From October 1 to 4, the University of Rochester and Eastman School of Music will be awash with the sights and sounds of Meliora Weekend. A combination of homecoming, reunion, and parents and family weekend, this Rochester tradition gives students and families, alumni, community members, faculty, staff, and distinguished guests countless ways to celebrate the start of a new year.

At Eastman, it’s an opportunity to showcase the exceptional talents of our students, faculty, and alumni through a series of concerts across our many world-class stages.

Eastman Presents: Alarm Will Sound – Homecoming
Friday, October 2, 2026 | 8:00 p.m. | Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre

In 2026, Alarm Will Sound (pictured above) is celebrating its 25th anniversary and first Grammy Award. Capping off a momentous year, the contemporary chamber ensemble returns to Eastman to kick off Meliora Weekend in Kodak Hall with a new album.

New Acoustica features the work of visionary artists who have reshaped the landscape of electronic music, including the pioneering British composer and DJ Aphex Twin, Colombian experimental artist Lucrecia Dalt, and Alarm Will Sound’s own percussionist and composer Chris Thompson, among many others. The result is a “kaleidoscopic journey through contemporary electronic sound, transformed for live acoustic performance,” the ensemble says.

To learn more about Alarm Will Sound’s path from the practice rooms at Eastman to the forefront of American music and the Grammy stage, read our recent article. This ticketed event is part of the Eastman Explores America series and is generously supported by the Elizabeth Ward Chicares ’86 Distinguished Visiting Artist Program.

Morning Chamber Music
October 3, 2026 | 11:30 a.m. | Hatch Recital Hall

This year’s Morning Chamber Music, in the intimate setting of Hatch Recital Hall, offers a pairing of works that may be unfamiliar to many listeners: Mikhail Glinka’s Grand Sextet and Reinhold Glière’s Duo for Violin and Cello. For Assistant Professor of Violin YooJin Jang, director of the program, the contrast between the two makes for an especially compelling concert. “Both pieces have such a warm, lyrical, and romantic character, but they express it in very different ways,” she says. “I think that makes for a particularly interesting and engaging program.”

The concert will also bring together a uniquely varied group of musicians with Eastman connections. Jang will perform Glinka’s sextet with her Eastman colleagues Mikhail Kopelman and Phillip Ying ’91E, ’92E (MM), Eastman alumna and cellist Keiko Ying ’01E, ’04E (MM), ’09E (DMA), guest pianist Elizaveta Kopelman, and Eastman double bass student Gregory Galand. For Glière’s duo, Eastman colleague Robin Scott and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Principal Cellist Ahrim Kim will take to the stage.

That spirit of collaboration is part of what makes Meliora Weekend particularly meaningful to Jang. “I love that this concert brings together faculty, alumni, students, and guest artists, and gives us a chance to simply enjoy making music together,” she says. “I hope the concert will be a joyful part of the weekend and that the audience will enjoy discovering these beautiful works as much as we enjoy performing them.”

MORNING CHAMBER MUSIC: Professor YooJin Jang performs with colleagues and students in Hatch Recital Hall. Photo Credit: Henry Foster.

Tuba Mirum, A Celebration of Cherry Beauregard
October 3, 2026 | 2:30 p.m. | Kilbourn Hall

This year’s Meliora Weekend will bring the Eastman community together to celebrate the life and legacy of Cherry Beauregard ’63E (MM), ’70E (DMA), who died September 14, 2025.

Beauregard left his mark on Rochester both as a performer and an educator. He served as principal tubist of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra for 35 years and joined the Eastman faculty in 1972, teaching tuba until his retirement in 1996. During his tenure, he founded Tuba Mirum, Eastman’s ensemble for tuba and euphonium students, creating a musical home for an instrument whose voice is rarely heard in such a prominent ensemble setting.

“Our first Tuba Mirum concert of the academic year is significant in that we will be celebrating the life and career of Cherry Beauregard,” says Associate Professor of Tuba and Euphonium Justin Benavidez, now director of Tuba Mirum. “Through his decades of teaching at Eastman, Cherry developed the tuba studio into one of the finest studios in the world, resulting in many professional performers and music teachers.”

More than five decades after its founding, Tuba Mirum will honor Beauregard’s impact and legacy with a chamber music program featuring several of his former students—a fitting tribute during a weekend that brings generations of Eastman alumni back to campus.

TUBA MIRUM: Professor Benavidez plans to honor former faculty member Cherry Beauregard during this year’s Meliora Weekend concert. Photo Credit: Matt Wittmeyer.

Eastman School Symphony Orchestra
October 3, 2026 | 7:30 p.m. | Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre

The Eastman School Symphony Orchestra (ESSO) will continue Meliora Weekend with a program that moves from Beethoven’s dramatic Egmont Overture to Vaughan Williams’ 4 Hymns for tenor, solo viola, and strings, before culminating in Dvořák’s expansive Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.”

For Professor of Conducting & Ensembles Neil Varon, choosing the repertoire for Eastman’s opening concerts is about more than simply matching music to an event. “It is a daunting task to plan a concert without any prior knowledge of how the orchestras will react and play any of the repertoire,” says Varon, who has been leading ESSO and Eastman Philharmonia concerts for more than 20 years.

That’s where his experience comes in. After so many years of working with Eastman’s student orchestras, Varon says he has a good sense of “what they will like and what they can technically play.” But he doesn’t rely on that knowledge alone when choosing the repertoire. “Rather than base my choice on theory,” he says, “I tend to try to appreciate the emotional moment and let them enjoy playing these important pieces” in what is, for many students, “the most spectacular venue they have ever played in.”

He is thinking especially of the first-year students, for whom Meliora Weekend offers an early opportunity to perform before a large audience in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. “As an added benefit, having so many parents in attendance makes the Meliora experience even more special,” Varon adds.

EASTMAN SCHOOL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: Professor Varon has led the student orchestras for more than 20 years. Photo Credit: Matt Wittmeyer.

Eastman Chorale
October 4, 2026 | 3:30 p.m. | Kilbourn Hall

Visiting Professor of Conducting & Ensembles Donald Nally takes the lead for his first concert as interim director of choral activities following the retirement of William Weinert.

The packed program, titled Shepherd, takes its name from the final work, a haunting 2003 setting of Psalm 23 by Estonian composer Toivo Tulev for treble voices, strings, and piano. Along the way, Nally leads the Chorale through works by Lang, Schütz, Bach, and others, accompanied by strings, oboe, and student Dominic Fiacco on keyboards. “The journey is stylistically and poetically widely varied,” Nally says.

That journey moves from Bach’s early 18th-century cantata Aus der Tiefen, rufe ich (Out of the depths, I cry), which captures the “longing, hope, and waiting” of Psalm 130, through Heinrich Schütz’s 17th-century Ich bin ein rechter Weinstock (I am the true vine), which bridges the Renaissance and Baroque. Contemporary works bring the program into the present, from Natalia Tsupryk’s Kyiv, inspired by the sounds and tensions of air raids, to three works by David Lang exploring how we treat and perceive “The Other.” Together, Nally says, the works trace “a journey of determination—from insistence to acceptance.”

EASTMAN CHORALE: Professor Nally will take the reigns for his first concert as interim director of choral activities. Photo Credit: Mint Lu.

Beyond these featured performances, Meliora Weekend offers many more opportunities to experience the breadth of musical activity at Eastman. The weekend includes a First-Year Wind Quintet Chamber Concert on Sunday, October 4, at 11:30 a.m. in Howard Hanson Hall, followed by the Valenza Horn Recital at 1:30 p.m. in Hatch Recital Hall. The recital features instruments from the historic horn collection of Eastman alumnus Charles R. Valenza ’50E, ’53E (MM)—31 horns dating from the 18th to the 21st century. Both concerts are free and open to the public.

From world-class ensembles and celebrated alumni to first-year students taking the stage for the first time, Meliora Weekend offers a remarkable cross-section of the people and music that make Eastman special. Whether you’re returning to campus, discovering Eastman for the first time, or simply looking for great music, there’s a place for you in the audience. Register online to join us October 1–4 and experience the music, energy, and community of Meliora Weekend at Eastman.