Wynton Marsalis returns to Chautauqua to open a week on “Rising Together: Our Century of Creativity and Collaboration with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra” with a keynote address titled “Speaking a Common Language Against the Cacophony of Sectarian Opportunism” on the making — and ever-resonating themes — of his epic jazz symphony All Rise, a massive composition for big band, gospel choir and symphony orchestra.

For his oratorio Blood on the Fields, Marsalis became the first jazz musician ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, and he extended his achievements in that piece with All Rise, which was first performed in 1999. In this week at Chautauqua, All Rise will be performed on the Amphitheater stage with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the Music School Festival Orchestra, and the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus under the baton of Timothy Muffitt.

An internationally acclaimed musician, composer, bandleader, educator and a leading advocate of American culture, at 17, Marsalis became the youngest musician ever to be admitted to Tanglewood’s Berkshire Music Center, where he was awarded the school’s prestigious Harvey Shapiro Award for outstanding brass student. Since then, he has produced more than 80 records and won two George Foster Peabody Awards, an Emmy Award, and nine Grammy Awards. In 1983 he became the only artist ever to win Grammy Awards for both jazz and classical records, and repeated the distinction the very next year. Marsalis is the only artist ever to win Grammys in five consecutive years (1983-1987). In 1987, Marsalis co-founded the jazz program at Lincoln Center; today, Jazz at Lincoln Center presents rich and diverse programming that includes concerts, debates, film forums, dances, television and radio broadcasts and educational activities.

For his work, Marsalis has been the recipient of countless honors around the world, including the Netherlands’ Edison Award, the Grand Prix Du Disque of France, and honorary membership to England’s Royal Academy of Music. The French Ministry of Culture appointed Marsalis to the rank of Knight in the Order of Arts and Literature. He also received France’s highest distinction, the insignia Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. In the United States, he has received a National Medal of the Arts, the Louis Armstrong Memorial Medal, the Frederick Douglass Medallion from the New York Urban League and an Arts Education Award from the American Arts Council.