We have just returned from two memorable weeks at the Chautauqua Institution, Weeks Two and Three of “the Season”. Located on the western shore of LChautauqua, the Institution is a self-contained resort community with a bipolar personality. For forty-three weeks of the year it is a pleasant, quiet village with a population that shrinks during the dead of the New York winter and grows gradually during the Spring. Late in June everything changes and it becomes a bustling beehive of cultural activity for the next nine weeks. It is transformed into a gated community in which even permanent residents are charged a fee for the privilege of taking advantage of the plethora of programs available. It is estimated that there are as many as 7,500 people there during the Season; perhaps 2,500 in the off-season; and as few as 250 in the winter.
The charm of Chautauqua is a combination of the environment and the folks who take advantage of it. It is neat and tidy, with no sign of litter or graffiti. There are neatly trimmed flowering shrubs and blooming perennials seemingly everywhere. This atmosphere is reflected on the people there as well – they are uniformly courteous and respectful. “At Chautauqua there are no strangers”. It has the feel of a kinder, gentler time, the sort of time our nostalgic memories pretend existed years ago.
The big attraction during the Season is a massive offering of educational, cultural, religious, and entertainment events. The variety of short courses being offered is impressive; in a typical week the catalogue offered about fifty classes with subjects ranging from “Watercolor for Beginners” to “Twelfth Night: Shakespeare’s Comedy and Powerful Women” to “Pickleball for Beginners”. Something for everybody!
The main event each morning is a lecture in the Amphitheatre by world-class experts on a topic related to a weekly theme. For Week Two this year the theme was “Breaking the News: Charting a New Media Landscape”, a particularly interesting theme for me. The first two speakers recounted their experiences attempting to make this transition and become major “influencers” in the social media world. On Wednesday an opinion columnist discussed the public’s loss of trust in traditional media, and the consequential popularity of polarized social media. Thursday, PBS President Paula Kreig reviewed the effect of the Federal Government’s defunding of public radio and television and made a strong case for support of media committed to presenting news in an objective manner. Friday’s presentation was made jointly by popular science celebrity Neil DeGrasse Tyson and independent film-maker Scott Hamilton Kennedy. They represented a different type of media – documentary films. Their two highly regarded films deal with the opposition to the use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) and the anti-vaccination movement.
The Week Three lectures had a different format. Each day a pair of experts, one from the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute and the other from the liberal-trending Brookings Institute, discussed aspects of the week’s theme – “The 2026 Election: What’s at Stake? “. On Monday the think tank scholars discussed immigration, largely from the perspective of the broad diversity of public opinion regarding it, Tuesday’s topic was healthcare, with general agreement by both scholars that the public believes it must be improved. On Wednesday two economists emphasized the influence that the “cost of living” has on voters and its potential impact on this election. Thursday’s scholars discussed the role of cultural differences (generational, geographical, and economic) in political decisions. On Friday the panelists discussed the overall subject, concluding that the Democrats would probably “flip” the House of Representatives but barely fail to win a majority in the Senate, ensuring that our next two years will be dominated by gridlock and extreme partisanship. It was an interesting week with many thought-provoking moments.
Equally significant are the evening concerts in the Amphitheatre. All told, we attended nine of them and were treated to a wide variety of music. Two of the concerts were performed by the student festival orchestra, a collection of remarkable young musicians who are spending part of their summers at the Institution. The quality of their performances was very impressive. Another highlight was a solo piano recital of Russian romantic music by Artist-in-Residence Alexander Gavrylyuk, a world-class talent. Chautauqua is lucky to have him. The concerts by the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra (CSO) are always first class. Pittsburgh Symphony Principal Trumpet Micah Wilkinson occupies that role with the CSO. He is typical of the quality of that orchestra. We also attended a concert by Harry Connick Jr. and his touring band. It was sold out, filling the 4,400 seat Amphitheatre. Although I am not a fan of the extravaganza format so popular with big name performers, I did enjoy this show.
On Sunday evening we had a special musical experience. The folks across the street from us frequently provide open houses and invite several dozen of their friends and neighbors for a social evening and recital type performances by student musicians. This time it was a pair of music students from the University of Michigan who performed impressively on a grand piano. Another example of the high quality of young musicians today, and of the old-fashioned neighborly attitude that pervades Chautauqua.
The infrastructure inside the Institution is designed to encourage people to walk or bike, an opportunity most folks welcome. Our house at the Institution is a little over half a mile from the Amphitheatre. Mobility issues force me to rely on the free shuttle service the Institution provides — open trams and conventional buses operating at twenty-minute intervals. We used it twice a day with general success, although several times we were delayed when the trams were full and couldn’t take on additional passengers, even feeble nonagenarian ones.
It was a busy two weeks for me, dominated by thought-provoking lectures in the mornings and outstanding music in the evenings. I am looking forward to returning for Weeks Six and Seven in August.