In This Program
The Concert
Saturday, October 26, 2024, at 2:00pm
Thomas Wilkins conducting
Bedřich Smetana
Dance of the Comedians from
The Bartered Bride (1866)
John Williams
Flight to Neverland from Hook (1991)
Felix Mendelssohn
Saltarello: Presto from Symphony No. 4 in A major, Opus 90, Italian (1833)
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Andantino in modo di canzona from Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Opus 36 (1878)
Edvard Grieg
In the Hall of the Mountain King from
Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 (1875)
Antonín Dvořák
Slavonic Dance No. 1 in C major, Opus 46 (1878)
Johannes Brahms
Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G minor (1868)
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Fandango Asturiano from Capriccio espagnol, Opus 34 (1887)
This program is performed without intermission.
The Music for Families Series is supported by
Welcome to the Orchestra
Dear Friends of the San Francisco Symphony,
I must tell you that I am really excited to get to meet you, and share some truly wonderful music with you. This is one of my favorite programs because it’s about us. Us as a community that is.
The dictionary defines a community as a group of diverse individuals who work together for a common good. As it happens, communities come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Our city, our neighborhood, our classroom, and indeed our family are all examples of community. Even the orchestra is a community!
Together we will, through the gift of great music, explore the pillars and ingredients necessary to make a community strong and vibrant.
And with your help, we will actually create our own community experience right there in the concert hall!
See you soon!
—Thomas Wilkins
About the Artist
Thomas Wilkins
Thomas Wilkins is principal conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, artistic advisor for education and community engagement at the Boston Symphony, principal guest conductor of the Virginia Symphony, and the Henry A. Upper Chair of orchestral conducting at Indiana University. He served as music director of the Omaha Symphony until 2021, and other past positions have included resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony and Florida Orchestra and associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony in Virginia. He also has served on the music faculties of North Park University in Chicago, the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. He has guest conducted orchestras throughout the United States and made his San Francisco Symphony debut in December 2019.
Devoted to promoting a lifelong enthusiasm for music, Wilkins brings energy and commitment to audiences of all ages. He has received many awards, including the League of American Orchestras’ Gold Baton Award and the Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards Lifetime Achievement Award for Music. Boston’s Longy School of Music awarded him the Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society, and he was the beneficiary of an honorary doctorate of the arts from the Boston Conservatory.
A native of Norfolk, Virginia, Wilkins is a graduate of the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music and New England Conservatory.
