The Chautauqua Institution announced the upcoming season for the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra (CSO). Under Principal Conductor Rossen Milanov, the CSO will offer 14 performances between July 10 and August 14.
Plans for the CSO’s 2021 season will incorporate necessary changes and procedures to ensure the health and safety of all. Performances will often feature a smaller ensemble, with all musicians distanced and non-wind and -brass players masked.
“Planning for the upcoming season has been challenging but also wholly invigorating — dreaming of how we can make the most of our circumstances and deliver concert experiences that will surprise and delight,” Milanov said. “I’m elated to return to Chautauqua and the Amphitheater, and to take the stage with my incredibly gifted orchestra colleagues to make beautiful music for our wonderful audience.”
The CSO’s 2021 season begins on July 10 with a performance of Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony and a work by composer and pianist Gabriela Lena Frank, “Elegía Andina,” that she says “is one of my first written-down compositions to explore what it means to be of several ethnic persuasions, of several minds.” The closing concert on Aug. 14, with Principal Pops Conductor Stuart Chafetz, will feature returning vocalist Capathia Jenkins performing selections made famous by the inimitable Ella Fitzgerald.
Other season highlights include frequent Chautauqua collaborator, Wynton Marsalis, on July 28 and two movie-nights with orchestral accompaniment, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and 1991’s “Beauty and the Beast”.
2021 will also feature the return of the Chautauqua Diversity Fellows to the Institution grounds. The program began as an expansion of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music’s (CCM) groundbreaking Diversity Fellowship Program for pre-professional underrepresented musicians. 2021 will feature four fellows from the Cincinnati Diversity Fellowship Program and one Fellow from the Sphinx Organization, the pivotal organization dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts.
All Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra performances are included with the Traditional Gate Pass (TGP). TGP holders will have first access to reserved seating, approximately two weeks prior to the start of each week. Remaining tickets will then be available for sale to Grounds Access Pass (GAP) holders and the general public on a space-available basis approximately one week prior to the start of each week.
