Conversation with Christopher Wilkins, Akron Symphony's Music Director

Music has the extraordinary ability to transcend boundaries, evoke emotions, and bring people together in ways words alone cannot. Today, we have the privilege of speaking with Christopher Wilkins, the esteemed Music Director of the Akron Symphony Orchestra, who has dedicated his career to harnessing the transformative power of music. Under his leadership, the orchestra has not only delivered breathtaking performances but has also become a vital force in our community, inspiring and uniting audiences of all ages. Join us as we explore the profound impact of music and the vision behind one of its most passionate advocates.

What first inspired you to pursue a career in conducting?

It never occurred to me to pursue conducting until an unexpected circumstance in college. I was performing as an oboist in an excellent student-led orchestra. When the student conductor graduated, there was no obvious successor. Several friends suggested I audition for the position. When I told them I had no experience and very little understanding of how to conducting, they said it didn’t matter. They would vote for me anyway. And so I started conducting as a Junior and acquired two years of great experience before I had any formal training.

Can you share a pivotal moment in your journey that solidified your path as a conductor?

At the time, I was an East Asian Studies major. I had entered college figuring I would be a premed. I also had an interest in a legal career, which is more or less the family business. What I found in those two years conducting the college orchestra was that conducting provides a remarkably broad perspective on life. As part of my preparations, I study foreign languages, literature, history, learn about every instrument, musical styles from around the world, think about leadership, group dynamics, education, public speaking… it’s pretty much endless.

Who were your biggest influences or mentors in the field of conducting?

I have two main mentors: the Boston-based conductor Benjamin Zander, — who is now also my best friend — and the late Otto-Werner Mueller, my teacher at the Yale School of Music. They couldn’t have been more different in their influences. Maestro Mueller learned orchestration from Richard Strauss. His understanding of how orchestras work was unparalleled. He taught me how to study a score with great thoroughness. Maestro Zander’s influence on me and the many young people he works with every day is total. Ben sees music-making as a profoundly human endeavor. He teaches how to open up the self and the soul to a world of possibility. His vision is to enhance life itself. He believes that every individual has the opportunity to create joy, love, and fulfillment through a deep and authentic relationship with music and the musicians a conductor shares the stage with. Maestro Zander has conducted the Akron Symphony many times, always reaching our musicians and audiences with profound effect.

What challenges did you face in your early career, and how did you overcome them?

One interesting challenge was the fact that I’m not a string player. To get a beautiful and unified sound from an orchestra, the strings are the first place to go. I ended up studying viola in graduate school, which was enormously helpful. And I also work regularly with the string principles of every orchestra I work with to help shape the string sound.

A more fundamental challenge — for every conductor at the early stages of a career — is to understand how to study a score, and how long it takes to fully prepare. Any feeling of being underprepared on the podium is terrifiying. Ultimately, the only way to learn how best to arrive at that first rehearsal fully prepared is to go trhough the process for years. It is certainly a profession in which experience counts for a lot.

What advice would you give to young musicians who aspire to become conductors?

The first thing is to become the best musician you can. That is the underlying strength a conductor should bring to an orchestra. There are lots of different approaches to waving the arms, running a rehearsal, programming a season, but to be effective, each of these skills has to rest on compelling music-making.

Music has a profound impact on emotions and well-being. Can you share a moment when you witnessed its transformative power?

There is a deep truth to your statement. I can recall when I first became aware of music’s awesome and transformative emotional power. It was the last concert of Kinhaven Music Camp in Vermont, in the final week of August. We were performing Bach’s Cantata №4, and the entire group — orchestra, soloists, chorus and audience — started crying uncontrollably. First, Bach’s music — “Christ Lay in the Bonds of Death” — is devastatingly beautiful. But also we were a very tight-knit community about to go our separate ways. We were involved in the close bonds of music making for the last time, performing a work that is utter mastery in its expressive power. We all just lost it.

How do you think orchestral music connects with modern audiences in today’s fast-paced world?

In a way, it’s remarkable that orchestras continue to thrive in a world that values efficiency, automation, and immediate gratification. One explanation is that orchestras are the opposite of all that, and provide welcome respite from a sometimes soulless world. But I think it’s something more than that. Orchestras are immensely versatile. Orchestral music appears in film, television, the commercial world, as collaborators with ensembles of every variety of music, in dance, opera, theater, and world music. There is no other musical ensemble that can be made a viable partner just about anywhere in the world. And when orchestras do collaborate, they lend the timeless, epic, grand sonority they are famous for, and for most collaborators this is new, and enhancing, and for many, the ultimate thrill.

In your opinion, what role does music play in building and strengthening communities?

We are lucky. In the musical world, it is possible for everyone to get along. There is no reasoned argument in concert music. People of opposite religious beliefs, philosophical persuasions, and political affiliations will never know that about each other even while they share a close coming together through music. Shared music is a community bond like no other, and it cannot be replaced by anything else.

What are some ways you and the Akron Symphony Orchestra engage with the local community through music?

The Symphony’s Gospel Meets Symphony program is the finest example of this that I know. Singers representing between 70 and 90 churches come together every year to form a chorus of up to 200 singers. The music is put together by composers, arrangers, choristers, instrumentalists, the all-important rhythm section, multiple conductors, and soloists who all come from the community. The performance is not something any one person has the skills to pull off alone. It requires community.

The same can be said of a great many collaborative projects the Symphony has done over the years. We’ve partnered with Summa Health, International Institute, ASIA Inc, Akron School for the Arts, I Promise School, Summit Historical Society, Akron-Summit County Public Library, Dance Companies, Theater Programs… it’s harder to think of who we haven’t worked with than who we have.

Are there any upcoming performances or programs designed to reach new audiences?

This year has been packed with programs to reach new audiences, including our Rhapsody in Blue program featuring Theron Brown which sold to the rafters. New year ‘s season will be built very strategically to reach new audiences. We’ll announce it soon. You’ll see film scores, readily recognizable works familiar to people who don’t know classical music, and many works featuring popular local artists.