Chautauqua Institution today announced the 2025 season repertoire of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra (CSO) under the leadership of Music Director and Principal Conductor Rossen Milanov. The 2025 season, marking the CSO’s 96th season, will offer more than 20 performances between June 26 and Aug. 19, with concerts in Weeks One through Week Nine of Chautauqua’s Summer Assembly. Repertoire will range from classics to pops concerts with Principal Pops Conductor Stuart Chafetz on the podium. The CSO welcomes guests including Laufey, Morgan Freeman’s Symphonic Blues project, Time For Three, Denyce Graves, Christine Goerke, Aaron Diehl, Michael Cavanaugh, Alexander Gavrylyuk, and conductors Teddy Abrams and JoAnn Falletta. 

“The 2025 CSO season will showcase the incredible and versatile musicianship of our orchestra while bringing an enormously wide range of symphonic music to our vibrant and multigenerational audiences. This season spans centuries: from Mozart to Missy Mazzoli, the celebrated contemporary composer who will be in attendance with us. In addition to rich and engrossing repertoire from the orchestral canon, Chautauquans will enjoy family and film programming, dazzling pops concerts, and the first side-by-side concert with the MSFO since 2022.  

We are overjoyed to feature not only our esteemed Music Director Rossen Milanov and Principal Pops Conductor Stuart Chafetz, but also impressive guest conductors including longtime friend JoAnn Faletta. With two dozen concerts, featuring young artists and luminaries alike, this promises to be an ‘only at Chautauqua!’ season — I can’t wait for the downbeat.” says Vice President for Performing and Visual Arts Laura Savia. 

Concerts will feature CSO members and stories from Chautauqua’s history. Newly appointed concertmaster Sharon Roffman will take center stage on July 31 as the soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concert. On Aug. 12, Principal Oboe Jaren Atherholt and Second Oboe Noah Kay will be featured in composer Viet Cuong’s 2019 work, Extra(ordinarily) Fancy: Concerto for Two Oboes. Pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk, artist-in-residence and longtime collaborator, returns to the Amphitheater stage for his CSO appearance on July 1 with Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1. And on Aug. 16, pianist Aaron Diehl will join the orchestra for a special performance of Gershwin’s Concerto in F, commemorating 100 years since its composition in one of the practice cabins at Chautauqua Institution. 

Special guests include composer, singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Laufey’s first appearance with the CSO on Aug. 2, and Time For Three’s return to the Amp in composer Kevin Puts’ work Contact on July 26. Time For Three appears on the Chautauqua Chamber Music series on Monday, July 28. The CSO season will close on Aug. 19 with a new project developed by Morgan Freeman titled Symphonic Blues, featuring video voice-over and live Delta blues musicians. 

Kicking off the Summer Assembly’s Week Three: “Art in Action: Building Community Through the Arts,” recently-appointed artistic advisor to the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory Denyce Graves joins the CSO on July 5, and will give the 10:45 a.m. lecture the following Tuesday, July 8. 

The CSO continues to support Chautauqua Opera by providing the orchestra for the Chautauqua Opera Company’s workshop readings of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s new opera Lincoln in the Bardo, based on George Saunders’ Booker Prize-winning novel, and commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. The CSO will also provide the orchestra for the Company’s production of the opera La boheme in the Amp. Another cherished annual collaboration, Opera & Pops, continues on July 22. 

The CSO/Music School Festival Orchestra (MSFO) will return side-by-side on July 19 with a performance of Mahler’s colossal “Resurrection Symphony.” The Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus under the direction of Adam Luebke joins the two orchestras, and soloists Emily Finke and Rosamund Dyer from the Chautauqua Opera Company Young Artists program, will also join. 

Programming will include a screening of the summer classic film “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” on June 28. A tribute to the music of Elton John on July 12 stars Michael Cavanaugh, who was hand-picked by Billy Joel to star in the Broadway musical Movin’ Out.  

The Sunday Matinee tradition continues as a special family concert on Sunday, June 29, a free admission day at Chautauqua Institution. The concert will include Poulenc’s “The Story of Babar” and kid-friendly activities on the Amp porch following the performance. 

“The 2025 CSO’s season will showcase music with extraordinary richness, variety and originality. We are excited to partner again with The Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus in a performance of Mahler’s monumental second symphony and to welcome extraordinary artists on the stage such as Denyce Graves, Time For Three and Christine Goerke among many others,” shared Milanov.  

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Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra 2025 Repertoire 

This schedule is subject to change. See the complete listing here.

Thursday, June 26, 2025 • 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Opening Night with Christine Goerke
Rossen Milanov, conductor 
Christine Goerke, soprano
Ludwig van Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 3, Op.72b  
Richard Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde  
Wagner: Forest Murmurs  
Wagner: The Entry of the Gods to Valhalla  
Wagner: Immolation Scene from The Twilight of the Gods  

Saturday, June 28, 2025 • 7:30 p.m.  
“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” in Concert with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra 
Chia-Hsuan Lin, conductor 

Sunday, June 29, 2025• 3:00 p.m. 
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Sunday Matinee  
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
Gioachino Rossini: The Barber of Seville overture  
Francis Poulenc: The Story of Babar  

Tuesday, July 1, 2025 • 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra with Alexander Gavrylyuk, piano 
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
Alexander Gavrylyuk, piano 
Paul Dukas: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice  
Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 1  
Richard Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel  

Friday, July 4, 2025 • 8:00 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: “Independence Day Celebration”   
Stuart Chafetz, conductor  
Capathia Jenkins, vocalist  
Program to be announced from the stage.  

Saturday, July 5, 2025 • 8:15 p.m.  
Denyce Graves with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra 
Rossen Milanov, conductor 
Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano  
Program to be announced. 

Tuesday, July 8, 2025 • 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Celestial Dances 
Rossen Milanov, conductor 
Missy Mazzoli: Sinfonia for Orbiting Spheres  
Manuel de Falla: El Amor Brujo  
Igor Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite  

Thursday, July 10, 2025 • 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Summer Stories 
Rossen Milanov, conductor 
George Gershwin: Porgy and Bess Symphonic Picture  
Maurice Ravel: Mother Goose Suite  
Ravel: Boléro 

Saturday, July 12, 2025 • 8:15 p.m.  
The Music of Elton John starring Michael Cavanaugh with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra 
Stuart Chafetz, conductor 
Program to be announced from the stage. 

Tuesday, July 15, 2025 • 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Romantic Elegance 
Rossen Milanov, conductor 
Sterling Elliott, cello 
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33  
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 

Thursday, July 17, 2025 • 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Korngold and Dvorak 
JoAnn Falletta, conductor 
Blake Pouliot, violin 
Erich Korngold: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 
Antonin Dvorak: Symphony No. 6 in D major, B.112, Op. 60 

Saturday, July 19, 2025 • 8:15 p.m. 
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and Music School Festival Orchestra: Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony  
Rossen Milanov, conductor 
Timothy Muffitt, School of Music artistic director 
Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus 
Adam Luebke, music director 
Emily Finke, soprano 
Rosamund Dyer, mezzo-soprano 
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C minor, “Resurrection” 

Tuesday, July 22, 2025 • 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Opera & Pops 
Stuart Chafetz, conductor 
Steven Osgood, General & Artistic Director of Chautauqua Opera Company 
Chautauqua Opera Company Apprentice and Studio Artists  
Program to be announced from the stage. 
Thursday, July 24, 2025 • 8:15 p.m.  

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Shostakovich 11 
Rossen Milanov, conductor 
Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11 

Saturday, July 26, 2025 • 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra with Time For Three 
Rossen Milanov, conductor 
Time For Three 
Zoltán Kodály: Dances of Galánta 
Kevin Puts: Contact 
Antonin Dvorak: Selections from Slavonic Dances, Op. 46 

Tuesday, July 29, 2025 • 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: A Beethoven Evening 
Teddy Abrams, conductor 
Alexander Kobrin, piano 
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 

Thursday, July 31, 2025 • 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto  
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
Sharon Roffman, violin 
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44 

Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025 • 8:15 p.m.  
Laufey: A Night at the Symphony with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra 
Program to be announced from the stage.  

Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025 • 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Legend and Triumph 
Timothy Muffitt, conductor 
Gabriel Fauré: Pelleas et Melisande Suite, Op. 80  
Sergei Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 100  

Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025 • 7:30 p.m.  
Houston Ballet with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra  
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
Program to be announced.  

Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025 • 8:15 p.m.  
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Classical Remix 
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
Jaren Atherholt, oboe 
Noah Kay, oboe 
W.A. Mozart: Idomeneo Ballet Music  
Viet Cuong: Extra(ordinarily) Fancy: Concerto for Two Oboes and orchestra  
Anna Clyne: This Moment  
Franz Schubert: Symphony No. 3, D. 200  

Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025 • 8:15 p.m. 
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Symphonie fantastique  
Rossen Milanov, conductor  
Hector Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14  

Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025 • 8:15 p.m. 
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Gershwin’s Concerto in F 
Rossen Milanov, conductor 
Aaron Diehl, piano 
Carlos Simon: Four Black American Dances  
George Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F  
Antonin Dvorak: The Water Goblin, Op. 107  

Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025 • 8:15 p.m.  
Morgan Freeman Presents: Symphonic Blues with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra 
Martin Gellner, conductor  
Program to be announced from the stage. 

ABOUT CHAUTAUQUA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 
The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1929, and today it continues its legacy as the center of musical life at Chautauqua Institution under the direction of Rossen Milanov. Performing more than 20 unique concerts of major symphonic repertoire in the Amphitheater in addition to collaborating with resident companies, the CSO is a tenured union orchestra and the summer home of musicians from some of the finest orchestras in the nation. 

ABOUT CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION 
Chautauqua Institution is a not-for-profit, 750-acre community on Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York State, where approximately 7,500 persons are in residence on any day during a nine-week season, and a total of more than 100,000 attend scheduled public events and even more engage online via the streaming channel CHQ Assembly. Chautauqua is dedicated to the exploration of the best in human values and the enrichment of life through a program that explores the important religious, social and political issues of our times; stimulates provocative, thoughtful involvement of individuals and families in creative response to such issues; and promotes excellence and creativity in the appreciation, performance and teaching of the arts.