October 28, the Juilliard School of Music, created through a merger of the Institute of Musical Art and the Juilliard Graduate School, received its charter from New York State. The two schools shared a common board of directors and president but retained their distinct identities until their complete merger as a single institution in 1946. William Schuman became president of the combined schools in 1945 and completed the amalgamation into one institution, the Juilliard School of Music.

October 31, more than 400 students from the Institute of Musical Art attended a Halloween party and dance. Prizes were awarded for the best fox-trot, waltz, and jitterbug.

Alumna Hei-Kyung Hong and Otto-Werner Mueller with the Juilliard Orchestra, October 1988. (Photo by Gili Melamed) October 7, Otto-Werner Mueller and the Juilliard Orchestra opened the orchestra's third season of concerts at Avery Fisher Hall with performances of Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28, by Richard Strauss and Symphony No. 5, Op. 100, by Sergei Prokofiev. Soprano Hei-Kyung Hong, a Juilliard alumna, made a special guest appearance, performing three arias: "Deh vieni, non tardar," Susanna's aria from Act IV of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro; "Depuis le jour" from Charpentier's Louise; and "Puskai pogibnu ya" from the Letter Scene, Act I, Scene 2 from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.

Beginning in October, Juilliard's third-year drama class participated in an exchange with students from the Conservatory Lenino Prospectas in Vilnius, Lithuania, also in their third year of training. October 4, a Lithuanian group of 11 drama students and two professors arrived in New York for a three-week visit that focused on studies of Tennessee Williams and American musical theater techniques. In November Juilliard students visited Lithuania for three weeks to study the plays of Anton Chekov.

Jeni Dahmus is Juilliard’s archivist.