(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Thomas Wilkins
1956
Principal Conductor, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
Artistic Advisor, Education and Community Engagement
Boston Symphony
Henry A. Upper Chair of Orchestral Conductor, Jacobs School of Music,
Indiana University
Principal Guest Conductor, Virginia Symphony
is an orchestra conductor. He is the Music Director Laureate of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra, principal conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and family and youth concerts conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Early life and education
Wilkins was born in Norfolk, Virginia and grew up in a housing project, the son of a single mother and welfare recipient. His inspiration to become an orchestra conductor came from a performance of The Star-Spangled Banner he attended when he was eight years old.
Wilkins received a bachelor’s degree in music education from the Shenandoah Conservatory in 1978, and a master of music degree in orchestral conducting from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1982.
Teaching and conducting
During his conducting career, he has led orchestras throughout the United States, including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Symphony and the National Symphony. Additionally, he has guest conducted the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, the Symphonies of Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Baltimore, San Diego, Seattle, Louisiana, North Carolina and Utah, and the Buffalo and Rochester Philharmonics, as well as at the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago and many more.
Wilkins has taught at North Park University, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and Virginia Commonwealth University.He worked as assistant director of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra. He also worked as resident director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Florida Orchestra. Wilkins became music director of the Omaha Symphony in 2005, and family and youth concert conductor of the Boston Symphony in 2011.He retired from the Omaha Symphony on June 12, 2021. The Boston Globe named him among the “Best People and Ideas of 2011.” In 2014, Wilkins received the prestigious “Outstanding Artist” award at the Nebraska Governor’s Arts Awards for his significant contribution to music in the state while in 2018 Thomas Wilkins received the Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society conferred by Boston’s Longy School of Music. In 2019 the Virginia Symphony bestowed Thomas Wilkins with their annual Dreamer Award. And in 2022 the Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards presented him with their Lifetime Achievement Award for Music, the Boston Conservatory awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Arts, and he was the recipient of the League of American Orchestras’ Gold Baton Award.
His commitment to the community has been demonstrated by his participation on several boards of directors, including the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, the Charles Drew Health Center (Omaha), the Center Against Spouse Abuse in Tampa Bay, and the Museum of Fine Arts as well as the Academy Preparatory Center both in St. Petersburg, FL. Currently, he serves as chairman of the board for the Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund and as national ambassador for the non-profit World Pediatric Project headquartered in Richmond, VA, which provides children throughout Central America and the Caribbean with critical surgical and diagnostic care.
Wilkins holds the position of Henry A. Upper Chair of Orchestral Conducting at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
A native of Norfolk, VA, Thomas Wilkins is a graduate of the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He and his wife Sheri-Lee, are the proud parents of twin daughters, Erica and Nicole.