The Omaha Symphony and Music Director Thomas Wilkins perform at the Holland Performing Arts Center in Omaha, January 16, 2021. Photo by Anna Reed
Since its first concert on March 29, 1921, the Omaha Symphony has grown “from 50 musicians to 42 core full-time members, 28 contract players and additional musicians hired on a concert-by-concert basis,” writes Betsie Freeman in Sunday’s (2/7) Omaha World-Herald (NE). “It has premiered several new works. And it has a thriving outreach and school concert program. In 2005, it moved from the Orpheum Theater into the Holland Performing Arts Center, a $100 million concert hall hailed for its acoustics…. In the past year, because of a pandemic, it has done something nobody in 1921 could have imagined, streaming concerts worldwide…. Now … it’s about to welcome its 13th conductor, Ankush Kumar Bahl, and say goodbye to music director Thomas Wilkins…. The Omaha Symphony’s centennial season features Bahl visiting on Feb. 13 and 14 to conduct Mendelssohn. And Wilkins—in his finale with the orchestra—will conduct [the first symphony of] Gustav Mahler…. 62,650 people … paid to attend an Omaha Symphony concert in 2018-2019—before the pandemic…. The Omaha Symphony during the pandemic is a lot like that in 1921…. The orchestra has been distancing onstage for safety.” Included are a timeline of Omaha Symphony conductors, photo gallery, and facts about the orchestra.
