This summer at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour, PBS and Chautauqua Institution announced the production of a new one-hour documentary film, Chautauqua at 150: Wynton Marsalis’ All Rise, to air on PBS in early 2025.
Produced by the award-winning production company Black Robin Media, Chautauqua at 150: Wynton Marsalis’ All Rise will tell the institution’s story through the voices of its current patrons and partners, including those who have spoken and performed from Chautauqua’s iconic stages over the past several years.
Chautauqua Institution, founded in the late 19th century as a place for Americans to make purposeful use of leisure time, has dedicated itself to using arts and education to elevate the discussions that have transformed our nation throughout its history. Through musical performances, original filming, archival footage, photos, and interviews, Chautauqua at 150: Wynton Marsalis’ All Rise will artistically explore the impact that the Chautauqua Institution has had in providing a critical platform for some of the most thought-provoking, challenging, and often uplifting conversations in America and beyond.
The documentary is centered around a new production of “All Rise,” written by award- winning trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis. Originally premiered in 1999, this jazz symphony will be performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO) with Wynton Marsalis as well as a symphonic orchestra and choir.
Known best for its nine-week Summer Assembly, Chautauqua Institution serves more than 100,000 patrons annually with programs and services designed to inspire a love for learning across a lifetime and generations, both during the summer months and year-round.
The historic community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state was described by then President Theodore Roosevelt as, “typical of America at its best.”
“As America’s largest stage, we’re thrilled for PBS audiences to experience this unique and uplifting story about the power of the arts and its ability to bring us together,” said Sylvia Bugg, Chief Programming Executive and General Manager of General Audience Programming, PBS. “Chautauqua is one of America’s premiere destinations for arts education and in presenting this film together, we hope to enrich millions of Americans with thought provoking dialogue and performances.”
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO) with Wynton Marsalis will be in residence at Chautauqua during the final week of its 150th anniversary season, August 17-25, 2024. Chautauqua President Michael E. Hill, Ed.D. says the program will bring the ensemble to homes across the country.
“People often describe Chautauqua as Disneyland for PBS watchers or NPR listeners, and that’s actually a good way of describing what we do and who we serve,” Hill said. “We are honored and grateful that Paula and her team found our story and our vision for the future compelling enough to share it with their national audience which includes many of the people who we consider patrons of Chautauqua. To lift up Wynton’s work in our 150th anniversary year underscores Chautauqua’s historic convening power in a truly special way.”
In addition to performing three evenings during that week, Marsalis will also speak twice on the Institution’s morning lecture platform, the Chautauqua Lecture Series. Chautauqua’s partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center also features two special performances of Marsalis’s seminal work, “All Rise”, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.
Chautauqua Chief Program Officer Deborah Sunya Moore says the performance of “All Rise” will be a metaphor for both Chautauqua and Jazz at Lincoln Center’s missions, which both center on the transformative power of the arts.
“These very special performances of ‘All Rise’ will include Chautauqua’s Music School Festival Orchestra, which is composed of 80 young musicians enrolled in the Chautauqua School of Music. Joining them will be the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus and guest vocalists alongside the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, creating an intergenerational performance of this important work,” Moore said. “In the amphitheater and out in the world, Chautauqua continues to bring many voices and perspectives together at a time when we find ourselves moving further apart. Amplifying voices of thought leaders such as Wynton is why we exist to challenge each other’s thinking, inspire community curiosity, and convene the conversation with grace and conviction. That is how we will rise together.”
In addition to capturing the performance for inclusion in the documentary, Black Robin Media will also produce a full-length version of the “All Rise” performance for streaming. Marsalis’ All Rise is an epic twelve-part composition for big band, gospel choir, and symphony orchestra. The work examines the global commonalities in music across culture, time and circumstance: from New Orleans brass bands to clave and samba, to church music and Chinese parade bands, the Italian aria, and more. Movements I to IV concentrate on the themes of birth and self-discovery; the second four movements grapple with mistakes, pain, sacrifice and redemption. The last four movements are concerned with maturity and joy. In sum, the piece demonstrates the many facets of human experience.