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Chautauqua Institution Presents Opening Week

The official traveling band of the United States Army, the Jazz Ambassadors, will perform at 2:30 p.m. today.

Chautauqua Institution is proud to announce the program lineup for Week One of its 2017 season. The week, which began Saturday and concludes July 1, features presentations by renowned guests such as the Rev. Alan Jones, the investor Obi Felten, the prolific inventor Lisa DeLuca, the Stanford educator George Kembel and performances from longtime “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno, the dance company Ailey II and the jazz band the Hot Sardines.

This year, the Chautauqua season began Saturday and ends Sunday, Aug. 27.

The 2017 season also marks the beginning of Michael E. Hill’s tenure as the Institution’s 18th president, and of a new era for the Chautauqua Amphitheater, which was rebuilt over the 2016-17 off-season. Hill will be installed as president in a ceremony prior to the traditional Three Taps of the Gavel president’s address at the 10:45 a.m. Sunday, June 25, ecumenical worship service in the Amphitheater. A reception and meet-and-greet will follow the service at 12:30 p.m. on Bestor Plaza. The Amphitheater ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at 2 p.m. the following Sunday, July 2.

Each year, Chautauqua Institution’s nine-week summer season features morning and afternoon lectures focusing on weekly themes. Weekly themes this year include: “Invention,” “The Human Journey: Origins, Exploration and Preservation” and “A Crisis of Faith?” In addition to the morning and afternoon lecture series is an abundance of art and entertainment to support the week’s theme.

The morning lecture series will take place at 10:45 a.m. Monday through Friday in the Amphitheater. The 2017 Week One theme, “Invention,” focuses on the conditions that make invention possible, the future of American invention and the potential ethical and legal limits of human curiosity.

Dance Company Ailey II

The Interfaith Lecture Series, at 2 p.m. weekdays in the Hall of Philosophy, opens with the theme “Inventing God? A Brief History of Religions.” Focusing on mankind’s search for meaning and its contemplation of a source of creation, talks throughout the week will examine both historical and contemporary ways of understanding the Holy.

Monday

Morning: Obi Felten is a startup mentor and angel investor who is head of getting moonshots ready for contact with the real world at X (formerly known as GoogleX). X is a moonshot factory whose mission is to invent and launch moonshot technologies that make the world a radically better place.

Afternoon: Kelly Bulkeley, Ph.D., is a psychologist of religion focusing on dreams and dreaming. He is director of the Sleep and Dream Database (SDDb), a senior editor of the APA journal Dreaming, and a visiting scholar at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.

Tuesday

Morning: Jesse Schell is a distinguished professor of the practice of entertainment technology at Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center ETC, a joint master’s program between the College of Fine Arts and School of Computer Science. At ETC, he teaches courses in game design and building virtual worlds. Schell is CEO of Schell Games, and formerly was the creative director of the Walt Disney Imagineering Virtual Reality Studio, where he was a designer, programmer and manager on several projects for Disney theme parks and DisneyQuest, as well as on Toontown Online, the first massively multiplayer game for kids.

Afternoon: Rohinton M. Rivetna is the founding trustee and past vice president of the Council of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, was founding president of the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America (FEZANA), and spearheaded the founding of the Zoroastrian Association of Chicago.

Wednesday

Morning: Lisa DeLuca is the most prolific female inventor in IBM history; she holds 70 U.S. patents with more 300 pending applications, and more than 180 patents worldwide. An IBM Master Inventor for two consecutive three-year terms starting in 2009, she is also the first and only women to ever reach the 100th plateau achievement at IBM.

Afternoon: Laurie L. Patton is president of Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont. An authority on South Asian history, culture, and religion, she is the author or editor of nine books and more than 50 articles in the field, and has translated the classical Sanskrit text, The Bhagavad Gita.

Thursday

Morning: George Kembel, an entrepreneur and investor turned educator, co-founded the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University, also known as the d.school, which he led for over a decade.

Afternoon: Rabbi Ed Feinstein is senior rabbi of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, California. He serves on the faculty of the Ziegler Rabbinical School of the American Jewish University, the Wexner Heritage Program and the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.

Friday

Morning: Columnist and author Pagan Kennedy’s most recent book is “Inventology: How We Dream Up Things That Change the World.” That book was a result of her work as a design columnist for The New York Times Magazine, where she wrote a column call “Who Made That,” detailing the origins of everything from the cubicle to the home pregnancy test.

Afternoon: Alec Ryrie was born in London and brought up there and in Washington, D.C. After a formative year teaching in a school in rural Zimbabwe, he studied history and theology at the Universities of Cambridge, St. Andrews and Oxford, and spent two years working as a parish assistant in the Church of England.

Additional Lectures

10:45 a.m. Sunday, June 25, Amphitheater: Rev. Alan Jones is dean emeritus of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, where he served as dean for over 24 years. Since beginning his tenure as dean in 1985, he has been a prominent lecturer in Episcopal, academic and spiritual circles both nationally and internationally.

Amphitheater Entertainment

Aside from the daily lectures, Week One features a variety of evening entertainment programs at the Amphitheater each night.

Following Aretha Franklin’s cancellation due to health reasons, Chautauqua welcomes the acclaimed TV late night show host, comedian and Emmy Award winner Jay Leno to the Amphitheater for Opening Night 2017. (All tickets to the Franklin concert will be honored for the Leno performance. Individuals wishing to return their tickets and gate passes for a refund due to this change in the schedule may call our ticket office at 1-888-688-1960. The Institution will not sell additional tickets to the opening night festivities unless it receives cancellations from current ticket holders).

The official traveling band of the United States Army, the Jazz Ambassadors, will perform at 2:30 p.m., today. This 19-member ensemble, formed in 1969, has received great acclaim both at home and abroad performing America’s original art form, jazz. Admission to the grounds and Amphitheater is free on Sundays. (Parking is free until 2 p.m.)

At 8:15 p.m. Monday, June 26, the dance company Ailey II will perform Alvin Ailey’s masterpiece, “Revelations.” Combining African-American spirituals, song-sermons, gospel songs and holy blues, the piece is renowned for its profound expressions of both joy and sorrow. Tickets are $20.

On Tuesday, June 27, the NYC jazz band the Hot Sardines will play at 8:15 p.m. Transporting listeners to an earlier era with vintage jazz, the group boasts 150 tour dates from Chicago to London and has performed at numerous jazz festivals. Tickets are $20.

At 8:15 p.m., Wednesday, June 28, Ailey II will capture audiences with this stunning new works program that will feature Bridget L. Moore’s “Sketches of Flames.” Moore fuses flamenco influences with her African-American and contemporary aesthetic to create a rapturous ensemble work.

The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra’s opening night begins 8:15 p.m., Thursday, June 29. Featured works include “The Star-Spangled Banner” and pieces by Tchaikovsky. Music Director Rossen Milanov serves as the conductor and Alexander Gavrylyuk as the pianist. Tickets are $43, and there will be a pre-performance lecture at 6:45 p.m. at the Hurlbut Church Sanctuary.

Returning to Chautauqua by popular demand, the Doo Wop Project performs Friday, June 30, at 8:15 p.m. This a cappella group from NYC begins at the beginning, tracing the evolution of Doo Wop from the classic sound of five guys singing tight harmonies on a street corner to the biggest hits on the radio today. Tickets are $43-73. Preferred seating is available.

CSO continues the 2017 season with its performance of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” Saturday, July 1, at 8:15 p.m. The event features the Columbus Symphony Chorus. There will be a pre-performance lecture at 6:45 p.m. at the Hurlbut Church Sanctuary.

Alternative Entertainment Options:

The men’s vocal ensemble Cantus performs at Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall at 4 p.m., Monday, June 26. This internationally recognized men’s vocal ensemble is widely known for its innovative programming and its engaging performances of music ranging from the Renaissance to the 21st century. No Greater Love Than This explores camaraderie, bravery, honor, elation, loss and longing through the power of music. Cantus will also be giving a public vocal techniques class from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, June 27.

At 8 pm on Friday, June 30, and at 4 p.m., Saturday, July 1, the Chautauqua Theater Company performs Michael Frayn’s Noises Off. The play is a roller-coaster, side-splittingly funny look at theater – both onstage and off – as a hapless troupe of actors attempt to mount a dreadful, ill-fated farce of a play.

Gate Pass Information

Day tickets are available for purchase at the Main Gate Welcome Center Ticket Office on the day of your visit. Morning tickets grant visitors access to the grounds from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. for $24. Afternoon tickets grant access from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. for $17. Combined morning/afternoon passes allow access from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and cost $41. Evening passes grant access from 4 p.m. to midnight with the cost varying based on the evening entertainment. For tickets and information, visit chqtickets.com or call 716-357-6250.

About Chautauqua Institution

Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities. As a community, we celebrate, encourage and study the arts and treat them as integral to all of learning, and we convene the critical conversations of the day to advance understanding through civil dialogue.

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