Guest conductor Grant Cooper and cellist Julie Albers have worked together many times before but never have played together with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. Join them in a concert featuring Edward Elgar’s cello concerto and Brahms’ fourth symphony at 8:15 p.m. Saturday in the Amphitheater.
Cooper said Albers is a real joy to work with and loves music deeply, which makes her a compelling presence onstage.
It’s not every researcher and author who gets to see his or her life and work portrayed on the silver screen. And played not by any actress, but by Jennifer Aniston, no less. Enter Ellen Langer, a professor of psychology at Harvard University and author of Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility who will discuss the importance of mindfulness at the Contemporary Issues Forum 3 p.m. Saturday at the Hall of Philosophy.
George Kembel, executive director and co-founder of Stanford University’s d.school, presented a small gift to audience members during his 10:45 a.m. lecture Friday in the Amphitheater.
Taped to the backs of some seats in the Amp, small plastic bags hung. Inside each one were black dots smaller than grains of sand.
It would have been easy for the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra to have presented a meat-and-potatoes program Thursday at the Amphitheater. But with violinist Augustin Hadelich engaged for the evening, something much more enticing was in store.
The concert, conducted by Mei-Ann Chen, included a classical concerto (Haydn’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in C major) and a favorite symphony (Mendelssohn’s “Italian”).
“Today, we’re going to talk about the widow and the judge. I have no clue what this thing means,” Amy-Jill Levine said. “The more I look at this, the more disturbed I get. The good news there is that if I’m disturbed by a parable, at least the parable is working.”
Levine, professor of New Testament and Jewish studies at Vanderbilt University’s Divinity School, returned to the Hall of Philosophy lectern at 2 p.m. Thursday to discuss the parable of the wily widow and the unjust judge. “Wiley Widow and Unjust Judge” was the fourth in the Week Eight lecture series theme, “Human Creativity, The Spark of the Divine.”
Blood Sweat & Tears can say a lot of things that other bands can’t.
For instance, more than 40 musicians have cycled in and out of the band’s roster during the past 40 years. The band has been crowned “Honorary Ambassadors of Peace” by the South Korean government. It is the first band to tour behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.
At 8:15 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater, the band will bring its brass rock and jazz music to Chautauqua with Arturo Sandoval, jazz trumpeter and pianist.
The Chautauqua School of Music campus looks a lot different this week. As the last of the Music School Festival Orchestra students pack up their belongings and disperse to various colleges across the country, they are replaced this week by musical miniatures.
Middle school and high school instrumentalists now fill the practice rooms and concert halls with small-scale cellos, brazen trumpets and pre-teen flutists congregated around folding music stands, competing to see who can hold a note the longest.
The Chautauqua Music Camps have invaded the School of Music with more than 90 young students to participate in the Middle School Band Camp, the Jazz Camp and the Orchestra Camp for string players. The camp now is in its 13th year and always occurs during Week Eight of the festival season.
Perhaps some of you heard George Kembel’s lecture at Chautauqua in 2009 about design thinking inspiring latent creativity. Chances are some others are among the more than 370,000 who viewed his lecture at FORA.tv. Kembel will deliver “Nurturing Creative Potential: Developing our Full Capacity to Innovate” at 10:45 a.m. today in the Amphitheater.
Kembel graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in engineering and later earned a master’s degree in design. He worked in several companies and worked alone as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist before he joined forces in his alma mater to form a unique school.
Joan Abrahamson’s eyes began to water as she ended her 10:45 a.m. lecture Thursday in the Amphitheater. She was about to share something very personal with the Chautauquans there.
“I’ve got to tell you,” Abrahamson said, “I don’t usually talk like this. I usually give an analytical presentation about a problem and how we’re going about solving it, but I feel here that what’s special about Chautauqua is that all these levels operate simultaneously.”
“I should admit right up front: I don’t like this kid,” Amy-Jill Levine said.
The kid in question was the prodigal son of Jesus’ parable.
Levine, a New Testament and Jewish studies professor at Vanderbilt University, continued her weeklong study of Jesus’ parables at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Hall of Philosophy. In Wednesday’s lecture, “The Provocation of the Prodigal,” Levine examined the parable of the prodigal son. The parable comes from Luke 15:11-32.
