The Weekend of Chamber Music returns this summer with a festival that pairs classical masterworks and contemporary compositions while inviting audiences to reflect on questions of compassion, justice and what people owe one another.
The festival’s 2026 theme, “My Brother’s Keeper?“, draws its title from the biblical question, using the punctuation intentionally to encourage reflection rather than provide answers.
“We thought it would be nice to spend two weekends plus two Thursdays kind of basking in music that reminds us of the power of emotional connection,” said co-artistic director Andrew Waggoner. “It asks questions about social connection. And of course it does it all through music, which is abstract. So there’s no preaching. There’s no sermonizing.”
The opening weekend features performances on modern instruments familiar to most concertgoers. The second weekend shifts to period instruments—configured as they would have been during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries—offering audiences a different listening experience.
“The sounds are quite different,” Waggoner said. “The music comes alive in a way that it doesn’t always on what we call modern instruments.”
He explained that period instruments are defined less by when they were built than by how they are set up, including the strings, bows and overall construction.
“It’s a little bit like being able to step into a time machine,” he said.
Music tied together by a common theme
While the repertoire spans different eras, Waggoner said the programs are united by ideas of compassion, responsibility and social justice.
Some works explicitly address those themes, while others evoke them through their emotional character.
The title “My Brother’s Keeper?” references the question posed in the Old Testament after Cain kills Abel.
“The question remains: What is our responsibility to each other?” Waggoner said.
He said the theme emerged from a desire to create space for reflection during a period when social norms and ideas about community responsibility have been challenged.
“I think that one thing that’s clear is that norms of behavior and norms around social responsibility—what we owe to our communities, what we owe to our friends and family, what we owe to people we disagree with—are all shifting,” he said. “The concerns, of course, are universal. Nobody, regardless of how you voted is immune to this.”
Beyond the concerts
A hallmark of the Weekend of Chamber Music is its effort to bring audiences into the creative process.
In addition to concerts, the festival offers open rehearsals, pre-concert talks and artist conversations, allowing attendees to observe musicians as they prepare performances.
“People really dig being able to be a fly on the wall while musicians are rehearsing,” Waggoner said.
He said the format helps remove some of the mystery that often surrounds classical music.
Concerts are presented in intimate venues where performers and audiences share the same floor, creating a closer connection between musicians and listeners.
“We’re just people making music together,” he said.
Composer-in-residence Trevor Weston
This year’s composer-in-residence is Trevor Weston, whose work frequently explores themes of social justice, racial history, oppression and liberation while remaining rooted in musical expression.
Audiences will have an opportunity to meet Weston during a Thursday evening conversation at Catskill Art Space, where he will discuss his work and hear performances of several solo and duo compositions.
Saturday’s concert will feature two of Weston’s works for string quartet, including one for string quartet and narrator based on the African American folk tale of liberation, The People Could Fly.
Welcoming newcomers
While longtime classical music enthusiasts return each year, Waggoner said many of the festival’s regular attendees did not come from a classical music background. He hopes newcomers will simply remain open.
“I think the single best thing that can happen is that you open yourself to an experience that may be unfamiliar to you and that you are changed by it,” he said.
Image: Trevor Weston, Composer in Residence at Weekend of Chamber Music 2026. (Bill Cardoni)