Monica

Monica Dewey, Indiana University

Voice Student 2014, 2015

Why did you decide to come back to CHQ?

I consider Chautauqua to be an artistic paradise. I am returning for many reasons. The growth that one experiences at Chautauqua is hard to put into words. It's a time of serious artistic commitment combined with a relaxed, fun atmosphere. I am looking forward to working on specific projects and to continue working with the wonderful teachers and coaches.

What was your most memorable experience from summer 2014?

My favorite moment from last summer was the singers' final concert — the famous "sing out". It was so clear that each singer grew in some way over the summer, and it was beautiful to witness the transformation. Plus, the support and energy during the concert was incredible. I wrote an original folk style song about Chautauqua and performed it on banjo, and I was joined by one of the coaches on accordion. I included some jokes about the dining hall food and lovingly mocked some of the teachers' warm-up exercises. Everyone was having a great time.

Where are you at currently in your career and how has CHQ influenced it?

I am currently a graduate student and associate instructor of voice at Indiana University. Chautauqua has influenced my professional world in many ways. I have expanded my network to include singers and teachers from around the world. I keep in touch with many colleagues, and they know they always have a place to stay in Bloomington, Indiana.

What advice would you give to a new, incoming student?

I would tell an incoming student to take time for personal growth during the summer. The Institution will keep you very busy, but try to find time to relax, breathe, and soak up the wonderful community. I enjoyed attending lectures and concerts, yoga, tennis, biking, and kayaking during my free time. There is so much to do and take advantage of — read The Chautauquan Daily and get involved!

Mackenzie

Mackenzie Melemed

Piano Festival, 2016

Where are you currently studying?
I am at The Juilliard School in NYC with Robert McDonald. I am in my fourth-year of undergraduate studies and first-year of graduate studies. I was recently accepted into the accelerated 5-year B.M/M.M degree.

Why did you choose Chautauqua?
I first heard about Chautauqua actually through Facebook! Some friends from past festivals and competitions had been attending the festival and were uploading really beautiful photos of the campus and posting about their experiences there. I knew I had to look into it!

How did the Chautauqua community positively impact your studies?
The sense of community at Chautauqua was unlike any that I have ever experienced before. Not only did I feel welcomed, but I felt a part of the Chautauqua family immediately. Having Hale and Judy Oliver as my “connections” was the most amazing treat - they were at my performances and supported me throughout the festival. I woke up ready to explore the campus, and that gave me a lot of inspiration for the music I was working on during my time at Chautauqua. Can I mention that I took breaks and walked along every street in Chautauqua in order to catch Pokémon and hatch my eggs?!

What faculty member has had the most impact on you and why?
One of the really great opportunities I had was to see my former teacher, Alexander Korsantia. I had not seen him or played for him in a couple of years, and I was able to perform for him during his master class. I also was able to see him perform with orchestra for only the second time - needless to say I had chills throughout his phenomenal performance of Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto. One of the highlights of the program for me!

What are your future goals and how has your time at CHQ influenced those goals?
My ultimate goal is to be a concert pianist - as difficult as that may be to achieve, I have been performing since I was 5, and after 600 concerts, I am eagerly awaiting the chance to make my lifelong passion of performing a reality. I have been exposed to so many new musical techniques at Chautauqua - for example, getting a powerful sound (thanks to Alexander Gavrylyuk), varying my technique for creating a legato sound (Nikki [Melville] and John [Milbauer]) and making musical sense of long phrases (Ms. Antonova). The career-stories that I heard from the artists themselves are so interesting and inspiring - I really can’t wait to experience the same things!

What advice do you have for someone attending the program for the first time?
Get involved with as much as possible. I was so fortunate to have a really wonderful chamber ensemble group, which added an extra level of excitement to the festival. Also, I even taught a lesson to a piano student living in Chautauqua - being able to have a lesson with the amazing faculty and guest artists and then to use what you’ve learned, taking from your own performance experience as well, to teach someone else is really a rewarding experience. Being a student - we have access to everything on campus, 99% of the time for free, so live it up.   

Thibaut

Thibaut Dapoigny

Visual Arts, 2016 (Painting – with a slight Print Making Minor)

Where are you currently studying?
This year I’m completing the second (and final!) year of my MFA in Painting at the New York Studio School in Greenwich Village, New York City. I will also be working as an artist assistant for a renowned sculptor in Tribeca, as well as for E.Tay Gallery right next door.

How would you describe your work?
I am a figurative oil painter who sometimes likes to head towards the abstract and on the way occasionally playing with impressionism and expressionism. I have long had an affinity with animals as a motif, probably for its versatility as a symbol and the lack of a given personality compared to human figures.

What are your future goals and how has your time at CHQ influenced, changed, or directed those goals?
Once I am done with my MFA this spring, I will devote my time to painting and showing as much as possible while getting more involved in the New York art community. Chautauqua brought out a newfound confidence in my painting and that is a priceless gift. That’s not even mentioning the skills I learned from a series of brilliant artists during the summer.

What faculty member had the most impact on you and why?
It is hard to choose just one. Clintel and Tom were both very important to me. Clintel Steed - I keep quotes from him even today. I also just finished a weeklong drawing marathon with him here in New York - what a bonus. His energy and honesty about art and what we do is infecting. I can still picture him telling me to find the personality of each tree while we were standing in the middle of the Art Quad at 8 pm as I was trying to find an end to a large landscape drawing that took me 5 sessions of 3 hours to complete. Later on in the program, after having pushed me to work harder and better in print making, Tom [Raneses] challenged me to translate this drawing that I had done with Clintel into a large and beautiful print. Tom was present the entire program as Print Master and was a massive help and support throughout all 7 weeks.

How did the community environment of Chautauqua positively impact your studies?
I came to Chautauqua at a crossroads in my work and had no idea what to expect. Chautauqua - the other visual artists, the musicians, the actors, the singers, the landscape, the lectures, and every discussion I had with people from around the world - somehow it allows everything to fall into place and carry each student to the next step in their work and career. There is also a certain confidence that has stuck with me from this adventure.

How did you spend your free time?
What free time? With such a set up - the studio and everything done for us - spending day and night in the studio becomes a necessity. There was really no free time for me and I enjoyed it very much. It’s something I try to translate to my life in New York, finding a way to always use “free time” as painting time.

Is there any particular moment or event from your summer that stands out?
The entire program itself was a moment on its own, all of it.

What advice do you have for new incoming art students?
Don’t waste time trying to think - just set up and start painting, drawing, sculpting or whatever it is you do. Let the faculty jump start your brain. You might come with a plan but you will likely not stick to it and that is okay. Don’t rush, take time to stop and discover all the new things Chautauqua works so hard to bring together for you.

Alexandra

Alexandra Heier

Dance 2011, 2012, 2013 (Apprentice)

Hand-picked by Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux at the age of 15, Alexandra Heier spent three summers as an Apprentice on full scholarship with the Chautauqua School of Dance where she received the Artistic Director's Award for Overall Excellence.  



Alexandra began her dance training at the Boston Ballet School and is currently a member of Boston Ballet II where she has performed in Mikko Nissinen's "Swan Lake", as well as dancing a principal role in George Balanchine's "Divertimento No. 15".

Why did you choose to attend Chautauqua initially and what made you return?
I was invited by Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux to study as an Apprentice after seeing me in a class at Boston Ballet School. I came back the next two summers because of the unique performance opportunity and the close and nurturing environment that resulted from its small size and caring instructors.

What is the fondest memory you have of your time at Chautauqua?
My fondest memory is of performing George Balanchine's Serenade in the Amphitheater one Tuesday night during my second summer in Chautauqua. There was nothing like the feeling of performing such a powerful, exquisite ballet outdoors at night for a huge and enthusiastic audience. It was a performance I will never forget.

“Serenade” is a favorite for many – what makes it special for you?
Serenade is definitely a favorite of mine, like many dancers and audiences. For me, what resonates about it is the incredibly beautiful music paired with movements that make a strong impact through their simplicity. The ballet is deeply emotional, even though there is no known narrative. Dancing this ballet in Chautauqua will always be one of my favorite memories.

What faculty member had the most impact on you and why?
I don't think I could choose just one faculty member that had the greatest impact on me because it was the combination of all the wonderful members of the faculty that made it such a great experience. Patricia McBride cares so much about her students and offers insight that few, if any, others can provide. Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux helped me to gain confidence and showed me that there are people in power who are selfless and kind. Mark Diamond taught me how to move in new ways to be able to effectively learn contemporary dance. Everyone at Chautauqua is dedicated to the students and furthering their careers.

How did the greater environment of CHQ outside of your program positively impact your studies?
Chautauqua gave me the space to explore my art form along with others. It also provided me with a safe haven where I could spend my summer and grow as a person. The enthusiasm and interest from the audiences was also always encouraging and supportive.

What did you learn in your time at CHQ that you have carried with you in your professional pursuits?
At Chautauqua I developed the skill of learning choreography which has been extremely important in my career. I performed great works by Balanchine that I have carried with me and performed again in the future. I learned more variations in my time at Chautauqua than I had ever learned before. I also learned how to dance contemporary ballet, which has become a huge part of today's ballet companies all over the world and has been critical for me.   

You have had quite a lot of performance opportunities during your time with Boston Ballet as well – as a Trainee and now as a member of Boston Ballet II. Are there any particular performances that stand out for you?
My favorite performance with Boston Ballet was Swan Lake. It’s a very powerful ballet and extremely rewarding, particularly when I performed in all four acts. I am looking forward to dancing this amazing ballet again at the end of this season. My other favorite performance was in Boston Ballet School’s Next Generation, when I performed the principal role in George Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15. Performing a lead role was a dream come true. It was the most fun I’ve had onstage to date. 

What great role do you most aspire to perform as you progress in your career?
The role I would most like to perform in the future is “Juliet” in Romeo and Juliet because it is such a deep and emotional role. Romeo and Juliet is one of my all time favorite ballets and the music gives me chills every time I hear it.

What are your future goals and how has your time at CHQ influenced those goals?
I aim to someday become a principal dancer in a high level ballet company. My experience at Chautauqua helped to further my determination for this goal by giving me the chance to perform solos and dance in large roles and by allowing me to work with a professional ballet company at an age when few dancers get such an opportunity.

What advice do you have for incoming students?
I would advise incoming students to take advantage of every moment of their time in Chautauqua, particularly the performances and to soak up all the insight they can from the incredible faculty.  

Morteza

Morteza Khakshoor

Visual Arts 2014, 2015

Intro: Born in Iran in 1984, at 18 Morteza entered the Tehran University College of Fine Arts where he studied industrial design and sculpture. At 25, he moved to the US for a BFA in sculpture from the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts. This fall, he started an MFA in printmaking. 

Morteza describes his work as “fragments of experiences collaged into a history absent from reality. The residue reflects the bizarre, unbearable nature of living.” In printmaking, currently his primary medium, layers remain fixed “even if I try to remove it by scratching, scraping, or burnishing… The printmaking process enables me to rework the images to grasp the intensity of the situation.”

How did you get into art, and end up studying it in America?

In Iran, I studied industrial design for almost 2 years and realized that’s not what I wanted, transferred to sculpture, then dropped out. I couldn’t do what I wanted in fine art, which was figurative art. In Iran, a highly religious country, you can’t study or exhibit nude figures… I wanted to do classical study, old masters like Michelangelo, so I dropped out. I was doing business for 3-4 years, but I got bored. It wasn’t for me, so I came to America. 

Last summer, I came to Chautauqua to draw and paint, but I got into printmaking and then decided I wanted to do that for grad school. My main interest is drawing. Printmaking has the main qualities of drawing, but you also have more tools—you can add to whatever drawing is. 

Drawing has immediacy: it’s true to whatever you want to say. I like painting, but I don’t think it’s necessary. You can communicate with simple lines… I like that minimalistic aspect of it. It becomes only about mark making, simple basic things… I feel like all the great artists made their best work in drawing. People might not notice it, but it makes sense because everyone starts with drawing, so it becomes second nature... Learning to sculpt, paint, etc., are usually secondary. I started when I was 5… Every kid draws. Some people stop and I didn’t. It’s that simple.

Why was learning classical drawing important to you?

I was used to seeing Persian miniatures, which I studied as a teenager; I studied with one of those true old masters. Around the same time, I was introduced to Western art, looking at art books at the house of my dad’s friend… I’d never seen anything like that, so I got interested… there’s so many young artists in Iran that study Western art—figurative art—really seriously.

In a country like Iran where government is always trying to convey the message that … everything from the West is bad, then people get curious. When someone tries to stop you from doing something, you’ll be like, “why are you trying to stop me…” I knew the pictures I saw in those books were from Europe, from the West, which I’m not supposed to know about. I think that feeling of discovering something from the outside world encouraged me to begin to study Western art, and I started to like it.

After that I stopped Persian miniature. I couldn't relate to it that much because it’s so unreal: about an unearthly world, not dealing with what you are. It’s religious decorative art. When you see Western art, you see things you see in real life, so you relate. When I was young, it was easier for me to connect to Western art than Persian because Eastern is harder to understand. Now I love those things.

How does your experience with Eastern art affect your current work?
First, one of the themes in my work is the tension between cultures. My pictures represent specific people, stories… I’m also visually interested in the rejection of the traditional rules we have in Western art: proportion, perspective, anatomy... The ancient eastern old masters didn’t think those things were necessary and I think they’re right. They didn’t care that the body is supposed to be seven or eight heads proportionally. There’s no perspective. Or all the figures are [stacked] vertically at the same size, and the only reason the picture makes sense is because you know the top figure is the farthest away. Obviously, they could see that when a person is farther away, they’d be smaller, but they think that that person is just as important, so they don’t draw them smaller. So actually, it was a more complex way of thinking…

I still feel more comfortable here because I understand this way of thinking: more realistic and open. It makes more sense to me... All that spiritual, religious [thinking] doesn’t help me...

So in the Western art tradition, who is currently most influencing your work?
Right now, German expressionists from the 1920s: Beckmann, Dix; the way they depicted the human body… I feel close to them because the situation in those years is so similar to where I am… All the restrictions and craziness of society, which is government and authority trying to limit everything, which is impossible…

For “Gallus Meeting with Assyrian,” I saw this [ancient Roman emperor] at the Met, a beautiful sculpture, but really bizarre… the head is so distorted and the legs are big. It doesn’t make sense with the rest of the body, but as a whole it looks really good… Then there’s this Middle Eastern god I took a picture of at the Met.

And there’s a connection. It was as if they were having a dialogue; this Roman god and Syrian god having a conversation. So that’s how the piece started: a mishmash of West and East and the way they react. So the guys by the Eastern dude, they’re doing something not good: they’re having this dirty discussion about something with the god, or making a deal.

Then in between the box looks like a ballot box. I was thinking what is that about? Then I realized: when I came here was the year after the 2009 Iranian presidential election. People thought it wasn’t an honest election, but nobody could prove it because there’s no clarity or control except the government. Some people got killed in rallies. I lost two friends and got arrested. It changed the whole mood of the country. That was the main reason I left.

What have you been working on this summer?

There’s a main theme in my work: what it feels to have this thing called the male body. Working based on that experience is really interesting to me. A reason I make figurative images is that I’m constantly thinking about how it feels to carry a body, especially a male body because that’s the only type of body I could possibly know. I don’t draw females that often, because I don’t know how it feels to occupy a female body... but the male body IS me. That’s why I do distortions; like drawing hands in a specific way. I’m trying to capture not how it looks, but how it feels or how you could look at it.

To me, the body is uncomfortable, sometimes gross, sometimes strange—the way it’s constructed: a head, two long things called arms, two legs... Also, having that classical background from the Renaissance, and this idea that bodies are supposed to be beautiful... Everybody believed the body was beautiful, but is it really beautiful? I understand how a tree could be beautiful, but the body is a strange thing. I don’t see it as beautiful, and the reason is because that’s me and I feel it, I live it, and it does not feel pleasant and beautiful. A body is not just its look, but how it works, how it smells, how it doesn’t work. 

So now that’s a main thing for me, why I draw these naked or half naked bodies, really basic things. And because the body carries the brain, it brings other stories that might come from my previous work that deals with history, culture, and all this stuff. But to me, that’s the main thing: the body.

Since this view of the body doesn’t come from your classical, figurative studies, why are you so attracted to it?

Back to Iran, the limitations. The image of the body is not something that you’re supposed to see. So different from here, where you see bodies... But there, everything is covered and you’re not supposed to look at it, and it’s almost a sin to see a naked body of a stranger. Maybe that’s the reason I’m attracted to depicting bodies, again: they make you not do it, the censorship, and now you want to do it. Starting point… now it’s interesting for other reasons...  

I don’t see [the body] as beautiful or sinful. I see something fragile that has to carry this burden of life. When covered and protected, it’s difficult to see that fragility. But when naked and exposed, it’s right there in front of you.

Can you tell me about your print “Mom’s Heart,” which won the VACI partners award?

Telling the process of making it is the only way I can talk about this picture. I’m always looking at pictures and books and I’m really interested in primitive art and all arts outside the Western art world. So I was looking at this book of 19th century Mexican sculptures—Jesus and Mary religious figures—and they’re really simple primitive sculptures. The people that make them live in small villages. These sculptures were meant to serve in religious ceremonies. They didn’t know anything about anatomy, and they are simple and minimal, but so beautiful and powerful, made of wood or clay. They dress the statues and will do their best to make them as real people. But when you look at them, they are really ugly, but so beautiful. There is no craft.

I saw this picture of death, which they portrayed as an old woman in black, and it reminded me of my mom. It was really powerful, so expressive, as if Max Beckmann made the sculpture. It makes me so upset that people with no art school training make something that powerful. When I like something that much, I just draw it to understand why it’s so powerful visually. I wasn’t thinking about death; I was trying to understand why these forms make this powerful statement…  

I haven’t seen my mom for 5 years. I’m not that close but still... Skype makes it weirder and unreal, so I was thinking about my mom... I was feeling guilty. It’s a weird feeling: like I’m fine not talking to my family, but that picture made me feel terrible. Only way to deal with it is just to forget them because I have my own life. My mom has often been sick and weak, which connected to that sculpture of death. I’ve been afraid she was gonna die since I was a kid. She had a heart problem.

So… everybody in my family except me is in the car business: fixing cars, selling car parts. It’s not just a business; it’s a passion. I don’t know anything about cars, but my dad is a master mechanic and brothers the same. They have this bond between them, all about cars. The male figure is my brother. Growing up, I used to see the car parts like body parts, human parts. So what the woman in this picture is holding is a car distributor which looks like a heart. It’s also kind of the heart of the car: without it, it doesn’t work. Also, a few years ago the business went bankrupt while I was here, and my mom had to deal with that, and how it hurt my family.

I knew this picture would be about my mom, and it started as a funny joke—the car thing looked like a heart. I didn’t realize this was my mom’s heart.

And there’s another figure: this ancient Persian pot warrior [behind male figure]. That’s the only part I still don’t know why it’s there. I’m sure it’s not just decorative. There should be a reason: I’m still working on it by looking at it... Making something—it’s a journey. To understand yourself and whatever’s around you.

See more of Morteza’s work on his website: http://www.mortezakhakshoor.com/

Rebecca

Rebecca Ness

Art (painting/printing) 2015

How did you start painting?

I went to a small art school a few nights a week starting when I was six years old, life drawing and oil painting. I remember I told the teacher when I was like 7, "wouldn't it be great if I could just paint all day?" and she said "you can do that!" So I found out you could be a painter... I came into BU as a graphic design major, then realized I didn't want to be stuck at a computer. I like making things and getting dirty, so I decided to make the commitment to painting.

[But] painting is just one thing I do. I've always considered myself to be a draftsperson first—drawing [is] how I think and where my ideas come from, but then I try to elevate these ideas in different mediums such as paintings or printmaking, whatever my idea fits. Some things stay drawings forever. Being at Chautauqua has really helped to know that certain ideas call for certain mediums. I don't have to make a painting if I don't want to. Lisa Corinne Davis, a Chautauqua teacher, talked about how... not all drawings are meant to be paintings. 

What makes an idea work as a painting, as opposed to other visual mediums?

Ideas that deal with color and value and tone, but also with a certain texture, like “swimming hole.” I don’t think you can draw water in the way you can paint water. But certain things with linear solutions like wall drawings don’t need anything else to make this image.

I also learned through Lisa that [it might be better to work from print than drawing because prints] already have value and tone structure, so it’s an easier transition. Drawing to painting is a way bigger theoretical jump than print to painting….

I think your work has a distinct look. What do you think makes your paintings special?

Artists, we go through moments of having egos and then “I’m terrible”…. I try to show the moments and interactions between people and hidden humor in scenes that could happen in real life but are somewhat abstracted in subject matter. Like, would all these people really be in a pool together? It’s the way I interpret and represent people and their interactions.

And stylistically?

Style has to lend itself to the subject; certain subjects have to be interpreted in certain ways to get a certain effect. Like that guy [in “Swimming Hole] up-right, peeing in the pool. If I made him naturalistically, it wouldn’t have the same humor: it would probably seem grotesque and disturbing. Approaching it in a cartoony way gives it more humor… Or like the shower self portrait: it was painted in a more naturalistic way, dealing with subject matter a little more anxiety driven, and I didn’t want to make fun of it. Whereas I make fun of these pool people.

So did you say that was your first self-portrait?

The first self-portrait that I was happy with. I’m not good at traditional facial self-portraits. I’m just not that interested in looking at myself. But once I started fragmenting the bodies, I was more inclined to go back to the self-portrait. I could do something that I wanted to talk about.

I know you're involved in gender activism–how do those issues shape your art?

I’m still thinking about them. As a woman, I think when I deal with just the waist down it has a bit of aggression to it, in terms of who is viewing and what they can project onto what I’m saying about myself. Because I’m displaying myself as body parts, so people can either identify with or objectify it…

I’m not trying to make activism paintings. That’s not important to me. But I am trying to make paintings that are conscious of all of these conversations that can be projected onto the painting. But I don’t want someone to read it as just “this is a male gaze painting”… You can also read it as about anxiety of space, because I made it from the Bellinger shower because it feels like a prison. I want there to be other conversations as well, because I think painting lends itself to opening conversations and projecting your experiences… I want people to be able to explore and find different topics to talk about. That’s what I think a good painting is.

How do you make paintings open to different conversations?

I try to make relations between people, and you can be like, “What are they talking about?” … I want people to be like, “what’s happening here,” to leave enough room for interpretation, but give them enough to start conversation…. I’ve set up these moments for you to interpret them. I did this specifically so you can have a conversation about what people are doing. Like when people come to my studio and notice a new character for the first time and they just talk about who they think that character is.

I’ve started writing about my characters—it’s important to become attached, and fall in love with them. Like I think of The Sims sometimes: “I’m gonna make this guy do this now because he’s mine and I love him….” I needed to ask myself, “Am I giving these characters enough effort, and context”… I have to give them more information so they can give me more information.

Once you make an object or a character you kind of owe something to them, push and pull between the object and you, to make the best situation that the two of you can muster…

Can you tell me about being a sketch artist for the Dzokhar Tsarnaev trial? Has that experience impacted your art?

In my last semester of BU, the school newspaper… was given access to the courtroom and they decided that they wanted a courtroom sketch artist … I was chosen and I went to the courtroom probably 4 or 5 times. I went for the first day for opening statements and last for closing statements, and various days in between.

During that time, a lot of the art I was making was super cartoony and I was still using that language in making some of these drawings. Then I looked at them and thought, “Asshole! Why are you making Tsarnaev look silly?” That was the first time I had the idea that different languages work for different subject matter. Tsarnaev is only meant to be seen in this one light. It’s not respectful to make him in the cartoony language I was using in my other work. I wasn’t trying to be offensive, but I never showed anyone those cartoony ones. It was a complete mistake, so I tore them up in the bathroom and then made ones that I think reflected the gravity of the situation….

I’ve never experienced something as high profile as that. My best friend was the first rushed to any Boston hospital. She was three feet away from the bomb. She was going to the Apple store carrying a messenger bag with a laptop, and all the destruction happened to the laptop….

Were you able to separate your feelings from your drawings?

I did draw him kind of gauntly—but that’s because he looked like that. He had been in solitary confinement for a year and he had nerve damage to his face, so I didn’t make him look pretty. I was trying to be distant from the situation and respectful because he was still innocent at that point. They hadn’t convicted him and I wanted to draw him as true as I could, as I saw him. I wasn’t trying to bring art into it. These drawings are purely for journalism and its conversations.

So back to Chautauqua, what's your masterpiece of the summer?

I always think every painting I make is kind of bad. I don’t think I’ve reached a point that I have a painting that I think is entirely successful. I don’t think anyone really does.

I like that guy on the toilet and the smoker next to him. They were quick—an hour each. Normally I labor over paintings and destroy them, and I just told myself I’d spend a short amount of time on the painting and it was relatively successful. I used that mindset to make these swimmer paintings, which all happened quickly. Technically speaking, if you labor over an oil painting, it can get brown and muddy and you forget what you were working on in the beginning. In these, the paint and ideas stay fresh, and if I have another idea I can make another painting. Whereas, these longer ones have lots of ideas and moments I have to deal with and explore, but it’s nice to do those smaller paintings first to see what ideas work... I tried to make a bigger guy on the toilet but it was a failure. That wasn’t meant to be a bigger painting.

What do you think overall about making art as a Chautauqua Summer Student?

It’s nice to just worry about art for awhile and not worry about rent or school or feeding the cats. All I have to do is show up and do that and it’s my only responsibility. I have the time to make paintings that suck and then throw them away, but then use that experience to then make a good one. I’ve made a lot of bad paintings here, but I had a teacher who told me you have to make a hundred bad paintings before one good. And it’s made me experiment and try things I’ve been afraid of, mostly because of the time aspect…. This is my job, my free time, my life. So time and somewhat lack of stress. I’m stressing about art, but I’m gifted that I just have to worry about that… I’ll definitely be back.

Philip

Philip Stoddard

Voice 2015

How did you start singing?

I come from an artistic family; my mom is a choir teacher and my dad is a director/actor/writer. When I was in high school, I joined my mom’s choir and started taking voice lessons in Phoenix. I fell in love with classical music. As I became more involved in performing, I decided to audition for collegiate programs, and was encouraged to audition for Juilliard. I’d been working hard for a few years and was committed and disciplined, but getting in was a complete surprise… My voice didn’t even change until I was 16, so I’d only sung as a baritone for a year. It was like handing someone a cello and saying, “audition for conservatory in 10 months.” But after this door opened, it was clear to me that singing was going to be a major part of my life. 

This was your third summer at Chautauqua, and you already study with Marlena at Juilliard. Why do you keep coming back?

I feel like my artistic family is here. The faculty that Marlena brings to this place is astounding and I feel like I’ve grown so much because of the investment that they've made in me not only as an artist, but also as a person. As I've become more interested in a multiplicity of art forms and mediums, I’ve deviated from pursuing full time singing studies. But this is a place I love returning to - it was the first place I’d found where I'm not just a student in an educational hierarchy, but a member of a collaborative community. And the faculty supports me pursuing a path that’s a bit different from the typical "professional singer" career.

There are unique possibilities for cross-pollination here at Chautauqua. InterArts is in my DNA— being able to collaborate between divisions, across mediums. It's essential to be secure in a specific craft and I think it takes time and dedication to one's craft as a primary focus. But I think where the performing arts are headed in the 21st century is towards more collaboration, not only with other artists across disciplines, but outside of the arts. And it'll be imperative for the artist to be a versatile contributor to society, not only a "singer" or "actor," but an artist with deep social consciousness and political involvement.

There’s a lot of pessimism about the current state of the arts and bemoaning that classical art is dying…but I think as we get more isolated by technology, the more people are craving human to human connection. I think the performing arts provide that unique connection when they represent the broad scope of humanity, not just a sliver of experience focused on one group's narratives, but representing a diverse spectrum of cultures and identities. That's collaboration: What do you see? What do I see? How can we work together and recognize differences and similarities?... When the arts are aligned with the intention to open a conversation about the human condition, and not to show off or compete, they create an environment of sharing. That kind of work is truly beautiful and important. That’s why I’m an artist: to collaborate and share.

Those are some beautiful ideals, but how do you put such collaboration into practice when so much of your artistic work requires focused, isolated rehearsals?

It’s challenging, but you have to go above and beyond. It’s not good enough to just punch the time clock, to put in the required hours… the real creativity, that beautiful stuff, lives inside the cracks of all that "structure." Some of the most meaningful experiences at Chautauqua have been conversations at the lunch table or late at night in the Art Quad, with artists in other disciplines. It’s not always the private lesson with your teacher that makes everything click. The dedication and time spent with teachers is priceless and necessary, but so is taking off the blinders at a certain point and looking around to be inspired…

At Juilliard, you have to continually find in yourself, “why am I here? why am I doing this? what’s the reason for all this focus and intense training?” There is a great quote by the dancer and choreographer La Meri that says, "The only reason for mastering technique is to make sure the body does not prevent the soul from expressing itself." Technique is not an end in itself but a means of expressing the human condition. We train and work hard because of our love for that expression. I think weak expression sometimes comes from weak technique, so you have to find a balance between being technically proficient while still being in touch with our human imperfections. Art happens when they intersect.

This is why it takes so much practice. I’m making a big investment—8 years total at Juilliard— to become as versatile as possible. I want to understand where we’ve come from and imagine where we can go, not just to sustain a performing career for myself, but to contribute to society in many forms. If that means I’m not working on a show everyday, that’s okay with me. My place in society might be different than that. One dream of mine is to have a sustainable organic farm and to work with the land…

I realize these are kind of contradictory ideas. I go to a conservatory where I live in a box all day, but ultimately it’s to do things that have nothing to do with the box. It’s just like in singing - Marlena talks about how everything is a paradox: to go up, you have to go down, to go front you have to go back, and on and on. As an artist, I can’t be concerned with what the finished product will look like; I have to trust the process, not knowing what will come out, but trusting that something new and honest will happen. This is what acting and singing has taught me about life. It’s hard to trust these things and believe in the process, but it’s essential.

So where does being a farmer fit into these artistic goals?

For three months last summer, I lived in Italy volunteering on organic farms, learning about local culture and sustainable agriculture. On that trip, I lived with people that I’d never have met otherwise. In our field of work [performing arts], we meet lots of interesting people from all over the world who are passionate, fun, and creative… but there’s always this common thread of “I’m a dancer, actor, or singer...” On the farms, I was around people that were just living their lives and wanting the same things people all over the world need….

The human condition is universal: people may have different customs and want different things out of life, but something in each of us is connected to a fundamental source. On those farms, I found an experience of reality outside the noise of NYC and façade of American commercialism… I hope eventually to continue having that type of relationship: where I can grow my own food and have a sustainable relationship to the land. Those three months were some of the most beautiful of my life.

How does this desired connection with nature relate to your artistic goals, if at all?

Nature is a source of endless inspiration. It’s hard to feel that connection within standard classical arts performances as we know them, because we usually go into a dark room, sit quietly and watch a performance, then leave abruptly and hopefully talk about it later. But I’m interested in creating experiences that are more immediate and engaging for the audience. Involving our natural, specific location can tremendously enhance the experience of a performance.

For example, at the beginning of this summer I did a musical and theatrical project in McKnight Hall that we called the “Songs of Travel Project." We opened the sliding glass walls and the back door and people sat on every side of the stage. I used the songs of Ralph Vaughan Williams and poems of Robert Louis Stevenson to create a dramatic narrative that centered around the story of the famous song cycle. We reimagined the formal art song recital - where typically the singer stands in a suit in the crook of a piano and sings at the audience in a foreign language. But we used outside elements of nature inside the performance: flowers, trees, grass, the wind blowing into the concert hall. It wasn’t groundbreaking, but it was a different experience at Chautauqua: to reimagine the recital as a theatrical event that tells a story about a human's experience of youth and love, through the specifics of our space and time. It was a thrilling experiment and I think it'll lead to similar projects in the future.

I think part of its success was because it was in English. There’s a powerful connection when you sing in the vernacular. People can understand you without a translation barrier. Ultimately, I think we should be able to communicate and express in any language with the same detail and refinement we can in a native language, so that the story is legible and engaging. That’s one beauty of dance and music: the story is so clear even with no words.

A long-term goal of mine is to create intimate experiences, no matter the performance space. I love the intimacy of the theater: where it’s not just pretty music to be sung beautifully, but it’s a story—there’s a narrative, life happening and changing throughout. These songs and poems have always been bursting with theatricality, so we just have to let them live. Incorporating elements of the natural world - real human behavior, flowers, stars, grass, being where we are in space and time - creates possibilities for integrating local agriculture into the artistic process, and I don’t exactly know how yet, but it’s exciting to dream…

As a singer training to be an actor, why do you value theatricality in voice?

The great operas and musicals are the pinnacle examples of how we express things through music and language, but they are even bigger than language… I love the theater because there is so much power in linguistic exchange. What's spoken (and what's left unspoken) is very often natural and realistic, and therefore powerfully relatable. And then it goes to another level when you sing... the sound of an acoustic voice is naturally vulnerable. The vibration and resonance that's shared between people is profound and mysterious.

At its core, singing is speech and sound, just elevated. Speaking and singing are different styles and use different mechanics of the body to create them, but at the heart of either song or speech, you always have to be doing something with your words and actions: what does your character want from other people? What do you need?

Ultimately, the best art comes from a place of deep intention and need. A character breaks out into song in a musical when they can’t speak anymore. Same with opera recitative, which is just sung dialogue; they burst into an aria because they need something more than they were getting with just words, so the music opens up into another dimension of communication.

Often I go to the opera and hear beautiful sounds, but I'm not moved by the story because I don’t think they’re playing for anything or going for what they needed. The stakes are incredibly high in opera, and yet often it feels like the drama is forgotten. Fundamentally, we're storytellers through song, but often we as opera singers fall short with our acting. I call myself a singing actor because I think all singers are doing something with their language and sounds. The greatest classical composers knew that. They weren’t just writing beautiful music. Their characters were human beings living out lives full of desires, obstacles, triumphs, failures, love, pain and beauty. Singing has to come from a place of need. If we’re not trying to do something, why sing?

Julian

Julian Loida

MSFO (percussion) 2015

How did you become a percussionist?

I only started doing this a few years ago, but I always loved listening to music. Like before school, I’d listen to the Beatles, in 3rd grade I loved the Sex Pistols, and my parents have amazing taste in music, so I always had the ear for it… I started guitar in 5th/6th grade, quit, then in 8th grade I started bass and drums and taught myself… then I stopped again, played in a rock band called Project 324, recorded, and we really started taking off. We’d be on the St. Louis News, we’d be promoted on radio…we were playing from records and listening to other people.

Then my world changed when I was a sophomore and I found my grandpa’s record collection. I found Gould, Bach, Philip Glass and pretty much fell in love with classical music. It was a whole other world… And then I discovered the St. Louis Youth Symphony… Seeing them was the most amazing thing I’d ever heard. Life changing. I had a calling for classical music….

So I started to learn to read music late sophomore year of high school…I started practicing eight hours a day. Got obsessed with Bach. From there on, I’ve been practicing as much as I can. I ended up getting into the Youth Symphony, quit all the sports I’d played, and started just playing music constantly: practicing, studying, still playing in my rock band, youth symphony, church band, drum set on weekends. Then I started looking at colleges.

Do you think playing so many different genres makes you a better musician?

I’m always working on my sound, time, feel, and musicality, and no matter what genre you’re playing in, those things are most important… and style, understanding what you’re doing [Because I played in Latin band], I was playing maracas and congas, but I was working on my time and feel, and when you play an audition for classical music your time has to be impeccable. So now I have a much stronger sense of time than if I just studied time in a practice room…. So technically [now], I am learning classical music, but everything’s connected; it’s all the same.

If you could only choose one, which would you play?

I’d want to play drum set in a brilliant R&B band… that played various genres [laughs]… I will always use and love drum set. I actually got a scholarship to go to Berklee on it… but I knew I’d go farther on drum set if I studied percussion, to become the musician I wanted to become.

My thing with music is I want to be able to sit here and clap my hands and not have an instrument and be able to make music and groove. It’s just in me. I don’t need an instrument. I’m a walking body of ability. I don’t want to be held back... To me, a musician is someone that can go anywhere. They have the ear and it’s internal… 

So you came here immediately after graduating from Indiana University. What did you think of your first Chautauqua Summer?

It’s so beautiful here, it’s surreal… and you can’t explain it to people, only people who’ve been here can relate... [This environment] allows my mind to open a bit, rest and be engaged… I love being by the water and the flowers and the dogs and the people, and I think one of my favorite things is when you go to eat. You’re just standing in line and everyone is so unique: there’s an opera singer that looks like an opera singer, ceramics people have pottery on them, painters have paint all over their clothes.

And you learn so much about yourself as you see the other artists. I thought we, musicians, were artsy, but artists are artsy. You get this scale of where you are in the artist world beyond just musicians, and I love everyone being so different and unique, in the way they dress, walk, and look. Everyone here is full-bodied into what they do, so you get this sense of what each medium of art breeds inside of them…

And you've gotten to work with many of these artists through Inter Arts collaborations. What interests you about working with other types or artists?

To me it’s about the populist: I want to add someone speaking English to my pieces or the visual arts so everyone can get something out of it, at different levels. To me, it’s all about emotions: your heart or how you feel or getting in touch with how you feel… That’s where the blues musician comes in: how you feel and having people relate, and getting to know yourself and the people around you from expressing these emotions…

And visual arts is so immediate. And when you listen to words you get to tell a story: you can just say love. In music, people might not arrive at that statement. If you say the word love, everyone knows what that means. But, music can support it. You can say love, but how much more beautiful is “love” when you play it with a major 7th? How much more beautiful is someone saying “sad” when you play a minor chord with a picture of a tear or someone crying?

Why was just listening to music ever a thing? Because it really wasn’t. From the beginning, music was used to provide support for a story or dance. And with dance comes theatre, costumes, a story… the different mediums just intensify the message. Listening to music on its own is great and cerebral, but maybe we’ve tilted too far in that direction.

How did you get into collaborations with visual artists?

I got really into visual arts after I took art history, which changed my life. I love art history and visual arts, and I love going to museums… I’m just a visual person. I don’t think I have synesthesia, but I might as well.

… We studied these two Renaissance painters, and how one guy would put Jesus on a horse in the middle and everyone was looking at him and it was really simple and really clear. And then the other would have Jesus and then this windy road in the back and… the message is less clear because it’s more complicated.

That to me is everything, even back in the Renaissance. Take a song or anything: if you make it more complicated, you take away the clearness of the message…. [People] don’t understand that choosing to be simple is a complex thought… I learned these things through visual arts and think about them in everything…

In your Inter Arts performance of the poem "Red Meat," you collaborated with a printmaker, theater director, and opera singer. What was that like?

The first time we did it, we all just let go and saw everyone’s ability and how well we could communicate without words and through our mediums. It immediately brought us all together and made us fall in love with each other… We were all like, “wow, we all get each other don’t we?” We tried talking about this stuff, until we just shut up, used our medium of art, and were striving for this goal of improvising. It was a great experience.

And I’m proud of its effect: we created something people felt. People were captivated for twenty minutes, and we expressed what it means to be an underdog. How this red monstrous child was the victim. Everyone saw him and thought he was ugly and terrible, but he was actually innocent and nice, but was judged for the way he looked, nothing he could control. And it relates to societal problems right now. To put forward energy towards that in a room full of people…

What type of musical work would you like to end up doing?

I would love to be a principal percussionist of an orchestra, and do a lot of community outreach teaching and sharing… to show how all these [genres] are intertwined and that classical musicians aren’t always wearing a coat and tie… and are down to earth, not just someone stuffed in a practice room for hours. They know how to be a human being too. You don’t have to practice classical music in a way that shuts out or shuns popular music or any music.

So as a principal percussionist, you have a community leadership role, and you can work with musicians around there on combining different types of musics: blues, R&B, and everything in between. Combining music together, people together; bringing them together through playing their music together…

Classical is a part of all music…. [I want to] teach the music as an expression of emotion, that you can feel things, and get to know people around you better and feel happier and more in tune with yourself and the world around you.

Given your wide-ranging interests, are you worried about focusing your studies on classical music?

Classical training is not perfect, but it can be really powerful, and the musicians that I love… went to Juilliard, Eastman, or Manhattan, and they’re classically trained, but they just took it with a grain of salt, sometimes. They didn’t shut their ears off to Dr. Dre or Aphex Twin… they didn’t say “I can only listen to Brahms”… I just find that I can play Brahms way better when I study hemiolas in Afro-Cuban music that are way more complicated. If you can do that, and keep your styles in check, Mozart is a piece of cake…

The reason why I do classical music, with the intensity I do, is the way it suffocates your creativity. Because when you suffocate it, it just makes it want to blow up, like explode. When you sit in a room and play quarter notes for an hour, you’re stifling your creativity, but it’s actually just growing like crazy. So when it’s time to be creative, it’s gotta explode like a volcano. [I like to] make all these crazy pieces or say all this stuff I didn’t get to say when I was working on Mozart, or some excerpt where I have to sound like a computer. But it’s the balance that makes each one stronger… being a human being, artist, and a machine.

Check out more of Julian's performances here

James

James Dean Palmer

Theater (directing fellow) 2015

Where are you from, and how did you become a director?

I was born in a small working class town called Ottumwa, Iowa, in a trailer park, and my father was a factory worker and my mother left when I was very young… and by the time I got to high school, I was drinking a lot and doing a lot of drugs and playing in a really great heavy metal band and I was screwing up in school, and I barely graduated high school but I graduated—2.0—and I looked around at all my friends who were 5/10 years older and they were doing the exact same thing… terrible dead end jobs, doing drugs, and this was their life. This was their future.

And I remember thinking, “my god, this can’t be my story.” So I made this crazy decision to go to the community college, and I had no idea what I was doing because no one in my family had gone to college before. Fortunately, while I was there, a friend’s father found out that I was taking classes and he took me under his wing and he said, “I’m gonna get you into the room with all these people so that you can actually do something with your life.” And I remember going to this dinner party for the first time and sitting at the table and thinking, “I don’t even know how to use the forks that are in front of me.”

With his help, I transferred to Simpson College and graduated with a major in theater, and again I had no connections anywhere, and this idea of doing theater was such a foreign idea. I remember asking my professor what I should do and he said, “you should go to Chicago,” and I said, “I don’t even know what that means.” I couldn’t afford to go, I didn’t have any jobs, and he said, “You just have to go and figure it out.”

And it was terrifying, but I went and spent the first year on the floor of my apartment crying every night because I had no idea what the hell I was doing in Chicago. I had some acting training and some lighting design training, so I was trying to do that for the first year, but then I started telling everyone I was a director, and they bought it, and started hiring me to direct plays. Before long I became the artistic director of a theater company and the assistant to the artistic director at Steppenwolf, a nationally renowned theater company.

What an unusual path! How exactly did you start doing theater?

I was involved in high school. I’m always drawn to authenticity and generosity in people, and you tend to have more authentic relationships in theater because of the training and what you’re asked to do. I’m attracted to communities like that.

And I’ve always liked performing. When I was a kid I grew up around motorcycle bikers—my dad was a biker—and all of that is pageantry. Like no one called anyone by their real names, and it was very theatrical. I was raised around a bunch of characters, so it only made sense I would eventually play and now direct a bunch of characters.

Does the community you come from affect your directing work?

I like plays that are dirtier, more working class. I remember when I went to Chicago, everyone was like, “go see a show at Steppenwolf,” and I couldn’t understand why. At no point in my life did people sit around drinking wine on nice sofas in condos; or a man and woman were in a relationship, owned a home, and didn’t have extreme money problems, and when things were bad, they’d drink wine and complain about it and laugh. That’s like all the plays at the major regional theater companies, and all those cultural things didn’t make sense to me; they weren’t my culture growing up. I think that’s part of the reason theater is dying: no one is doing plays about what it’s really like out there.

But I did learn something from those shows: I realized not everyone with money was a bad person, and there was value in hearing those stories, and trying to make the world better not through a revolutionary gesture, but by doggedly focusing on changing the world one person at a time. The artistic director at Steppenwolf knew her audience of suburbanites, so she told their story and tried to slowly, slowly broaden their perspective. But I’m not very good at that. I’m better at loud, aggressive, dirty plays. I’m trying to do quiet, subtle, domestic plays.

Do you want your plays to target audiences like the people you grew up with?

It’s hard because I know that audience doesn’t go see theater, so you have to build an audience if you’re gonna do that. There’s also a case that those communities don’t want theater. Instead, I’m trying to become a more articulate artist. I want clarity—simplicity in storytelling—and how that manifests itself is just a matter of aesthetics.  

But even if you aren't challenging who comes to your shows, do you want to challenge their ideas, and in particular, their politics?

No matter what I do, it’s gonna have a particular political bent. Like the Bratton Late Night Cabaret tonight: I didn’t intend for it to talk about anything important, but ultimately we made something speaking to an idea, just because of who I am as a person.

What graduate school taught me is that you have to listen to those artistic impulses that aren’t politically driven and the politics will come out, but it’s more important to listen to your soul and to follow that, and to follow your feelings because it’s authentic… The way an artist reflects back to their community is by exposing their soul. By understanding your explicit singular experience of the world, I can extrapolate a universal understanding of the world.

Some of the things we love most about theater is technique: how actors stand, pitch, intonation, resonance, suspension, but that’s all technique. Technique is a means to an end, but the question is: to what end? The end has to be an authentic honest reflection of the world around you. I think more people should be thinking and grappling with bigger issues.

What issues specifically would you like to see theater address?

Things we experience as clichéd abstractions: police brutality, homelessness, poverty—mutable issues; and then there are the immutable issues like love, generosity, selflessness, and humility. I like watching mixed martial arts—the most unbridled fighting you can have just shy of being brutal and savage—and I love it for the same reasons that the Romans loved theater, and probably everyone does but doesn’t think about it: we like to watch humans grappling with things infinitely greater than they are. And it’s an athletic sport when it’s done right on stage.

Theater is at its best when it’s asking provocative questions that get under your skin, that you can’t answer but want to… I think it’s dangerous to live an unexamined life. In Young Jean Lee’s Church, they say, “All of the greatest evil that has ever been done in the world has been done by people who are prospering and terrified, just like you.”

You look at Oedipus: he was on a quest for truth. He could have handled all of it behind closed doors, in a dark office room somewhere and then after, never talked about it again. No one finds out, loses their eyes, gets exiled… But Oedipus is grappling with truth, BIG truth, transparency truth—the type we have trouble with in this country: an ugly truth that implicates us and people in power. And we love Oedipus because he has to know the Truth.

As a director, how do you help contemporary audiences find these "Truths" in old "classics?"

I look at it all as new work: you’re doing the play for the moment, and you have to find a way to reactivate the words. The challenge with extant plays is creating a room where everyone is treating it as a new play… You have to find that curiosity for every play and then share it with the audience, invite them into the question. Because it’s in pursuit of the answer that we find out who we are.

Do you have a personal directing style?

Directing is one of the few art forms where you’re completely dependent on the artists you surround yourself with. It’s never “my” play. Some directors, the auteurs, the German Directors, can do that. It creates focus, but it’s hard in the US because you have to find a way to truly collaborate. Some directors are tyrannical and make an excellent show, but everyone has a bad time. But really good directors take all the energy in a room and harness it into a better idea than what any one person could come up with. It’s as hard as governing a town.

How do you harness your actors' strengths?

It’s my job, before I come into the room, to come up with the best questions. I’ll do extensive work on the play, I’ll have it staged, I’ll know what every line means, and I’ll have big questions, [but] when I walk in with the actors, I throw everything else away… like the way I block a scene. You might read a scene thinking it’s a love scene—he’s pursuing her—and then in rehearsal realize she’s trying to move away from him. You figure out something early in the process, but it’s in the not knowing that we learn more about the play. If you’re not open, you’ll miss the bigger thing.

What do you ultimately want audiences to take from your shows?

I’m one of these weird people who believes art should change the world. Entertainment is one thing—and theater should at the very least be entertaining—but I think it should do more than that. And that has to do with where I come from and what my upbringing was like. Theater taught me that I can change my story, and I think that as a theater artist I need to give that back.

I hope someday I’ll be able to go back to Iowa after having gone around the world and learned all these things from great artists and worked with people from places I couldn’t even name when I was growing up, and I can take all of that cultural capital back to Ottumwa and pass it on to the generation of kids who’ve been handed a story that they’re not satisfied with.

My nephews are in that situation. They’ve been handed a story, and it’s very important for me, even though I’m half a country away, to stay in contact with them and to remind them: that doesn’t have to be their story. They can change it; they can do something different. And I think as artists it’s a responsibility that we have; that we hold the mirror up to society. We say this is what it looks like. But good artists will tilt that mirror just a little bit so that you see something you didn’t realize you were looking at before. You look at it from a new perspective. I think that’s our responsibility as artists.

Do you think "changing your story" to become a director was a good choice?

The more challenging you decide to live your life, the more of that life you’ll live. It’s really stupid to pursue a life in theater. It’s the dumbest thing: because you make no money to work with crazy people to do something not everyone is into and you go into debt for it. On paper, it’s the dumbest thing you can do. But I do it because of the question: you’re always in pursuit of things bigger than you. Your soul is a muscle, like empathy, that you have to exercise, and if you’re not exercising your soul, then it’s atrophying. In my hometown, people have just given up on their souls… We try so hard to take care of this stupid body, when we have other more beautiful parts we neglect: the part of us that’s aware that we’re part of everything else. 

Learn more about James' directing work here

Lily-Frances and Esme

Lily-Frances and Esme Cosgrove

Lily-Frances Cosgrove, 16, School of American Ballet (Dance 2012-2016)
Esme Cosgrove, 14, School of American Ballet (Dance 2013-2016)

What made you choose to attend Chautauqua initially, and what made you return?

LILY: I chose Chautauqua because of the small class size and the reputation of the teachers. After such a fulfilling first experience, I returned for four more summers. So many aspects of Chautauqua are completely unmatched by any other place of study — the encouraging and inspiring faculty; the care taken into nurturing each individual artist’s potential; the chance to choreograph, and be choreographed on by other students; the collaboration of different art forms; multiple performance opportunities in an outdoor amphitheater; the artistic, supportive community; and an ever-present passion and love for art and learning that seems to radiate throughout the grounds.

ESME: I initially chose to study at Chautauqua because my older sister Lily had studied there the previous year and had such a wonderful experience. I knew what a small and supportive community of the arts Chautauqua was and that excellent teachers taught at the summer intensive. After attending the program for one year, I was sure that I didn’t want it to be last summer at Chautauqua. The warmth that the atmosphere of Chautauqua gave me was so special and I had learned so many new things from the teachers who taught me. I became so close with the dancers I took class with over the years at Chautauqua and made some memories I know I will never forget. The small class size created a tight bond between all the students and allowed attention to every single dancer from the teachers.

How did the Chautauqua community positively impact your studies?

LILY: The Chautauqua community literally pulses with appreciation and support for not only the arts, but learning in general. To be in such a stimulating, encouraging, and engaged environment had such a positive impact on my motivation to further my studies in dance. The audience’s enthusiasm for the arts is a reminder of why you pursue what you do; it helps you remember how much people truly appreciate your studies. I also developed a greater appreciation for different areas of art, such as music, theater, opera, and visual arts.

ESME: The Chautauqua community is clearly so supportive of every art form, a kind of community that is not very common and that you cannot connect with at just any summer intensive. Performing in front of an audience who cares so much about dance and other art forms was such a wonderful opportunity and gave me confidence while performing. Also, staying in this small and safe institution was such a fun place to be spending everyday with your friends. Even outside the dance studio, there was so much to do and it always made me feel at home. My family and I have returned each year and have enjoyed our stay every summer. My younger sister Ruby attended Pre-Workshop for two summers and danced in Workshop I this past year. Both she and my seven-year-old brother Finn learned to ride bikes during their summers at Chautauqua. It is such a special place for everyone in my family.

What faculty member has had the most impact on you and why?

LILY: I would say that out of all of the amazing teachers who I had the chance to learn from in Chautauqua, Patricia McBride has impacted me the most. Her generous passion and love for not only Balanchine but also teaching has touched me in a way that no other mentor I have ever had the privilege to learn from has. Apart from technique, Patty emphasized the importance of musicality, freedom of movement, and performance quality — all aspects of which she learned from Balanchine himself. One of the most exciting aspects of my summer has been learning roles that Patricia McBride originated; she so meticulously passed down every detail, all while encouraging each dancer to possess her own sense of individuality and artistry. Learning the Balanchine ballet “Who Cares?” from her this past summer was an absolute gift. Her infectious passion for the musicality and nuances, all of which she demonstrated to me, inspired me to push myself beyond my limits and to develop myself further as not only a dancer but an artist. I hope to continue to embody the invaluable lessons and wisdom that Patty so generously passed on to me.

ESME: So many of the teachers had an impact of me but the teacher that impacted me the most was Maris Battaglia. Ms. Maris has loving warmth about her that not many teachers have and you could clearly tell she cared about each and every one of her students. Ms. Maris would always be encouraging me to smile more and she helped me to improve my stage presence as an artist. I enjoyed every one of her classes and had so much fun performing in pieces that she choreographed.

How has your time at CHQ influenced your future goals?

LILY: Ultimately, my dream is to join a professional company and have the opportunity to perform soloist roles. Personally, I believe there is no better program than Chautauqua to catapult a young dancer in this direction. My summers at Chautauqua have been tremendous milestones in my ballet studies, especially the past two summers during which I spent a full seven weeks learning from incredible faculty, choreographing and being choreographed on, and performing in the amphitheater. So much of what I have learned is so vital to a dancer’s growth, yet is nearly impossible to find to the same extent anywhere else. I would say that following a rigorous rehearsal schedule, dancing with Charlotte Ballet company members, learning choreography — especially contemporary — and performing on stage have been the factors that have best prepared me for pursuing a professional career. Such experiences so closely resemble the daily life of a professional dancer, all while still receiving the nurturing support and encouragement of the faculty — a privilege that not all young dancers receive in their training. My time in Chautauqua has not only helped me improve technically, but allowed me to explore who I am as an artist and has solidified my dream to dance professionally.

ESME: My future goal is to hopefully become a dancer in a larger company and being able to have my career as something that I love doing. Dancing in Chautauqua has surely reinforced this goal by showing what a wonderful experience it is to perform on stage and learning so much about dance from such great teachers.

What advice do you have for young dancers attending the program for the first time?

LILY: To be in Chautauqua is an absolute privilege and a gift. Don’t hold yourself back and embrace every second of it. Approach every class and rehearsal with humble enthusiasm, a desire to improve, and an open mind. Be prepared to take chances, push yourself beyond your known limits, and to explore and develop who you are as a dancer. One thing that makes this program so special is that there is no “competition”; every dancer is treated as an individual who has unique talent and expression to offer. And most of all have so much fun. Every year that I have attended, my class has bonded and made incredible memories together. I have made so many amazing friends from all over the country, most of whom I still keep in touch with today. Take advantage of pursuing your art within the most artistically-supportive, appreciative, and stimulating community. You will look back at what you ultimately took away and accomplished from your experience as not only a milestone in your dancing career, but as a milestone in life.

ESME: I would tell young dancers attending the program to appreciate the fact they have been chosen to take part in such an amazing yet selective program and have the opportunity to be taught by the brilliant faculty. You must approach every day expecting challenges ahead of you and with a positive and open mind.

Mira

Mira Williams

MSFO 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017 - Viola

Mira is a 19 year-old violist studying at the New England Conservatory with Kim Kashkashian. She is 2nd place winner of the 17th and 18th Sphinx Competitions. With her Quartet Lumière, she won the gold medal in the junior division of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition (2013). She has participated in master classes with Heidi Castleman, Jeffrey Irvine, Roberto Díaz, and Steven Tenenbom.

What inspired you to choose music as your career?

Whenever I am able to create music with others, I am reminded of the world around me and all that exists beyond the physical world, and that reminder brings me joy. Music has to be part of my life and choosing it as a career will create a medium for that urge.

What made you choose Chautauqua, and why did you return?

I initially chose Chautauqua (in 2013!) because I was studying with Roland and Almita Vamos and knew that they would be teaching there for the summer. Now, I return partly for them, and partly to alleviate my Chautauqua withdrawals.

Is there a faculty member that had a huge impact on you, and how?

Caroline Coade has made my summers so memorable and prosperous. She really knew how to unite our viola studio and we benefitted from that.

What were your favorite performances to do at Chautauqua?

The MSFO performed Christopher Theofanidis’s “Rainbow Body” in 2013 and I’ve never forgotten that.

How has Chautauqua impacted your professional pursuits?

Chautauqua has prepared me for “real life” by treating students like professional musicians who would collaborate and learn from each other, and allowing us to grow into ourselves.

What are your future goals as a professional musician?

I would love to be in a string quartet or a chamber music collective, hopefully doing all kinds of music.

How did you spend your free time at Chautauqua?

I love to bike around in Mayville, go to the farmers market near the front gate, and go to (free!) concerts and events around the institution. Also bingeing on sweet potato fries from Brick Walk!

In your opinion, what makes the Chautauqua Music Festival unique?

I think the whirlpool of events offered at the institution is both challenging and illuminating and could only really exist at a place like Chautauqua. The amount of extracurricular activities offers a welcome change of scenery that can help to alleviate the monotony that can come with summer festivals.

What advice do you have for incoming students?

Bring an umbrella and a bike (if you can!). Leave the confines of the institution and make friends in Mayville/Jamestown! Go to non-School events like lectures or yoga!

Joseph

Joseph Bauer

MSFO 2013, 2016

What inspired you to choose music as your career?

I don't recall there being a different career I saw as an exciting alternative. College was something that was seen as the next step in life, although I think I only had vague intentions of majoring in Business, possibly to secure a job at the business factory. Finding out- rather late in high school-that studying music was a thing that people did was a revelatory moment that brought on a change of how serious I was about playing.

What are you currently studying?

I just last night played for an event a mix of Baroque and Contemporary music, as well as a couple originals, so the last few weeks have been very focused on my solo playing. This week my practicing must return to the low end of orchestral playing, which I am more than happy to do.

Is there any particular moment or event from your summer that stands out?

Being a part of the student led Inter-Arts concert was super fun and exciting. The concert came together really well, and I think we all felt proud that we put it all on ourselves.

Is there a faculty member that had a huge impact on you, and how?

I've worked with Curtis Burris as well as Owen Lee quite a bit now, and they have both had a big impact on me.

How did the Chautauqua community positively impact your studies?

Chautauqua life is easy and beautiful and filled with interesting people and arts and ideas. It is a place where you have the time to grow as a player and as a person, and I think both of those things ends up amplifying the other.

What are your current goals as a professional musician?

My current goals are to become a better musician and bassist and to perform music for a variety of people.

What is your favorite style of music to play?

I like performing music that creates sounds the audience may be unfamiliar with.

In your opinion, what makes the Chautauqua Music Festival unique?

The festival brings together so many different types of artists, which is itself within the Institution which has so much to offer on top of that.

What advice do you have for incoming students?

There are so many performances and events, and lectures and things to do. And of course you also have your own events to prepare for. My philosophy is that the practice shacks will still be there after that lecture and/or a dip in the lake.

Matt

Matt Flanders

MSFO: Percussion (2016, 2017)

Describe your educational background and where you are you currently studying:

I graduated from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) in Houston, TX in 2014, and I’m currently earning my bachelor’s degree in music performance from the University of Miami, Frost School of Music.

Why did you choose to attend Chautauqua?

In addition to the consistently amazing student orchestra at Chautauqua, some of my family lives in the area year round! (I’m seventh-generation Chautauquan!) I’ve been visiting Chautauqua my whole life, and it holds a very special place in my heart. It is such an amazing opportunity for me to finally participate in the MSFO and Percussion Ensemble, and be able to hang-out with my family all season long!

Describe your favorite Chautauqua moment:

For this year’s percussion ensemble concert, we performed a very contemporary piece called “Six Eco-acoustic Quintets” by Matthew Burtner. Each of these short movements were composed for a natural element, such as water, wood, or sand, and were designed to be able to showcase a guest artist who didn’t need any percussion knowledge or background. Our coach for the concert, Matthew Duvall, thought it would be a really cool idea to showcase different artistic and administrative areas of Chautauqua by bringing in iconic figures of the community as guest artists. For the first movement, Water, we asked my grandfather Bill Flanders to play with us and represent the general Chautauqua population, and he gladly agreed! It was such an amazing experience being able to directly share my passion for music with him, and this is a moment I will cherish my whole life.

How did the Chautauqua community positively impact your studies?

As Maestro Timothy Muffitt tells the orchestra on day one, “You don’t know it yet, but everyone in this community already loves you.” I was so surprised when people on the grounds would recognize me and talk to me about a recent concert; it’s completely unexpected and flattering! Chautauqua is such a special place for student musicians, because it puts the human connection and reaction of live classical music on full display. The emotional responses to our performances are tangible! For students who are obsessive about note accuracy, technique, auditions, and careers, it is so easy to overlook the main goal: bringing the music to life for others. Performing at Chautauqua, whether it’s orchestra concerts, chamber concerts, or even just playing in Bestor plaza, is such a rewarding experience, because the community is so receptive and appreciative.

What are your future goals and how has your time at CHQ influenced those plans?

I hope to be playing with a professional symphony orchestra in the future, and spending time at Chautauqua has been such a huge asset. I’ve become good friends with so many like-minded colleagues and professionals, and these relationships will last a lifetime. The music community is surprisingly small, and I have no doubt that I will interact and perform with many MSFO students again!

Roderick

Roderick Cox

MSFO Conducting Fellow 2012

What experiences stand out the most from CHQ? 

I recall the small but warm community in Chautauqua. I remember feeling very close to the patrons who came to concerts. Being invited to dinner and lunches was a common thing. These sorts of gestures go a long way with a young struggling musician. It reduces isolation and gives a place for expression outside of the practice room. I don't think I've experienced that type of embrace from patrons at any other festival, which says a lot about the spirit of Chautauqua.

How did CHQ prepare you for your career?                   

I met Suzanne Shull, a Chautauqua regular, who became one of my closest friends and advocates after leaving Chautauqua. She was a sounding board, a mentor, and a supporter in many ways I couldn't explain. Suzanne and I still remain in touch. When I visit Atlanta, GA I often stay with her, and we share many meals talking about not only Chautauqua but our everyday lives.

Chautauqua was a huge blessing to me and my career at the time. I had just finished a year at home after graduating from Northwestern University. Months would go by since making music with an orchestra. Chautauqua gave me the platform to make music once again, and was a catalyst that helped launch me into my young career as assistant conductor of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra.

Who inspires you?

I seek inspiration from wherever I can. Inspiration comes from having watched Serena Williams play tennis, Jessye Norman sing Wagner, and Barack Obama navigate the office of the presidency. I have been inspired by Christian Sands playing Jazz at the piano and an interview with Simon Rattle. So to answer your question, my source for inspiration is no singular form. I think this helps me with defining myself, and creating my own path from the inspiration of others without trying to emulate.

What would you say to your 22 year old self?

I will tell my 22 year old self to continue to think big and be bold. Never shy away from a challenge but choose your battles carefully. I'm proud to see my 22 year old self make mistakes and navigate this elusive profession, but I would say do more, take time for yourself, read not just books about music. Go traveling outside of work. Also take some vacations that will give time for reflection and forward thinking.

See his feature on NBC News

Calvin

Calvin Brett

Amphitheater, 2017 Sound/Assemblage

School of Visual Art: Sculpture (2017)

Describe your educational background and where you are you currently studying:

I did a year at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; right now I’m getting ready to apply to Cal Arts and The Art Institute of Chicago.

Why did you choose to attend Chautauqua?

I thought I’d be challenged, have the opportunity to create a new body of work, and was hoping to learn from the outlook that I imagined residents of Chautauqua would have.

How did the Chautauqua community positively impact your studies?

One of the residents told me they all considered themselves students. That was pretty huge. In the past I found being a student meant that people didn’t take me seriously. The notion that all of these incredibly smart and successful people actually consider themselves students really put things in a better perspective for me.

Blind Americana, 2017 (bedsprings, cans, fake flowers, Aluminum) on Wall frame created during Chautauqua Residency

What is your favorite medium to work with?

My favorite medium to work with is Assemblage. ​While in the past I considered myself a painter, after becoming interested in the physical properties of canvas, I found greater possibilities to express through attaching things to the surface.  

Describe your favorite Chautauqua moment:

Watching the sunrise by the lake. Being told a sculpture I worked on for weeks was too heavy then completely remaking it (better) in one night. Constantly being challenged by peers. Thinking I was onto something only to find out I really wasn’t.

What are your future goals and how has your time at CHQ influenced those plans?

When I first applied I wanted to be represented by Zwirner Gallery. Through conversations with peers and some of the practicing artists, my understanding of contemporary art has grown. Having to dispose all my work in the end showed me the value of making disposable work. While at CHQ I realized, Instillations and the visibility of street art may have greater immediate impact on society. Zwirner Gallery or not, I hope to use art as a vehicle for both social justice and a way to explore the potential of creativity.

Grace, 2015 (clothes that didn't fit into my backpack tied to my old box spring before moving out of my mother’s house)

What social justice issues are most important to you and how do you see your art influencing that?

As a proletariat African American coming of age under both an Obama and Trump presidency, I feel tired of being seen as the boogie man when the sun goes down; tired of being considered the bad guy when I walk into a store or I decide to wear a hood to stay warm. Universal Education and healthcare would personally do me best, but coming from having little has also taught me appreciate the wonders of the natural world. The notion of protecting our environment is very important to preserving our freedom to explore what I consider the highest form of creativity: creation itself. 

Through creating from the entropy of society, moving forward I hope to make work which reflects on these issues facing our contemporary world. By placing these artworks (sanctioned or not) on public and gallery sites, I hope to raise the awareness of what I'm for rather than what I'm against. Hopefully in expressing positive ideas like higher education for all in surprising ways, people will agree and get behind turning them into reality.

Ryan

Ryan McCreary

Dance (Apprentice) 2017
Ryan spent an incredible summer at Chautauqua honing her technique and performance skills in the nurturing environment of the School of Dance. After finishing her senior year at Indiana University, Ryan will be joining Boston Ballet II for the 2018-2019 season.

Where did you receive your early training and where are you currently studying?
I started my training at a very early age at Mason Dance Center, which is where I fell in love with dancing! When I was 11, I began training with Oliver Arana at Northern Cincinnati Youth Ballet (NCYB), which is where I was first exposed to ballet training on a professional level. The years spent here solidified my dream to be a part of a ballet company one day. Now I am currently going to be a senior at Indiana University in the Jacob’s School of Music ballet program.

Have you attended any other summer dance programs and how does CHQ compare?
I’ve attended summer programs at Ballet Chicago, The Art of Classical Ballet, Northern Cincinnati Youth Ballet, and School of American Ballet as well as Chautauqua. However, the opportunities that Chautauqua offered the students have been unparalleled. Not only do you receive extensive training in both classical and contemporary technique, ballet classes, pointe classes, etc., but you also get to learn and rehearse incredible repertoire that you would rarely have the chance to work on, especially at a young age. Also, the amount of performance experience you receive at this summer program is amazing. Unlike most summer programs, you constantly get the chance to perform. Similar to a professional life, these opportunities allow to you to improve, and to learn to love it more every time.

What faculty member influenced you the most this summer?
I would say Patricia McBride influenced me the most this summer. It’s amazing, because normally summer intensives will grow you technically, perhaps grow you artistically, but Mrs. McBride reminded me to find the joy in being able to dance at all. She constantly reminded us to “let our spirit shine through” and to enjoy it always. She would always encourage us by saying that she didn’t care how perfect our technique was during a performance, even though that’s what we work so hard for in classes in rehearsals, as long as we had fun and the audience could see that there was nothing else we would rather be doing at that moment than dancing on that stage. It made me grateful to be dancing every single piece with the amount of excitement that it brought. I absolutely loved learning to find the joy in the movement whether it was just a little thing or something really difficult, it made everything so fun! This is something that you don’t often learn at a summer program, and I think it’s the kind of lesson that will help keep you healthy physically and mentally for a long, long time.

Did you see any shows in the Amp? What was your favorite and why?
I saw every show that was at the Amp! My favorite performance was probably the Charlotte Ballet show. They performed a Mark Diamond piece, Sasha Janes’ “Shelter”, and Minus 16. It was an incredible performance! Each ballet was completely different from the one before, and gave the audience a completely different feel. Closing the show with Minus 16 specifically left the audience totally amazed and wanting so much more! I loved it, and remember thinking to myself, “Wow, this is definitely what I want to do with my life."

How did it feel to be the only student asked to perform in the Alumni Gala?
I was completely star struck! Right from the start I was honored to have even been considered to perform in the show alongside experienced, mature, professional principal dancers. However, I was surprised to see how I was impacted and moved by the littlest things. For example, I was able to go to dinner with them and work in the studio alongside them, and spending that time learning from them taught me so much about how to choose joy, positivity and humility always. Ballet challenges your character so much, and seeing the kind and thoughtful people they were not only on stage, but behind the scenes as well, was one of my favorite parts. The performance itself was one of the most fun times I’ve ever had on stage! I love to dance so much, and the moments you get to collectively give and share everything you are with the audience is a vulnerable, but exhilarating place to be. I was so honored to have had the opportunity to do that alongside those six dancers. It was one of the most treasured experiences!

What are your future career plans and how has CHQ helped you on your path?
I’ll be auditioning for companies this spring! Chautauqua has solidified to me how much it is worth it to work hard through the audition process, be okay with the rejection, and to continue giving everything you have until you get a job and dance professionally. The audition process is tough, but the joy of being able to dance makes it fully worth it. The teachers at Chautauqua always inspire, encourage, and fully believe in every individual dancer. Personally I have felt completely supported in my efforts to go out and audition for different companies, and through the incredible connections built at this summer program I have also how been given opportunities I would not have had if I hadn’t attended the program. I am so grateful!

What was your favorite moment of the summer?
My favorite moment of the summer would definitely be the Alumni performance, it was incredible to be able to have that experience and left me completely inspired!

Karin and Xing

Karin Theobald and Xing Gao

Two MSFO students share their most memorable experiences of summer 2018. While both students fully participated in the Music Festival programming, they each found different ways to enjoy everything that Chautauqua has to offer. From taking classes in other artistic disciplines to exploring the beauty of Chautauqua’s lakeside peace, Chautauqua allows students the freedom to make the summer experience their own.

Karin Theobald (MSFO Violin 2018) is currently a sophomore violin performance major at the Eastman School of Music, studying under Prof. Renée Jolles.

Xing Gao (MSFO Harp 2018) recently finished her undergraduate degree in Harp Performance and Italian Studies at Bard College and is currently pursuing a Master’s of Music at Rice University Shepherd School of Music. She played piano prior to starting her musical training on harp playing at age nine in China.

In your opinion, what makes the Chautauqua Music Festival unique?

KARIN: At Chautauqua I had the opportunity to grow as an orchestral, chamber and solo musician. In particular, I loved how everyone was motivated to work hard. I enjoyed the intense chamber week, where my quartet prepared the entire string quartet by Dvorak. I also enjoyed playing in an orchestral environment that was so respectful, yet professional in demand. I think what makes Chautauqua unique is the communal environment, that has the students feel very close to one another and support each other. I remember many of my friends attending my performances and masterclasses, which display the supportive atmosphere at Chautauqua. The high level of faculty inspired to do my best, and although I worked hard, I enjoyed every moment.
XING: I think Chautauqua is a place where you can get a very close relationship with not only your mates in the festival, but also with the local people from Chautauqua area. Everyone in this community enjoyed music so much, they were so kind and willing to talk to you.

How did you spend your free time outside of the Music Festival’s rigorous rehearsal and performance schedule?

KARIN: I remember that meal times were one of the most important bonding experiences that I had at Chautauqua. I was able to get to know various students of different backgrounds, studying at different conservatories and playing different instruments. It was an important time of the day to socialize and interchange experiences and information. Other than that, I remember taking walks, riding my bike and drinking milkshakes with my friends. I also spent time with my "connections sponsor". She was so generous and supportive. She even brought me cupcakes for my birthday!
For me personally the access to ballet classes was an unexpected treat. I attended open classes and enjoyed watching the dance performances as well. It was amazing being able to meet and interact with the dance faculty although I was not part of the dance program.

How was your experience with the Chautauqua Connections program?

XING: It was excellent. Ms. Carol was my connection at Chautauqua and she is absolutely such a sweet-heart lady. We contact each other very often and would hang out at least twice a week. She took me to church services, to local restaurants, grocery shopping, we went to see concerts together, and she invited me to her house a lot. I am really happy that I had her as my connection at Chautauqua!
(Read more about the Connections program here>>)

How did you spend your free time outside of the Music Festival’s rigorous rehearsal and performance schedule?
XING: I would workout with my friends from the orchestra program. We had a group chat named “Insanity” because we followed a workout video and would workout crazily every day. We went to the docks on the lake very often. I loved lying on the dock and watching stars during the night, it was very beautiful and I was amazed by nature.I was invited by my connection to play some harp music for a Christian church service on Sunday morning. I always wanted to play harp for church service, but I have never done that before in my life. Chautauqua gave me the first chance to do that in the States.

What advice would you give to an incoming student?

XING: Enjoy your free time with other people! Practice is important, but now I realize better how communication with different people can make your life much happier and meaningful. I would say that Chautauqua is a nice place where you can make your own plan, find your inner peace, but also a place you can enjoy being with others or being with beautiful nature.
KARIN: I would advise an incoming student to take all the opportunities that they are presented at Chautauqua. There are so many concerts and events to attend; in fact, I was not able to attend everything I would have liked to. I would recommend that students also explore the other arts at Chautauqua. This could include attending dance performances, lectures, or art exhibitions.