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Christopher Wilkins was recently named Music Director of both the Akron and Orlando Symphony Orchestras, positions he formally assumes in September. As a guest conductor, Mr. Wilkins has appeared with many of the nation's leading orchestras, including the orchestras of Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Houston, Detroit, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. Overseas, he has appeared with orchestras in Germany, Russia, Spain, New Zealand, and throughout the Americas. Named by Plácido Domingo as a Resident Conductor of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, an orchestra comprised of young people from North, Central, and South America, Christopher Wilkins conducted this orchestra throughout these three continents in the summer of 2002 and 2003. In 1992, Mr. Wilkins was named winner of the Seaver/NEA Award, which is designed to identify exceptionally talented American conductors in the early stages of major careers.
Music Director Emeritus of the San Antonio Symphony, Christopher Wilkins received this title after serving ten seasons as Music Director of that orchestra for ten seasons and two seasons as music advisor. During his tenure in San Antonio, the orchestra made extraordinary gains artistically, increased its profile and reputation within the community, and gained national acclaim for several new programs. They received six programming awards from ASCAP, including the first ever Morton Gould Award for creative programming. Meet the Composer supported several commissions during Mr. Wilkins' tenure and two three-year residencies in the first round of the New Residencies program. Mr. Wilkins also initiated the orchestra's Interactive Classics series, supported by Knight Foundation's 'Magic of Music' program. Recordings include a recent release on National Public Radio Classics of works related to Texas and Mexican history, and in earlier release with Michael Martin Murphey on the Warner Brothers label. From 1989 to 1996 he served as Music Director of the Colorado Springs Symphony, serving in later seasons as Music Advisor.
Mr. Wilkins has been widely recognized as a champion of unusual concert formats and collaborations with community-based organizations. He has been a passionate advocate of Latin American repertoire and artists. In 1992, he initiated a joint effort with San Antonio's Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center to create new works in music and dance, based on the cultural traditions of South Texas and the border regions.
Mr. Wilkins served as the associate conductor of the Utah Symphony from 1986-89, assisting his former teacher Joseph Silverstein, and was assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1983-86, conducting the orchestra in varied programs and working with Music Director Christoph von Dohnányi in opera productions both in Cleveland and in Brussels. In Cleveland he also prepared a nationally aired, prize-winning PBS program for young people. In 1982 he was appointed the first Exxon conducting assistant with the Oregon Symphony, and was a conducting fellow at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood.
Born in Boston, he earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard College in 1978, where he was music director of the Bach Society Orchestra. As an oboist, Mr. Wilkins performed with many ensembles in the Boston area, including the Berkshire Music Center Orchestra at Tanglewood, and the Boston Philharmonic under Benjamin Zander. He studied at Yale University with Otto-Werner Mueller, receiving his master of music degree in 1981. In 1979-80 he attended the Hochschule der Künste in West Berlin as a recipient of the John Knowles Paine Traveling Fellowship, awarded by the Harvard Music Department.
