Chautauqua Devotee Shares its Magic

Chautauqua Institution in Western New York is the cultural and spiritual mecca that lures me back each summer to enjoy its rich and diverse offerings of lectures, music, dance and spirituality. That is until last summer when COVID caused the cancellation of its season. So, it was with great anticipation that I made reservations this year for the month of August even though I wondered how attendees could stay safe and whether visiting lecturers and artists would be up to their standard.

I needn’t have worried. Proof of vaccination was stamped on my gate pass when I arrived and was checked for every event. Persons not vaccinated by choice or because of a medical situation were required to be tested, wear a mask and sit on one side of the large amphitheater where most all events were held. While there were several employees from the children’s school that came down with COVID, every staff member was required to wear a mask for the rest of the season. Many vaccinated patrons also started to mask up if near others at events. These precautions were successful in keeping attendees safe. 

A season at Chautauqua Institution is the nine weeks when this Victorian village, home to 440 year-round residents, metamorphoses into an educational and cultural center for up to seven thousand people during a regular season. They are attracted, as I have been, by the world-famous speakers, authors and faith leaders, the resident symphony, and schools of music, dance, and theater. The amazing offerings were recognized last year when Chautauqua was named as the Best Small Town Cultural Scene by USA Today Reader’s Choice in 2020. 

The Chautauqua story reminds me a little of the Broadway musical Brigadoon where the mythical neighborhood comes alive once every hundred years for a day. Brigadoon is a safe and happy place where people want to stay or the neighborhood will vanish. Chautauqua too becomes alive during the nine-week summer season when the gates are closed, cars are parked on the outskirts of the community and it becomes a safe place for pedestrians, including children, to walk and bike to get around. And like Brigadoon everyone wants to stay, just one day more or one week more. Like that Scottish village, the air is often alive with music coming from students serenading those passing by or from the amphitheater where musicians are practicing for the evening performance.

Programming activity revolves around the “amp,” the 5,000-seat roofed, open air amphitheater. Its first daytime event is morning worship at 9:15 AM where the chaplain of the week presents a homily and music is provided by the motet choir and the resident organist, this year Joshua Stafford, a student of the beloved former organist, Jared Jacobsen who died in 2019. At the service’s end, worshipers can pick up coffee at the nearby gazebo before the 10:30 AM main lecture of the day. Each week has a theme featuring notable speakers. For example, Nancy Marshall-Genzer, senior reporter on Marketplace spoke during The State of the Economy week while I was there. Other theme weeks during August were Building a Culture of Empathy, The Human Brain: Our Greatest Mystery, and Resilience plus Culinary Week. Questions are submitted from the audience in written or electronic form after each talk resulting in a spirited discussion. The amp is quiet during the lunch hour unless the organist or another group is practicing. At 1:00 PM, interfaith lecturers speak who are generally Christian, Jewish and Muslim but occasionally are from other faiths. This season, Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania spoke about his devastating experience when worshippers were shot during a service and how he recovered mentally and emotionally so he could be the leader his people needed. He closed his talk by chanting Psalm 121 which he recited daily during his recovery period. Usually there is still another lecture at 3:30 PM normally held in the Hall of Philosophy featuring an author and their books. This season it was generally viewed on the internet. Many of the in-person program events were available afterward online for subscribers who paid a minimal amount to receive programs from the Chautauqua Assembly. 

Evenings at the amp this August included dance concerts by experienced students who are selected from hundreds of applications for advanced dance class. They were tutored by former professional dancers Jean- Pierre Bonnefoux and Patricia McBride. The professional Parsons Dance Group also performed their innovative and athletic choreography, while the resident Chautauqua symphony played twice a week, anything from Brahms to Stravinsky and more. The symphony, led by Principal Pops Conductor Stuart Chafetz, also accompanied young artists from the Chautauqua Opera Company in familiar arias and scenes from musical theater. Another evening, Capathia Jenkins, a Brooklyn based singer with a big voice sang Ella Fitzgerald songs accompanied by the orchestra. There were country bands, an outstanding concert by Harry Connick Jr. and his band, the classically trained Wil B. and Kev Marcus from Black Violin group and Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. Brazilian jazz and sambas on classical violin and piano from the Assad father and daughter team, Sergio and Clarice, were also favorites of mine. Smokey Robinson was the featured performer to close the season. Hundreds of nonresidents come onto the grounds for these special acts.

The resident theater group offered three plays during the season. “Blood at the Root” ran earlier but I saw “Thurgood,” a one-man tour de force with Brian Marable holding forth for 90 minutes, and “Commedia” based on the ancient Dell’Arte theater or a play without a plot, both performed under a large tent pavilion as was the opera, “Scalia/Ginsberg”. 

Chaplains for the Sunday worship service in the amp included the Reverend Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, Rabbi Jonah Posner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and The Reverend Frank A. Thomas, director, Ph.D. Program in African American Preaching and Sacred Rhetoric, Christian Theological Seminary. While there I heard Lisa Sharon Harper, founder and president of Freedom Road speaking on the” fierce urgency of now,” that “we can wage a war for supremacy or we can embrace the beloved community.”

Program speakers were very diverse with a number of them sponsored by the African American Heritage House, a recent addition to the Chautauqua campus. While diversity is increasing in the summer residents, it lags behind that of the speakers, artists and students who attend for further study. 

Chautauqua Institution was founded in 1874 by investor Lewis Miller and Methodist Bishop John Heyl Vincent as a teaching camp for Sunday School teachers. It’s located on 2,070 acres in Chautauqua, New York in the southwestern part of the state on the shore of Lake Chautauqua. From the beginning the founders focused on education, recreation, and an ecumenical spiritual faith. 

The Chautauqua idea grew and was very popular in the period between 1900 and 1920 when as many as 12,000 Chautauqua’s were formed around the country according to Wikipedia. Now there are about twenty left, of which Chautauqua Institution in New York remains the largest and most active.

My family’s original attraction to the area was the Chautauqua Lake when we bought a cottage in nearby Mayville back in 1979. My husband, sons, and I have enjoyed swimming, sailing and water skiing with many guests over the years. While I enjoyed the lake activities, it was the offerings of the Institution that drew me, not only the programs but the classes. Over the years I’ve taken a number of writing classes and other subjects as diverse as mahjong, drumming, playing the ukulele, dancing in Zumba class and participating in short story discussions. This season’s classes were very limited but the regular seasons catalogue featured hundreds of noncredit classes paid for by a fee. 

While the adults attend programmed events and classes, their children can participate in the Children’s School with varied learning experiences and sports. 

Visitors stay in the many Victorian homes open to visitors or at the several hotels on the grounds. The Athenaeum Hotel is the grand old lady on the lake, the oldest wooden structure of its kind. Dining on its large porch with a lake view is not to be missed. The newest hotel is the St. Elmo located on the square with the library on one end and the administration building and a few shops on the other end. St. Elmo also has a broad front porch where guests and visitors can rest, rock, view the square activities, read or converse. Porches are a welcome feature on almost all the Victorian homes and are busy most evenings when guests discuss views pertinent to the lectures and share their stories. Also on the square are the post office, several restaurants, and the excellent bookstore which is open year-round. Just off the square is The Tally Ho, a small hotel and dining establishment while the Spencer Hotel on Palestine Avenue features rooms decorated in literary themes. 

The gardens of each resident home and those cared for by the resident gardening staff are reason enough to visit Chautauqua. The current plant experts are environmentally friendly in their practices and the Institution is supporting the research initiatives of the Jefferson Project of monitoring and working on improving the lake waters. 

Another special activity that draws returnees each summer is the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle or the CLSC, the oldest continuing book club in the U.S. I became a member of the class of 1998 after reading 12 books from the CLSC book list. Every August new members are welcomed in an elaborate ceremony preceded by a parade of all the classes and their banners. Each class selects a motto for their year which is placed on their banner. This year’s class motto is “Do Good Trouble,” words from John Lewis, the late civil rights activist. 

The Chautauqua Cinema located in a former church features popular movies and also notable films with smaller distribution often followed by a discussion. Two art galleries offer contemporary and varied displays with pieces usually for sale. 

Chautauqua is also known for the 110-year-old Miller Bell Tower marking each morning and the time through the day because of the faithful bell ringers. Another tradition is First Night when the community comes together for sports events and for special presentations by children and others. Though the Institution honors the past, it continues to interact with the present. An example of this was the wooden amphitheater which dated from 1883. After much discussion and input from the community, in 2019 a new structure was built that looks like the old one but with up-to-date backstage technology & lighting. The Institution was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and the surrounding area as a district in 1989. 

The current Institution president, Michael E. Hill, with other associates has introduced changes at Chautauqua that appeal to younger families and individuals. They include a more evident spirit of inclusivity, an increased regard for children and what they think, additional activities on the square and elsewhere, including food pop-ups, festivals, and a food truck and bar near the Chautauqua Bell Tower, plus the sale of alcoholic beverages on the grounds.

On Sundays during the nine-week season there is no gate pass charge and parking charges don’t start until 1:00 PM. Hundreds come from the outside community to participate in the morning worship service and enjoy the afternoon entertainment. On this season’s last Sunday, the Army Field Band and Chorus performed, an annual favorite. Listeners were brought to tears by the excellence of the performers and the words of a Vietnam veteran relayed by the commander. “He’d been so worried by the divisions in our country but listening to the band and chorus brought him back to being positive.” I felt the same way, more positive because of the wonderful stories and performance of the band and chorus members. 

For me, the days at Chautauqua restore my spirit and enrich my mind enabling me to share some of what I’ve learned with others. For you, the reader, the only way to catch some of the magic is to visit. But I warn you though, you may experience a Brigadoon-type spell and want to stay forever or at least visit every summer.