THOMAS WILKINS, a native of Norfolk, Virginia, has been named the Virginia Symphony Orchestra’s inaugural principal guest conductor. Wilkins recently stepped down as music director of the Omaha Symphony, after 17 years with the orchestra; he is currently principal conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in Los Angeles, as well as artistic advisor for education and community engagement at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Wilkins has led orchestras throughout the U.S., among them the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, and Utah Symphony, as well as at the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago. In 2014, Wilkins received the “Outstanding Artist” award at the Nebraska Governor’s Arts Awards; in 2018 he received the Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society from Boston’s Longy School of Music. In 2019, the Virginia Symphony gave Wilkins its annual Dreamer Award. In June, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra announced the appointment of Eric Jacobsen as its next music director.
Change font size
