Evan Meccarello is known for fostering new classical music initiatives and serving communities in the Northeast with great music. He is Founder and Director of the Hochstein Alumni Orchestra in Rochester, NY and Conductor of the Thames Valley Youth Symphony in New London, CT. Additionally, he serves as Assistant Conductor of the Nazareth University Symphony Orchestra.
Meccarello’s conducting experience spans professional, collegiate, youth, and community ensembles. Summer 2018 included performances with professional orchestras in Ukraine, while the 2017-18 season included appearances with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. Meccarello conducted The Nutcracker with the Ithaca Ballet and was a repeat guest conductor with the Finger Lakes Symphony Orchestra. Other ensembles he has worked with include the University at Buffalo Symphony Orchestra, University of Toledo Symphony Orchestra, Toledo Youth Symphonic Orchestra, Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra, Berlin-Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra (Berlin, Germany), and the Hochstein Youth Symphony Orchestra. He has made appearances as guest conductor and clinician at middle and high schools around the Rochester area.
Meccarello has led the Hochstein Alumni Orchestra (HAO) in world-premiere performances of Rochester composers and showcased talented musicians in a concert tour of the region. Members of HAO have been winners in international contests, received mention by music critic Alex Ross in The New Yorker magazine, and have gone on to play with professional orchestras including the Detroit Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, and Fort Worth Symphony. Multiple livebrecordings of HAO have been featured on WXXI-FM’s Performance Rochester broadcast series.
Meccarello’s training in conducting has included classes with the most sought-after teachers in America, including Larry Rachleff, Benjamin Zander, David Effron, and Kenneth Kiesler. He has had opera conducting training in Verona, Italy and Berlin, Germany. He holds a Master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting from Bowling Green State University, where he led performances with the university’s Philharmonia, Choral Society, and was music director for a one-act opera with the New Music Ensemble. He also conducted on the long-running festival of the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music.
As Vice President of the Keuka Lake Music Festival and a radio host for Soundspace on WAYO-LP in Rochester, Meccarello brings national-level chamber music and contemporary classical music to listeners in Western New York. As a violinist, Meccarello has taught private students from age five to
sixty-five. As soloist, he won Nazareth University's concerto competition in both his first and third years of undergraduate study. Uptown Tango is his ongoing project playing Argentine tango for dancers in clubs throughout the region.
School of Music Responsibilities
Education