Wilkins Returns

Thomas Wilkins, Music Director Laureate of the Omaha Symphony and Principal Conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, returns to Omaha for an evening combining treasured folk songs and extraordinary symphonic brilliance.

Thomas Wilkins, Music Director Laureate of the Omaha Symphony and Principal Conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, returns to Omaha to conduct a recently rediscovered masterpiece, William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony. In the composer’s own words, his symphony was “symbolic of the link uniting Africa and her rich heritage with her descendants in America,” using Negro Spirituals in the style of American post-Romantics. The program is complemented by the Ballade in A Minor by Coleridge-Taylor, a piece that showcases the composer’s unique blend of African American and European influences, as well as the lush melodies of Sibelius’ Violin Concerto showcased by Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient Alexi Kenney. Ending on a celebratory note, be transported to the 12th century by Borodin’s folk influenced and spirited Polovetsian Dances.