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What about the music?

An inside look with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra

COFFEE CONCERT: Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony

Friday, September 12, 2025 | 11AM | Ferguson Center

Eric Jacobsen, conductor

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5

By Stella Feliberti

Eric Jacobsen, Virginia Symphony Orchestra Music Director

The Performers

Eric Jacobsen

Conductor

Eric Jacobsen

Hailed by the New York Times as “an interpretive dynamo,” conductor and cellist Eric Jacobsen has built a reputation for engaging audiences with innovative and collaborative programming.  He is the Music Director of the Virginia Symphony, becoming the 12th music director in the orchestra’s 100-year history.

Jacobsen is Artistic Director and conductor of The Knights, and serves as the Music Director for the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. Jacobsen founded the adventurous orchestra The Knights with his brother, violinist Colin Jacobsen, to foster the intimacy and camaraderie of chamber music on the orchestral stage.  Eric splits his time between New York and Orlando with his wife, singer-songwriter Aoife O’Donovan, and their daughter.

More about Eric Jacobsen
Virginia Symphony Orchestra

The Virginia Symphony Orchestra

As the region’s most celebrated musical, educational, and entrepreneurial arts organization, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra (VSO) continues to challenge expectations and push the boundaries of what an American orchestra can be. The VSO is the largest professional performing arts organization in southeastern Virginia, and present more than 150 concerts and events annually for more than 100,000 residents and visitors.

There are 49 full-time salaried musicians and 28 part-time musicians who perform on contract with the orchestra. Many of the VSO musicians come from all around the world and now live in Hampton Roads with their families. They elevate the level of music education in our area by teaching private lessons, coaching sectionals in many of the youth orchestra and band programs and performing so brilliantly with the VSO. The community is enriched by these fabulous musicians in many ways.

More about the musicians of the orchestra
More about VSO's vision, mission, and history

The Creator

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pronounced PYO-tur ihl-YIHCH chai-KOFF-skee

Fast Facts:
  • Tchaikovsky was born in 1840 in Russia, where he was the second eldest of his parents’ six surviving offspring.
  • Tchaikovsky displayed astute musical abilities from a young age as he improvised on piano and composed at age 4.
  • It wasn’t until Tchaikovsky premiered his Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor that he received acclaim for his compositions. Prior to this concerto, he released two symphonies and multiple operas, which did not receive the same fanfare as this Piano Concerto.
  • Tchaikovsky is most known for his ballets including Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker.
  • Tchaikovsky got married in 1877 to Antonina Miliukova. However, soon after the wedding he realized he could not handle being married and abandoned his wife weeks after the wedding, fleeing to Switzerland and Italy. Luckily, this escape allowed him to write some of his most famous works such as Suite Italienne and his Violin Concerto.
  • In 1878, Tchaikovsky resigned from faculty at the Moscow Conservatory. The only way he could afford this was because of the patronage of a wealthy widow named Nadezhda von Meck. The only catch with their arrangement was that they could never meet.

The Piece

Tchaikovsky

Symphony No. 5

Listen to Symphony No. 5 from the Frankfurt Radio Symphony:

Click Here to Listen
  • Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5 was composed in 1888 and premiered the same year with the composer himself conducting. It is dedicated to Theodor Avé-Lallemant, a German musician and teacher who greatly influenced Tchaikovsky.
  • Unlike the previous two symphonies, Symphony No.5 is not programmatic*. In his early sketches (a composer’s early drafts of fragments of a musical piece), Tchaikovsky thought to write the first movement about the complete resignation before fate — yet, it is uncertain how much of this program is realized in the composition.
  • The piece uses a cyclical structure: Tchaikovsky includes a recurring theme that happens in all movements of the work in different ways to highlight different emotions or ideas. This recurring theme is now known as the “fate” motif*.
  • Tchaikovsky uses a blend of both Russian folk music and Western European harmony and structure in his symphonies, including the fifth. Thus, this symphony is not blatantly nationalistic but includes various Russian tunes that create the larger themes of the work.
  • The work opens with the low strings and woodwinds introducing the fate motif, which is followed by a slavic-style folk tune theme. The second movement is luscious and romantic, evoking rich sentimentality and heart-wrenching themes. The third movement is a graceful waltz that highlights lots of instrumental color. The symphony closes with a quick introduction of the fate motif but in a militaristic style; following this is a dramatic struggle into a final triumphant march of the fate motif.

Discussion Question

What form of writing would be comparable to a four movement symphony (like Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 5)?  A newspaper article, research paper, poem, historical fiction, graphic novel, fiction novel, biography?  Explain your choice.

Glossary

Programmatic Music

Instrumental music that musically renders a narrative, picture, idea, or piece of literature

Cyclical Structure

A compositional technique that bridges several movements together by the use of a recurring musical theme that is heard in all movements.

Motif

A recurring musical idea that is a key building block of a composition.

Emmanual Losa

Emmanuel Losa

Cello

Born in 1998, Emmanuel Losa grew up in Marietta, Georgia to a Nigerian father and Jamaican mother. Starting his cello studies at the age of 12, he began to have an affinity for the orchestral world and later studying with the esteemed cellists of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, his primary instructor was Joel Dallow; in addition, studying with Dona Vellek (Assistant Principal Cello Emeritus) and Karen Freer (Assistant Principal Cello).

Emmanuel heavily enjoys studying various pieces of solo, chamber, and orchestral music, spending his summers at various festivals such as Bowdoin International Music Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, and Aspen Music Festival to name a few.

A student of Alan Stepansky at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Emmanuel is pursuing an undergraduate cello performance degree in orchestral performance. He continues his studies with a focus on winning a position with a major orchestra.

Zacherie Small

Zacherie Small

Double Bass

After migrating from his native island of Barbados, Zacherie Small began his Double Bass studies the age of 19 with Jonathan Dadurka at Miami-Dade College where he graduated with a Associate of Arts in Music. Afterwards, he went on to study with Luis Gomez-Imbert at Florida International University where he now holds a Bachelor of Music in Double Bass Performance; Cum Laude, and a Masters of Music in Double Bass Performance. Also, recently graduated with his second Masters from Temple University studying with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra such as Nathaniel West, Joseph Conyers, and Robert Kesselman.

Small has performed with various orchestras. He is a member of the Miami Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Eduardo Marturet. He was also the Principal Double Bass of the Miami Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Jorge Vazquez. Small periodically performs with the Colour of Music Festival Orchestra.

Small has attended the Miami Summer Music Festival at Barry University for 3 years. During the festival, he has performed in many concerts with various conductors like Michael Rossi, Yuriy Bekker, Joel Smirnoff, David Efron, Stephanie Rhodes, and Steve Gruman. Also, participated in the Philadelphia International Music Festival to study with Nathaniel West and under the baton of Kensho Watanabe.

As well as being a performer, Small is the secondary music director South-Dade Middle School and does masterclasses at various schools in Miami, FL. He is also a teacher for the Artist of the Miami Music Project where he guides children in troubled neighborhoods to bring about social change, cultivate lessons, and run ensembles.

Tyler McKisson

Tyler McKisson

viola

Tyler McKisson is a 26-year-oldorchestral and freelance violist originally from Arvada, Colorado. He has recently received an Artist Diploma from The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as a Diversity Fellow where he regularly performed with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. McKisson received a Master’s degree in viola performance at the University of Colorado Boulder and a Bachelor’s degree in Viola Performance at the University of Northern Colorado with honors. McKisson’s musical career started at age ten when he joined his school’s string orchestra program and at age fourteen, he began his studies under his first private instructor, Brian Cook. McKisson has also studied under Christopher Luther, Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti, Erika Eckert, and Catharine Carroll Lees. He has played with several American orchestras including the Cheyenne Symphony with tenure, Atlanta Symphony, Kentucky Symphony, National Repertory Orchestra, and the Aspen Conducting Academy.

Camille Jones

Camille Jones

violin

A passionate collaborator and advocate for diversity in the arts, Camille has worked with various festival orchestras and chamber groups, including the National Orchestral Institute and Festival (NOI + F), Bowdoin International Music Festival, and Next Festival of Emerging Artists.

As a 2019 Sphinx Orchestral Futurist Fellow, she has helped commission works and curate a professional development workshop for K-12 students in Prince George’s County, Maryland.This project piloted what is now the K12 New Music Initiative, a commissioning project to expand the repertoire of K12 orchestras with music by BIPOC composers. In the Fall of 2018, she curated Voices Unheard, a concert series at UMD that celebrated works by women composers and composers of color. In addition, she had the opportunity to collaborate with esteemed cello professor Anthony Elliott for a concert series at the Kerrytown Concerthouse titled Passing the Torch in 2021 and 2022. Camille is establishing herself as a freelance artist in the Michigan area as well, having performed for singer Michael Bublé, rapper Big Sean and Darren Criss. She has also served as a teaching artist for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Civic Youth Ensembles as well as the Sphinx Overture program in Detroit.

Camille received her B.M. in Violin Performance at the University of Maryland, College Park and a M.M. in Violin Performance from the University of Michigan, having studied under Danielle Belen.

Daphine Henderson

Daphine Henderson

bass

Daphine Henderson, a double bassist and vocalist in the DC metro area, completed her Master’s Degree in Double Bass Performance at the University of Maryland College Park in Spring 2023, where she also received two Bachelor’s Degrees in Music Performance with concentrations in Double Bass and Soprano Voice in Spring ’20. She was the first black woman to earn a Master’s Degree in Double Bass Performance at University of Maryland and the third black woman to receive a graduate degree in strings. Teaching herself the double bass at age 12, Daphine became extremely involved in music through her high school career, ranging from performing with the Maryland Senior All State Orchestra to being the drum major of her high school marching band. She is actively involved in the University of Maryland School of Music community, performing with numerous classical and wind ensembles.

Throughout her time at UMD, Daphine served as one of the ensemble assistants for the UMD Treble Choir, where she actively engaged with and lead her section. She sat as one of the student chairs and founding members of the School of Music’s IDEA Committee, which focuses on bringing diversity, accessibility, and inclusive engagement to the music community at College Park. Daphine is also a founding member of the PAGE (Project for All Gender Equality) for Bassists, where she spoke on a panel in the 2019 and 2021 International Society of Bassists conventions. Daphine teaches in Prince George’s County and Montgomery County, Maryland, and is an active strings coach for the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra. Additionally, she teaches all string instruments, piano, and voice at Crescendo Studios in Falls Church, Virginia.

Daphine is taking steps in her musical career to create an impact and be an inspiration for younger musicians of color that would otherwise not have ample resources and opportunities to pursue their passion. Following the completion of her graduate degree, Daphine plans to continue establishing herself as an advocate through her performance and an arts administrator for underserved and minority musicians, while continuing to inspire others through her love for music.

Avery Robinson

Omari Imhotep Adbdul-Alim

Violin

Omari Imhotep Abdul-Alim is an accomplished violinist and educator with a Master of Music in Violin Performance from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is a dedicated instructor with extensive experience teaching violin to a diverse range of students, from young children to adults, in both individual and group settings.

Omari has also contributed significantly as a violin instructor and orchestral strings coach at the Academy for Discovery at Lakewood, as a member of VSO's first inaugural class of African American Fellowship.

In addition to his teaching accomplishments, Omari has an extensive performance background. He has been a substitute with VSO, New World Symphony, Chicago Civic Orchestra, and Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera. For the last year Omari has been an active performer in the San Diego area, playing with Coronado Philharmonia Orchestra, Poway Symphony Orchestra, the City Ballet of San Diego, La Jolla Symphony Orchestra and as resident violinist at First Lutheran Church of San Diego.

Omari is committed to enriching our musical education and performance landscape through his expertise and passion for music.

Avery Robinson

Avery Robinson

Cello

Avery Robinson grew up in Western Massachusetts where he was influenced by his parents’ love for jazz music. At the age of 10 he started playing piano and began learning bass when he was 12 years old. As a young musician, Avery’s passion for jazz persisted however, as he became exposed to the wonderful sounds of the symphony, his musical passion grew to include a second genre: classical music. After joining his high school orchestra, his career path was set.

Avery has studied at many top music schools such as the Eastman School of Music, The Hartt School of Music, and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and has graduated with honors. His teachers include Rachel Calin, Albert Laszlo, and Robert Black. Avery has been a member of the Kentucky Symphony, and most recently, the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra. He has also worked as a substitute for the Amarillo Symphony and the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas. In addition to his orchestral career, Avery is also an accomplished recitalist, having performed many solo and chamber recitals at various venues such as the Chautauqua Institution and at the “Classical Revolution” Series in Cincinnati. His love for performing with others shows in his expressive and sometimes fervent style of playing.

Avery has other passions in addition to music. Firstly, he is a huge art and history buff and loves to frequent museums and galleries whenever he can. He is also a lover of sports and an avid golfer.