of 25 lectures on Hinduism by Prof. Rambachan around the world.

African American Heritage House Lecture: Paige Alexander
2025-07-30 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Paige Alexander serves as chief executive officer of The Carter Center, a nonprofit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter to advance peace and health worldwide. Alexander joined the Center in 2020 at a pivotal time for the organization and the country. In her first year, Alexander led the organization through the COVID-19 pandemic and a period of national social upheaval, while envisioning a path forward for The Carter Center as it transitioned from an organization that was founder-led to one that is guided by its founders’ principles.
Since that time, Alexander has strengthened the Center’s core peace and health programs and led the organization in new directions, including adding programs to address: the global mental health crisis; political polarization in the United States; and the impact of climate change on global peace and public health.
Before joining The Carter Center, Alexander had a distinguished global development career, with more than two decades of experience in the government and nonprofit sectors. She held Senate-confirmed senior leadership positions at two regional bureaus of the United States Agency for International Development, covering missions and development programs in 25 countries.

Piano Faculty Masterclass: Alexander Kobrin
2025-07-30 16:00 | Sherwood-Marsh 101

School of Music: Chamber Concert #3
2025-07-30 16:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Party on the Art Quad
2025-07-30 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!

Chautauqua Opera Conservatory 2025 Scenes Program with Kensho Watanabe
2025-07-30 18:30 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall
Join celebrated conductor Kensho Watanabe as he leads us on a captivating journey through some of opera’s most cherished moments.
The program features eleven unforgettable scenes from classics including La Traviata, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Street Scene, Die Zauberflöte, and more—showcasing the drama, beauty, and emotional depth that define the operatic art form.
Don’t miss this spectacular evening of music and storytelling at its finest.
Japanese-American conductor Kensho Watanabe is internationally acclaimed for his dynamic musicality, thoughtful interpretations, and engaging presence on the podium. Following a successful run at the Metropolitan Opera of Kevin Puts’ The Hours last season, Watanabe returns to the Met this season for eight performances of Puccini’s La bohéme.
In addition to Watanabe’s return to the Met, highlights of the 2024-25 season include a Suntory Hall debut with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and debuts with the Calgary Philharmonic and Opera Theatre St. Louis. The 2023-24 season saw Watanabe make his Detroit Opera debut with Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, as well as returns to l’Orchestre Métropolitain in Montréal, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the RTE Concert Orchestra in Dublin. Recent highlights include work with the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, with whom he maintains a close relationship following his tenure as Assistant Conductor from 2016-19.
Based in Paris, France, Watanabe is an accomplished violinist, receiving his MM from the Yale School of Music, and serving as a substitute violinist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 2012-16. A protégé of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Watanabe was the inaugural conducting fellow of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with both Nézet-Séguin and Otto-Werner Mueller. Additionally, he holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Yale, where he studied molecular, cellular, and developmental biology.

Miko Marks
2025-07-30 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Finding freedom through music is something that Miko Marks knows all too well. But it’s more than just freedom. It’s liberation. Deliverance. After living what seems to be multiple lives over, Miko has finally come into the life she was born to live. And she’s more than ready to live it to the fullest – one of truth, authenticity, vulnerability, joy and honesty. There’s a clip on YouTube that is quite striking. It’s an interview from a local Bay Area news channel featuring Miko Marks talking about her journey as a Black woman in country music. “For me, being a country music singer-songwriter, I’m truly dedicated to the work, so it’s an uphill battle, but it’s one I’m willing to climb.” That clip is from 2007. The conversations and the questions 15 years later, in 2022, are the same. Miko has answered them time and time again, but there’s more to her story than the barriers she bridles. She has more to give than the small confines of that one line of questioning. Miko’s life as a Black woman in country and roots music is only a small part of the story. As she readies her latest album, Feel like Going Home, for release (October 14, 2022 via Redtone Records), it’s beyond time to dig deeper.
Miko was born in Flint, Michigan, by a single mother, a free spirit; undoubtedly where Miko gets her fire for life. Along with being passionate about being a mother and instilling strength and independence in Miko, her mother also had a calling for fighting for equal rights for all. She would spend free time protesting on a local level in their town and would travel to Detroit for larger demonstrations, always looking to make a genuine connection with everyone she met, leaving the world better than she found it. This impacted Miko greatly as she grew and was pivotal in Miko finding her own voice. To provide for Miko, her mother would spend nights working 3rd shift at the automotive factory, while Miko’s grandmother would watch over her, helping raise her for most of her young life. For Miko, the women in her life were of utmost importance to her and their hopes and dreams for her were cautiously optimistic while being pragmatic due to the barriers they faced in their own lifetime. The path that Miko is on now would be almost unimaginable for women like her grandmother. Even still she was raised to rise. Miko reflects on the contributions of these women in “Good Life.” “My grandmother’s family came out of the south, working in cotton fields, struggling, looking for hope up north as so many did during the great migration. I wanted to describe that in song and praise her and my mother and my ancestors for their power, and to thank them for persevering so that I could have a good life.”

School of Music: Chamber Concert #4
2025-07-31 10:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Paige Alexander
2025-07-31 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Paige Alexander serves as chief executive officer of The Carter Center, a nonprofit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter to advance peace and health worldwide. She joins the Chautauqua Lecture Series in a week exploring “The Global Rise of Authoritarianism” to discuss evolving threats to democracy worldwide, and how The Carter Center works to address those threats.
Alexander joined the Center in 2020 at a pivotal time for the organization and the country. In her first year, Alexander led the organization through the COVID-19 pandemic and a period of national social upheaval, while envisioning a path forward for The Carter Center as it transitioned from an organization that was founder-led to one that is guided by its founders’ principles. Since that time, Alexander has strengthened the Center’s core peace and health programs and led the organization in new directions, including adding programs to address: the global mental health crisis; political polarization in the United States; and the impact of climate change on global peace and public health.
Before joining The Carter Center, Alexander had a distinguished global development career, with more than two decades of experience in the government and nonprofit sectors. She held Senate-confirmed senior leadership positions at two regional bureaus of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), covering missions and development programs in 25 countries.
Alexander currently serves on the boards of the Romanian American Foundation, the World Affairs Council of Atlanta, and the Free Russia Foundation, and as an advisory board member of several human rights organizations.
This Chautauqua Lecture Series program is presented in collaboration with the African American Heritage House at Chautauqua.

School of Music: Chamber Concert #5
2025-07-31 13:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

A Showcase of One Acts - Drama League Directing Fellow’s Presentation
2025-07-31 14:00, 2025-07-31 19:30 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater
The Drama League’s FutureNow Stage Directing Fellows take over Bratton Stage for an evening of one-act plays featuring the talents of our 2025 design fellows and acting conservatory.

Brendan Murphy
2025-07-31 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Brendan Murphy is the founding director of the Bearing Witness Institute for Interreligious and Ecumenical Dialogue at Marist School.
He has taught history at Marist since 1994 and is actively involved in developing educational initiatives and created a compelling “History and the Holocaust” seminar at Marist that is complemented by cocurricular international field trips to sites in Europe that were significant during the Holocaust. Over the years, high demand for Murphy’s thought-provoking antisemitism presentations at churches and synagogues in Atlanta, Georgia and across the country spurred the creation of the Bearing Witness Institute.
Murphy has received numerous awards, including the Outstanding Educator Award from the Anne Frank Center in New York, the ADL’s Abe Goldstein Human Relations and Unsung Hero Awards. His dedication to excellence in teaching has been acknowledged at Marist School and on the state level, with the Distinguished Service Award from the Georgia Independent School Association and twice with the Georgia Outstanding Educator of the Year Award from the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust. He also has been recognized as Teacher of the Year by the University of Notre Dame. Additionally, Murphy has participated in prestigious programs such as the Museum Teacher Fellowship at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and the Lerner Fellowship at the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous in New York City. Recently, he was selected to participate in Leadership Atlanta’s Class of 2025.
In addition to serving as director of the Bearing Witness Institute and teaching his Holocaust seminar, Murphy moderates a Peace by Piece group, which brings students from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities together to foster friendship and understanding. In the coming years, he will replicate this Peace by Piece model in communities and schools across the nation.
A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Murphy earned a bachelor’s degree in education and history from the University of Notre Dame and holds a master’s degree in theology from Spring Hill College.

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
2025-07-31 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle Presentation — Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of the Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly popular, highly controversial profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators, and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.
In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death matches before packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. As fan favorites, teammates, and lovers, Thurwar and Staxxx fight for their lives and consider how they might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games. But CAPE’s corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo, and the obstacles they devise have devastating consequences.
In his debut novel, Chain-Gang All-Stars, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah examines an America in which systemic racism, wanton capitalism, and mass incarceration combine to create a new privatized and monetized gladiator production in the United States, on which the kaleidoscopic lives of his main characters take center stage as they fight to survive and pursue their freedom — by any means necessary. A work longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Excellence and named a finalist for the 2024 Chautauqua Prize, among other accolades, Chain-Gang All-Stars combines prose that is both provocative and forthright in its critique of the American incarceration system.
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah was raised in Spring Valley, New York, and now lives in the Bronx. His debut collection, Friday Black, was a New York Times bestseller, won the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize. His first novel Chain-Gang All-Stars was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and the Books Are My Bag Awards, and selected as a New York Times Top Ten Books of the Year. Adjei-Brenyah is a National Book Foundation’s ‘5 Under 35’ honoree.

School of Music: Chamber Concert #6
2025-07-31 16:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Air Band
2025-07-31 16:30 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Boys’ and Girls’ Club Groupers return to the Amphitheater for our annual Air Band competition!

TIANANMEN TONIGHT
2025-07-31 17:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Meet the Filmmakers! Free Admission! In these perilous times for American journalism comes a story of truth telling in service to democracy. Tiananmen Tonight reveals the powerful human drama of Dan Rather and the CBS Evening News team battling for life and reputation while courageously reporting the extraordinary student uprising in 1989 that brought China to the brink of democratic reform. The film is produced and directed by Bestor Cram and Michael Streissguth. (NR, 84m)

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto
2025-07-31 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Rossen Milanov, conductor
Sharon Roffman, violin
Experience an evening of passion and virtuosity as the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra’s new concertmaster Sharon Roffman takes the stage for Tchaikovsky’s breathtaking Violin Concerto, a dazzling showcase of lyricism and fire. The journey continues with Rachmaninoff’s sweeping Symphony No. 3, a masterpiece of rich harmonies and soaring melodies. Don’t miss this unforgettable night of Russian Romanticism, filled with heart-stirring emotion and exhilarating brilliance!
Program:
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44

Alsu Kurmasheva, Roger Carstens & Almar Latour
2025-08-01 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Press freedom advocate and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty editor Alsu Kurmasheva and U.S. hostage negotiator Roger D. Carstens join Almar Latour, the CEO of Dow Jones and publisher of The Wall Street Journal, in conversation for the Chautauqua Lecture Series to close a week on “The Global Rise of Authoritarianism.”
Alsu Kurmasheva is a journalist and editor at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), where she has reported extensively on cultural and human rights issues in Russia’s Volga-Ural region. She first joined RFE/RL in 1998 as a radio program moderator and has since built a career covering the experiences of ethnic minorities in Russia. Her reporting has also focused on gender issues, with in-depth investigations into domestic violence and women’s rights.
In October 2023, Kurmasheva was detained in Russia and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent. Two months later, she was accused of spreading “false” information about the Russian military, a charge linked to her alleged role in distributing a book featuring accounts from Russians opposed to the invasion of Ukraine. Held for more than nine months, in July 2024, Kurmasheva was sentenced to six and a half years in prison. In August 2024, she was released as part of a prisoner exchange that also saw the return of fellow American journalist, The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Following her release from detention in Russia, she has emerged as a vocal advocate for press freedom, drawing on her own experience of imprisonment to highlight the risks journalists face in authoritarian regimes.
Ambassador Roger D. Carstens is the inaugural John McCain Freedom for Political Prisoners distinguished senior fellow at the McCain Institute in Washington. Prior to assuming this role, Carstens was the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs at the U.S. Department of State. He previously served in Amman, Jordan, as the country director for a U.S.-based international NGO that provided humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees and internally displaced persons. Prior positions include senior civilian advisor on the Commander’s Advisory and Assistance Team (CAAT) in Afghanistan; project director for an NGO based in Somalia; senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security; and special assistant for legislative affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Carstens is a retired Army lieutenant colonel who served in Special Forces and the 1st Ranger Battalion. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and holds master’s degrees from the U.S. Naval War College and St. John’s College. Carstens is the recipient of the 2023 Robert A. Levinson Excellence in Government Service Award, the St. John’s College Alumni Association’s Award of Merit, and was selected as a Distinguished Member of the Special Forces Regiment.
Almar Latour is publisher of The Wall Street Journal and CEO of Dow Jones, a world-leading news and business information services company. He was named CEO in 2020 and, under his leadership, Dow Jones has delivered record financial results, more than doubling profitability in four years, with significant growth in subscriptions and business information services. The company has doubled digital subscriptions, while safeguarding The Wall Street Journal’s reputation as one of the world’s most-trusted news organizations. Dow Jones’ portfolio of business information offerings including Factiva, OPIS and Risk & Compliance provide businesses with key data and insights to make better decisions.
Latour has an extensive track record of building successful news media businesses in the digital age. He oversaw the creation of the Barron’s Group, quadrupling the group’s digital audience at Barron’s and MarketWatch, and led the modernization of The Wall Street Journal’s website. He also led the development of The Wall Street Journal in Japan, Korea and China.
Latour has been stationed as a journalist in Brussels, London, Stockholm, New York and Hong Kong. He has also served as a bureau chief in New York, the managing editor of The Wall Street Journal online, and the editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones in Asia-Pacific before being appointed its executive editor.

Summer on the Steps with Chautauqua Literary Arts
2025-08-01 12:15 | Alumni Hall Porch, Alumni Hall Porch
Summer on the Steps with Chautauqua Literary Arts: A Reading and Open Mic featuring Chautauqua Literary Arts Staff

Opera Conservatory: Sing-Out
2025-08-01 13:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Matthew D. Taylor
2025-08-01 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Matthew D. Taylor is senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore, where he specializes in American Christianity, American Islam, Christian extremism, and religious politics. His new book, The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement that is Threatening Our Democracy (Broadleaf, 2024), tracks how a loose network of charismatic Christian leaders called the New Apostolic Reformation was a major instigating force for the January 6th Insurrection and is currently reshaping the culture of the religious right in the U.S. He is the creator, writer, and narrator of the Charismatic Revival Fury audio-documentary series on the Straight White American Jesus podcast. He is also the author of Scripture People: Salafi Muslims in Evangelical Christians’ America (Cambridge, 2023). Taylor holds a PhD in religious studies and Muslim-Christian relations from Georgetown University and an MA in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He also serves as an associate fellow at the Center for Peace Diplomacy in New Orleans, where he works on preventing religion-related violence surrounding U.S. elections. Previously he served on the faculty of Georgetown University and of George Washington University.

Piano Program Play-Out
2025-08-01 16:00 | Sherwood-Marsh 101

Chautauqua Theater Company presents All the Little Boxes
2025-08-01 18:00, 2025-08-02 19:30, 2025-08-03 14:00 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater
by Vichet Chum, Directed by Mei Ann Teo, Bratton Theater
Chan finds an unexpected way to care for the strangers around him: He organizes their closets and unpacks their skeletons, but all the decluttering in the world won’t relieve Chan of his own baggage. All the Little Boxes is a moving and surprisingly hilarious new play for the Marie Kondo inside us all.

FLOW
2025-08-01 18:00, 2025-08-02 20:00, 2025-08-03 15:00, 2025-08-03 21:00, 2025-08-04 18:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
This Latvian Oscar Winner for Best Animated Feature follows a courageous cat after his home is devastated by a great flood. Teaming up with a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog they must rely on trust, courage, and wits to survive the perils of a newly aquatic planet. “A film full of wonders but not a single word of dialogue.” -Cath Clarke, Guardian
“Dreamy, epic, perilous and very beautiful.” -Ty Burr, Washington Post “Poignant, unique, absolutely gorgeous, and a must-see.” -Kristy Puchko, Mashable (PG, 84m)

The Avett Brothers
2025-08-01 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Four-time GRAMMY Award nominees The Avett Brothers made mainstream waves with their critically acclaimed 2009 major label debut, I and Love and You. In 2012, The Carpenter hit #4 on the Billboard 200, followed by Magpie and the Dandelion in 2013, which debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200. The 2017 documentary May It Last: A Portrait of The Avett Brothers (co-directed by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio) chronicles the process of writing 2016’s True Sadness, which debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top Albums, #1 on Rock Albums, #3 on the Billboard 200, and scored two Grammy nominations. The film was released theatrically and on HBO to rave reviews and is available on DVD/BluRay/VOD. In 2019, the band released their tenth studio album Closer Than Together featuring the single “High Steppin’” which reached #1 on the Americana Radio Singles Chart. The Third Gleam came out amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Americana/Folk Albums, #1 Rock Albums, #1 Vinyl Albums, and the single “Victory” hit #1 on the Americana Radio Singles Chart. This year saw the release of The Avett Brothers, an album that is as much untitled as it is self-titled: a collection of songs that revealed themselves naturally over time. Swept Away – a musical inspired by and featuring the music of The Avett Brothers – recently debuted on Broadway. The Avett Brothers have been inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame and have earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Association. They are currently on tour throughout the U.S.

SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D'ETAT
2025-08-01 20:30, 2025-08-02 16:30, 2025-08-03 17:30, 2025-08-04 20:30 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
United Nations, 1960: the Global South ignites a political earthquake, jazz musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach crash the Security Council, Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe, and the U.S. State Department sends Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect attention from a CIA-backed coup. Director Johan Grimonprez’s magnificent essay film captures the moment when African politics and American jazz collided. “A mind-blowingly rich tapestry of research, music, and the jazziest history lesson imaginable, with freewheeling beats and riffs echoing into today with urgent purpose.” -Tomris Laffly, Harper’s Bazaar “Riveting and propulsive!” -Lovia Gyarkye,Hollywood Reporter (NR, 150m)

Old First Night Race
2025-08-02 07:30 | Sports Club, Sports Club
The Sports Club is hosting the popular 49th 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 2, 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

Contemporary Issues Forum: Arthur S. Levine, M.D.
2025-08-02 15:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Arthur S. Levine is a Distinguished University Professor; a professor of medicine, molecular genetics, and neurobiology; senior vice chancellor emeritus of health sciences; and dean emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The executive director of Pitt’s Brain Institute, in 2020, he stepped down from his role as Pitt’s dean of medicine and senior vice chancellor for the health sciences to establish and lead the Assault on Alzheimer initiative. The topic of his Contemporary Issues Forum lecture for the Chautauqua Women’s Club is “The Biology of Alzheimer’s Disease and the Challenge of Treatment.”
Before his tenure at the University of Pittsburgh, Levine served at the National Institutes of Health for more than three decades. Throughout his career, Levine has also been engaged in molecular biologic research and continues to direct his own laboratory, which is focused on the molecular mechanisms that maintain the fidelity of the genome. Recently the lab has begun to explore this same theme in the brain.
The recipient of numerous honors, including the Meritorious Service and the Distinguished Service Medals of the United States Public Health Service, Levine is a graduate of Columbia College. He received his M.D. from the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science and completed his internship and residency in pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Hospitals.

Laufey: A Night at the Symphony with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
2025-08-02 20:15, 2025-08-03 19:30 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
“As a musician, my goal is to bring jazz and classical music to my generation through a more accessible road,” declares the composer, singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Laufey (pronounced lay-vay). The LA-based, Icelandic-Chinese artist’s trailblazing approach paid off, as she is now the top streaming jazz artist in the world with an audience of over 15M across all socials.
Inspired by jazz greats and classical masters while possessing a point of view that could only be conveyed by a 21st century twenty-something, Laufey’s GRAMMY-winning second album Bewitched is a reflection on “the magic and luster unique to youthful love.” Her self-assured musicianship and deeply felt lyrics takes the idea of “classic” music and humanize it, giving her music a relatability to the next generation. “There are very few examples of artists who are on stage with an orchestra one day and making TikToks the next,” she notes dryly. Laufey’s straddling of those two worlds has put her in a singular place across music.

Sister Teresa Maya
2025-08-03 10:45, 2025-08-04 09:15, 2025-08-05 09:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Sister Teresa Maya is a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio. She has served as teacher, history professor, administrator, leader, facilitator and speaker. She is passionate about forming ministers committed to transforming Church and society . She believes in life-long learning and has a strong conviction in the future of consecrated life.
Sister Teresa got her B.A. at Yale University, her M.A. at the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley and the Ph.D. in El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City. She served fourteen years in the leadership of her religious institute and on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) presidency from 2016-19. She accompanies other religious congregations as facilitator and consultant.
She is currently serving as Senior Director for Theology and Sponsorship in the Catholic Health Association (USA).

CLSC Vigil Ceremony Rehearsal
2025-08-03 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Austin Walkin' Cane
2025-08-03 15:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Austin Walkin’ Cane is not your typical bluesman-he’s a storytelling troubadour with a guitar in one hand and a slide in the other, roaming the backroads of the blues with a style that’s as gritty as it is soulful. Hailing from Cleveland, Ohio, Austin’s music is steeped in the traditions of Delta blues, but it’s his life experiences that really give his sound its unique edge. Whether he’s playing a resonator guitar that echoes the ghosts of blues legends or belting out lyrics that cut straight to the bone, Austin brings an authenticity to his performances that can only come from living the blues.
With a voice like gravel dipped in honey, Austin has toured the world, sharing stages with icons like Buddy Guy and Robert Lockwood Jr. But it’s his solo shows, where the intimacy of his performance pulls the audience into the heart of the blues, that truly showcase his artistry. Austin Walkin’ Cane is more than a musician; he’s a bluesman in the truest sense of the word with a sound and style that are all his own.

Marita Golden and Valerie C. Woods
2025-08-03 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Writers’ Center Faculty Reading — Week Seven — Featuring Marita Golden (Prose) and Valerie C. Woods (Writing for TV/Film)
Marita Golden is an award-winning author of over twenty works of fiction and nonfiction. Her books include the novels The Wide Circumference of Love, and After, and the memoirs Migrations of the Heart, Saving Our Sons, and Don’t Play in the Sun: One Woman’s Journey Through the Color Complex. Her most recent work of nonfiction is The New Black Woman: Loves Herself, Has Boundaries, Heals Every Day, a sequel to her book The Strong Black Woman: How a Myth Endangers the Physical and Mental Health of Black Women. In February 2025, Mango Publishing released How To Become A Black Writer: Creating and Honoring Black Stories That Matter.
She is the recipient of many awards including the Writers for Writers Award presented by Barnes & Noble and Poets and Writers, an award from the Authors Guild, and the Fiction Award for her novel After awarded by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She has lectured and read from her work internationally. She has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, been featured as a question on Jeopardy, and is a two-time NAACP Image Award nominee. She has been frequently interviewed on NPR.
Co-founder and President Emerita of the Zora Neale Hurston/ Richard Wright Foundation, Marita Golden is a veteran teacher of writing. She taught at the University of Lagos, in Nigeria and has served as a member of the faculties of the MFA Graduate Creative Writing Programs at George Mason University and Virginia Commonwealth University and in the MA Creative Writing Program at John Hopkins University. She has served as a Distinguished Writer in Residence at the University of the District of Columbia. As a literary consultant, she offers writing workshops, coaching, and manuscript evaluation services.
Valerie C. Woods is the Emmy winning Co-Executive Producer/writer for the Disney+ series The Crossover (2023). She was also a Co-Executive Producer/writer for the AppleTV+ mini-series, The Big Cigar (May 2024) and Co-Executive Producer/writer on Season 2 of the Netflix drama series Sweet Magnolias (2021-22). She also worked in the same position for Season 4 (2018-2019) of the critically acclaimed television drama series Queen Sugar, airing on Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). Ms. Woods is in development, through her MCV Productions banner, on the television adaptation of A Cowboy to Remember, the Cowboys of California trilogy of novels by Rebekah Weatherspoon. Also in development is a television adaptation based on Wrapped in Rainbows – The Life of Zora Neale Hurston, the award-winning biography written by Valerie Boyd.

Sacred Song Service - Celebrating the CLSC
2025-08-03 18:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

CLSC Vigil Ceremony
2025-08-03 21:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

CHQ Mystic Heart: Kainat Felicia Norton & Muinuddin Charles Smith
2025-08-04 07:45, 2025-08-05 07:45 | Presbyterian Chapel
: 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.

Maggie Smith & Kwame Alexander
2025-08-04 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
NOTE: Previously announced conversation partner LeVar Burton is unable to travel to Chautauqua at this time, and we wish him all the best.
Honoring a shared mission to change the world through the power of storytelling, award-winning author, poet, producer and educator Kwame Alexander returns to the Amphitheater stage to lead a series of conversations on making a positive difference. He launches this week for the Chautauqua Lecture Series with Maggie Smith, the celebrated, bestselling and award-winning poet and memoirist.
Maggie Smith is the author of seven award-winning books: Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Lamp of the Body, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, and Good Bones (named by The Washington Post as one of the Five Best Poetry Books of 2017), Keep Moving and Goldenrod. Her newest poetry collection, A Suit or a Suitcase, is forthcoming from Washington Square Press in 2026.
The title poem of Good Bones was called the “Official Poem of 2016” by Public Radio International and has been translated into nearly a dozen languages. Smith’s poems have appeared in The New York Times, Tin House, The Believer, The Paris Review, Kenyon Review, Best American Poetry and on the CBS primetime drama “Madam Secretary.” A Pushcart Prize winner, Smith has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Academy of American Poets, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation.
Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, producer and No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of 40 books, including Why Fathers Cry at Night, An American Story, The Door of No Return, Becoming Muhammad Ali (co-authored with James Patterson), Rebound, which was shortlisted for the prestigious UK Carnegie Medal, and The Undefeated — the National Book Award nominee, Newbery Honor, and Caldecott Medal-winning picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson.
The Michael I. Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts and Inaugural Writer-in-Residence at Chautauqua Institution, Alexander is the recipient of numerous awards, including The Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, The Coretta Scott King Author Honor, three NAACP Image Award nominations and the 2017 Inaugural Pat Conroy Legacy Award. In 2018, he opened the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic in Ghana, as a part of LEAP for Ghana, an international literacy program he co-founded. Alexander is executive producer, showrunner, and Emmy-winning writer of “The Crossover” TV series, which premiered on Disney+ in April 2023. “The Crossover” was produced in partnership with LeBron James’ SpringHill Company and Big Sea Entertainment, Alexander’s production company where he serves as CEO and co-founder, dedicated to creating innovative, highly original children’s and family entertainment.
His mission is to change the world, one word at a time.

CLSC Book Discussion
2025-08-04 12:15 | Alumni Hall Porch, Alumni Hall Porch
Presenters Steven Pallie and Toby Schermerhorn will lead a community discussion on our Week Seven CLSC selection Mỹ Documents by Kevin Nguyen.

Climate Leadership in the National Parks: What Does the Future Hold?
2025-08-04 12:30 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Shawn Norton led the National Park Service climate and sustainability program for decades before retiring this spring. Shawn will speak to the many ways in which the national parks have stepped up to climate leadership, including programs we worked on in collaboration with Chautauqua Climate Change Iniatiative director Mark Wenzler in his former capacity as senior vice president of the National Parks Conservation Association. Shawn will also address how much of the National Park Service’s climate work is now under threat.

CLSC Young Readers Book Discussion
2025-08-04 13:20 | Alumni Hall Porch, Alumni Hall Porch
Presenters Anne Pekrul and Mary Pat McFarland will lead a community discussion on our Week Seven CLSC Young Readers selections J vs. K by Kwame Alexander and Nic Blake and the Remarkables by Angie Thomas.

Liz Bucar
2025-08-04 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Liz Bucar is a leading expert in religious ethics, a professor of religion at Northeastern University, and a prizewinning author. Her writing, teaching, and public lectures cover a wide range of topics—from sexual reassignment surgery to the politics of religious clothing–but generally focus on how a deeper understanding religious difference can change our sense of what is right and good.
​
Liz has written for The Atlantic, Teen Vogue, The Los Angeles Times, and Religion News Service, among others, and her work has been discussed in the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, and Instyle Magazine. She has written four books, including her most recent, Stealing My Religion: Not Just Any Cultural Appropriation. She is also the Director of Sacred Writes, a grant-funded project that provides media training for religion scholars.
Liz received a degree in government from Harvard and a Ph.D. in religious ethics from the University of Chicago. She is a certified Kripalu yoga teacher and leads a popular study abroad program along the Camino de Santiago in Spain.

"How Sweet the Sound: A Visual Interpretation by Charly Palmer" exhibition opening reception and artist talk
2025-08-04 15:00 | CVA: Arts Quad
“How Sweet the Sound: A Visual Interpretation by Charly Palmer” exhibition opening reception and artist talk. Exhibition runs August 4-15. Charly Palmer’s illustrations are featured in the book “How Sweet the Sound”, written by Kwame Alexander, Chautauqua’s Michael I. Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts and Writer in Residence.
Charly Palmer is a renowned award-winning fine artist and illustrator known for his compelling artwork that reflects African ancestry and contemporary experiences. Through his paintings, Palmer creates rhythmic visual narratives that challenge viewers’ perceptions. His innate ability to capture the nuances of Blackness is expressed through rich depth, intricate patterns, symbols, and textures. Notable achievements include designing the Black Heritage Stamp honoring Judge Constance Baker Motley, creating the album cover for John Legend’s “Bigger Love,” and illustrating the cover for TIME Magazine’s “America Must Change.” He also co-authored the award-winning “New Brownies Book: A Love Letter To Black Families.”

"How Sweet the Sound: A Visual Interpretation by Charly Palmer" Exhibition
2025-08-04 15:00 - 2025-08-15 17:00 | CVA: Arts Quad
“How Sweet the Sound: A Visual Interpretation by Charly Palmer” exhibition runs August 4–15. Charly Palmer’s illustrations are featured in the book “How Sweet the Sound,” written by Kwame Alexander, Chautauqua’s Michael I. Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts and Writer in Residence.
Charly Palmer is a renowned award-winning fine artist and illustrator known for his compelling artwork that reflects African ancestry and contemporary experiences. Through his paintings, Palmer creates rhythmic visual narratives that challenge viewers’ perceptions. His innate ability to capture the nuances of Blackness is expressed through rich depth, intricate patterns, symbols, and textures. Notable achievements include designing the Black Heritage Stamp honoring Judge Constance Baker Motley, creating the album cover for John Legend’s “Bigger Love,” and illustrating the cover for TIME Magazine’s “America Must Change.” He also co-authored the award-winning “New Brownies Book: A Love Letter To Black Families.”

Ted Deutch
2025-08-04 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
CEO of American Jewish Committee

Forum Dialogues: Financial Sustainability Listening Sessions
2025-08-04 15:30 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary

Chautauqua Chamber Music: Trio Bohémo
2025-08-04 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Trio Bohémo is a dynamic chamber ensemble known for passion, precision and engaging performances. Hailing from the Czech Republic, the trio brings fresh interpretations to both classical and modern repertoire. Their artistry and synergy have earned them accolades at international competitions and festivals. Trio Bohémo continues to captivate audiences worldwide with their dedication to musical excellence and emotional depth.
Program:
Antonín Rejcha: Piano Trio No. 6 in A major, Op. 101
Johannes Brahms: Piano Trio No. 1 in B major, Op. 8
Jan Vičar: Cycle of folk songs ‘From Moravia’

Houston Ballet II with Students from Chautauqua School of Dance
2025-08-04 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Houston Ballet II is the second company of Houston Ballet, America’s fourth-largest ballet company. Comprised of a stellar array of ballet students from around the world, Houston Ballet II members perform a diverse range of works, including excerpts from classics like The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker, Balanchine ballets, and contemporary works by Houston Ballet Artistic Director, Stanton Welch AM, and others.
Under the direction of Julie Kent and Stanton Welch AM, Artistic Directors, and Jennifer Sommers, Director of the Academy, Houston Ballet II dancers are led by internationally acclaimed coach and teacher Claudio Muñoz, Ballet Master for Houston Ballet II and Houston Ballet’s artistic staff. Houston Ballet II tours nationally and internationally. Most recently, they performed along the East Coast in a multi-city tour presenting classical and contemporary work.

Children's School Old First Night Sing Along
2025-08-05 10:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall

Ada Calhoun & Kwame Alexander
2025-08-05 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Ada Calhoun’s career, the Village Voice noted in 2015, “can seem as though it were cobbled together from the resumés of three ambitious journalists.” Calhoun is a reporter, essayist, memoirist, ghostwriter and — as of this year — novelist; now, she will make her Chautauqua Lecture Series debut in conversation with Kwame Alexander, discussing the passions and opportunities that have shaped her life.
Ada Calhoun is the author of, most recently, Crush — her debut novel released in 2025. Other works include Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me, which was longlisted for an Andrew Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction; Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis; St. Marks Is Dead: The Many Lives of America’s Hippest Street; and the memoir Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give.
Throughout her career, Calhoun has been a crime reporter for the New York Post, frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review, and theater listings editor for New York magazine. She is an A‑list ghostwriter, having anonymously collaborated on 30 major nonfiction books in the past dozen years, including several No. 1 New York Times bestsellers. She has written for Time, National Geographic Traveler, the Times Literary Supplement, the New Republic, Billboard, Cosmopolitan, The Washington Post and Redbook.
Calhoun’s national news reporting has won several awards, including a USC-Annenberg National Health Journalism Fellowship, a Kiplinger fellowship, a CCF Media Award (for her New York Times Magazine work on a legal challenge in Alabama), a Croly Award, and an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellowship. She received a MacDowell colony stay in 2013 for St. Marks Is Dead and has been granted several residencies in the New York Public Library’s scholars’ rooms, including in 2023–24. In 2023 she was a fellow at the Hawthornden Castle in Scotland.
Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, producer and No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of 40 books, including Why Fathers Cry at Night, An American Story, The Door of No Return, Becoming Muhammad Ali (co-authored with James Patterson), Rebound, which was shortlisted for the prestigious UK Carnegie Medal, and The Undefeated — the National Book Award nominee, Newbery Honor, and Caldecott Medal-winning picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson.
The Michael I. Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts and Inaugural Writer-in-Residence at Chautauqua Institution, Alexander is the recipient of numerous awards, including The Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, The Coretta Scott King Author Honor, three NAACP Image Award nominations and the 2017 Inaugural Pat Conroy Legacy Award. In 2018, he opened the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic in Ghana, as a part of LEAP for Ghana, an international literacy program he co-founded. Alexander is executive producer, showrunner, and Emmy-winning writer of “The Crossover” TV series, which premiered on Disney+ in April 2023. “The Crossover” was produced in partnership with LeBron James’ SpringHill Company and Big Sea Entertainment, Alexander’s production company where he serves as CEO and co-founder, dedicated to creating innovative, highly original children’s and family entertainment.
His mission is to change the world, one word at a time.

BTG Brownbag. Marcus Rosten, Western NY Land Conservancy: Animal Tracking for Wildlife Corridors
2025-08-05 12:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Marcus Rosten is the WNY Wildway Director at the Western New York Land Conservancy. He’s served as an interpretive park ranger in our national parks and forests, led environmental education programs and stewardship projects with local non-profit organizations, and worked as a fish and wildlife technician conducting wildlife surveys and managing habitats for state and federal agencies. Marcus is a 30 Under 30 Awardee (2020) from the North American Association for Environmental Education and has been featured nationally in Scholastic News, the Nike Journal, NPR’s BirdNote, and on PBS Nature. His talk at Chautauqua will focus on Animal Tracking for Wildlife Corridors.

CHQ Mystic Heart: Kainat Felicia Norton and Muinuddin Charles Smith
2025-08-05 12:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

Marie Griffith
2025-08-05 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Marie Griffith is the John C. Danforth Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis. She served for 12 years (2011-2023) as the director of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics and the editor of the Center’s journal, Religion & Politics. Her research focuses on American Christianity, including the changing profile of American evangelicals and ongoing conflicts over gender, sexuality, and marriage.
Professor Griffith obtained her undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia in Political and Social Thought and her Ph.D. in the study of religion from Harvard University. Before moving to Washington University in 2011, she served as professor of religion and director of the women and gender studies program at Princeton University, where she was awarded the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching; and later as the John A. Bartlett Professor of New England Church History at Harvard. In 2015 she was appointed a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians.
Griffith is the author or editor of seven books. Her first, God’s Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission (University of California Press, 1997), examines the practices and perceptions of contemporary evangelical women. Her next book, Born Again Bodies: Flesh and Spirit in American Christianity (University of California Press, 2004), explores the history of Christian-influenced attitudes and practices related to embodiment in modern America; while Moral Combat: How Sex Divided American Christians and Fractured American Politics (Basic Books, 2017) traces conflicts over sexual morality, feminism, and gender in American religion and politics. Her latest book, Making the World Over: Confronting Racism, Misogyny, and Xenophobia in U.S. History (UVA Press, 2021), urges a re-reading of the nation’s history that opens up greater complexity than our stock narratives. These books, along with her three edited volumes—Women and Religion in the African Diaspora: Knowledge, Power, and Performance (co-edited with Barbara Dianne Savage, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), Religion and Politics in the Contemporary United States (co-edited with Melani McAlister, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), and American Religions: A Documentary History (Oxford University Press, 2007)—exhibit Griffith’s varied research interests. In addition to her books, Professor Griffith has published numerous scholarly articles, book chapters, and essays.
Griffith is a frequent media commentator and public speaker on current issues pertaining to religion and politics. She is currently writing the first in-depth comparative history of the clergy sexual abuse crises within American Christianity, focusing on the U.S. Catholic Church and evangelical groups such as the Southern Baptist Convention.

SACRAMENTO
2025-08-05 15:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Following the death of his father, energetic and free-spirited Rickey (Michael Angarano) convinces long-time friend Glenn (Michael Cera) to go on an impromptu road trip from Los Angeles to Sacramento. In the worn yellow seats of Glenn’s old college convertible, the two men confront their anxiety-ridden lives, addressing past mistakes and questioning what their futures hold. “The prickly comedy of male-pattern personality collapse gives way to wisdom, something that Sacramento has in abundance.” -Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times (R, 89m)
