Events for Our 2023 Season

June 11 – The 16th Annual Young Musicians Series

7:00 PM, Historic Kupferle Chapel

The Chautauqua Historical Society is pleased to present the 16th Annual Young Musicians Series featuring violinist Hava Polinsky.

Hava is an accomplished violin player who has been playing violin since she was five years old and recently received her Master’s of Music from The Juilliard School.

She has an amazing musical resume and we are extremely fortunate to have her play at Chautauqua this summer.

Read more about her accomplished career in her bio at the National Arts Diversity Integration Association web site (https://www.nadiaconnects.org/rehearsal-in-progress) and get a preview of her incredible talent on her YouTube Page (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvcdT6V_xoY).

We continue to be grateful for our longstanding partnership with Vera Parkin of the Community Music School of Webster University, who makes this concert and series possible.

July 2 – Nineteenth Annual Platform Lecture

E.J. Neafsey: Marquette and Jolliet’s Voyage to the Mississippi in 1673 –  350 Years Ago – (in their own words!)

7:00 PM, Auditorium

E.J. Neafsey will speak about the The Jolliet and Marquette Expedition of 1673-1675 on the 350th anniversary of that voyage. The story of these events will be told in the words of the Jesuit Relations, annual reports sent back to Paris by the Jesuit missionaries in New France at that time.

His talk will include a description of 17th century North America, brief introductions of Marquette and Jolliet, a detailed description of their 1673 voyage, and explorations of Jolliet’s trip to the Governor of New France in Montreal in 1674 and Marquette’s final trip to the Illinois village of Kaskaskia (Starved Rock). “In their own words” refers to the fact that Neafsey will quote extensively from Marquette’s journals and other Jesuit Relations documents and from a letter by Jolliet.

We look forward to learning more about this important expedition that passed by the site of our Chautauqua three and a half centuries ago.

E. J. Neafsey was born in Chicago. He graduated from Loyola University Chicago and then went to UCLA where he obtained his PhD in Anatomy/Neuroscience. He was a professor at Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine for 33 years, teaching and doing research in neuroscience. He retired in 2012. He has spent many years doing prairie restoration at Wolf Road Prairie in Westchester. And, after high school he spent nine years as a Jesuit seminarian.

August 6 – Tim Tomlinson: Piasa Chautauqua: Founders & Founding Principles

7:00 PM, Chautauqua Town Hall

Tim Tomlinson, long-time CHS president, will speak about his research into the founders and founding principles of Piasa Chautauqua.

August 12 – Jöstlein Family Band

6:30 PM, Kupferle Chapel

The incredibly talented Jöstlein Family (Thomas and Tricia with sons Klaus, and Max) will perform a concert for the Chautauqua community in the Kupferle Chapel, accompanied by pianist Vera Parkin, who has frequently accompanied musicians at Chautauqua.

Thomas has served as the Associate Principal Horn player for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra since 2010, has toured to North Korea with the NY Philharmonic, and recorded with Tony Bennett. Tricia is also an accomplished horn player, with the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis and the St Louis Symphony Orchestra among others. Klaus is a violin player with the SLSO Youth Orchestra , JazzU at the Bistro, and soloed on “Schindler’s List” with the SLUH orchestra in Rome. Max plays cello, and has performed at Powell Hall, and in Germany, Aspen and Boulder.

The concert will include a wide variety of music ranging from classical to jazz, including several art songs that Tricia and Thomas will record for a CD in September.