Instrumental Program

July 6–August 23, 2024

• Weekly orchestra performances (with rotated seating) 
• Robust chamber music program 
• Private lessons  
• All students receive scholarship 
• August 21–22: Performances of Wynton Marsalis’ All Rise with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus  

Admission decisions and scholarship awards are made by March 1 for the Instrumental Program. We will start to release audition results to applicants by instrument section throughout the month of February. Every applicant will be contacted with their admission results through the email address on their application by March 1. In collaboration with peer festivals, we are participating in an Admit Reply deadline of Wednesday, March 6 at 7 p.m. Eastern. Those accepted will have until this deadline to commit to a festival. After the deadline we will quickly move to alternates.

Each summer we enroll 82 of the most promising young instrumentalists from here and abroad to join us for an exciting summer of music making. Our students are typically 18 to 28 and enrolled in (or recently graduated from) undergraduate or graduate studies.

The School of Music at Chautauqua considers orchestral work, private study, and chamber music each to be vital components of the program. The orchestra rehearses daily for the majority of the summer and performs its concerts in Chautauqua’s 4,400-seat outdoor Amphitheater. Other facets of orchestral study include sectionals, repertoire classes and mock auditions all run by our professional faculty. Topics covered include the psychology of auditioning, performance issues/anxiety, and instant feedback providing priceless insight into the professional road ahead.

The chamber music program runs throughout the festival and includes a 10-day intensive period during which the orchestra does not meet, allowing the students to be fully focused on their chamber music projects. Students receive regular coaching from our distinguished faculty and have multiple performance opportunities. Percussionists participate in a two-week chamber music residency with Michael Burritt, concluding with a percussion ensemble concert. Many of the ensembles mix with the opera conservatory, piano and even theater and dance programs to provide a wide and diverse offering of performing experiences.

Private study rounds out the curriculum with each student receiving six private lessons with a member of Chautauqua’s world-renowned faculty. Master classes from both resident and guest faculty are part of the program as well. Climate-controlled practice cabins provide an ideal environment for the personal work that goes into a summer of artistic growth.

String players should note that there is a Resident Luthier on site who holds regular hours in Lenna Hall.

Timothy Muffitt, music director of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Laureate of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, is the principal conductor for the concert series by the MSFO. There are no auditions for seating, all sections are rotated for each concert.

The Music School Festival Orchestra is underwritten by the Hultquist Foundation of Jamestown, NY.

In 2024, orchestra concerts are scheduled for July 15, July 22 (with the School of Dance), July 29 (with the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory), August 5, and August 21/22 (with Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra).

Repertoire for the Music School Festival Orchestra 2024 season will include, but is not limited to:

• Roger Briggs – Gathering Together (in celebration of Chautauqua’s sesquicentennial)  
• Edward Elgar – Enigma Variations  
• Gala Flagello – Bravado
• Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 95 
• Wynton Marsalis – All Rise (with Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus) 
• Sergei Rachmaninoff – Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (with the Chautauqua School of Dance) 
• Sergei Rachmaninoff – Symphony No. 3 
• Nino Rota – I Due Timidi (with the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory)
• Ethel Smyth – Overture to The Wreckers 
• Richard Strauss – Death and Transfiguration  
• Richard Strauss – Suite from Der Rosenkavalier (with the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory) 
• Igor Stravinsky – Capriccio (with the Chautauqua School of Dance) 

In the last week of the Instrumental program, Chautauqua’s weekly theme is Rising Together: Our Century of Creativity and Collaboration with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. With Wynton Marsalis in residence, the week will conclude with two performances of his seminal work All Rise, with the Music School Festival Orchestra, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus, under the baton of Maestro Tim Muffitt. These performances will be in Chautauqua’s 4,400 seat outdoor Amphitheater.

This intensive, in-depth collaboration, which will span one week, six rehearsals, and multiple performances, offers students the opportunity to work directly with the legendary Wynton Marsalis, a nine-time Grammy Award and Pulitzer Prize winning artist. When not participating in productions, students will have the opportunity to watch Mr. Marsalis lecture in the Amphitheater, as well as see the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra perform in the Chautauqua Chamber Music series.