Stuart Chafetz: Celebrating the CSO's New Principal Pops Conductor

11/19/19 • 38 min

Our guest this episode is Stuart Chafetz, the longtime principal timpanist of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra who has just been named as the ensemble’s first-ever principal pops conductor. A well-known and cherished presence on the Chautauqua Institution grounds each summer, Chafetz has made annual appearances on the podium for the ensemble’s Independence Day Pops Concert and the late-season collaboration with the Chautauqua Opera Company’s Young Artists. More recently, he has also served as a conductor for the orchestra’s live performances accompanying film presentations, beginning in 2019 with “Star Wars: A New Hope,” and continuing with “The Empire Strikes Back,” on Aug. 15, 2020.

Chafetz also serves as principal pops conductor of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, and is newly appointed as the principal pops conductor of the Marin Symphony. A conductor celebrated for his dynamic and engaging podium presence, he is increasingly in demand with orchestras across the continent.

Chafetz joined Chautauqua Vice President of Performing and Visual Arts Deborah Sunya Moore for a phone conversation shortly before the announcement of his new appointment at Chautauqua.

Chafetz joined Chautauqua Vice President of Performing and Visual Arts Deborah Sunya Moore for a phone conversation shortly before the announcement of his new appointment at Chautauqua.

Previous Episode

The State of the Climate and Environmental Movement with Bill McKibben

Our guest this episode is author, environmentalist and activist Bill McKibben, whose 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change. He is also a founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement, which has organized 20,000 rallies around the world. A former staff writer for The New Yorker, McKibben writes frequently for a variety of publications around the world, including The New York Review of Books, National Geographic and Rolling Stone. He is the author of more than a dozen books; his latest, published in April, is Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?

McKibben joined John Merino for an in-studio conversation shortly after he delivered his Aug. 15 lecture in the Chautauqua Amphitheater as part of a week themed “Shifting Global Power.”