What about the music?
An inside look with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra
Elgar’s Enigma Variations & Barber’s Violin Concerto
Friday, May 8, 2026 | 7:30PM | Ferguson Center, Newport News – Get Tickets
Sunday, May 10, 2026 | 2:30PM |Sandler Center, Virginia Beach – Get Tickets
Thomas Wilkins, conductor
Grace Park, violin
Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn
Samuel Barber: Violin Concerto
Edward Elgar: Enigma Variations
By Stella Feliberti
The Performers
conductor
Thomas Wilkins
Thomas Wilkins is currently principal conductor of the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, Artistic Advisor for Education and Community Engagement at the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and he holds the Henry A. Upper Chair of Orchestral Conducting at Indiana University. He recently stepped down after 17 successful years leading the Omaha Symphony and his guest conducting credits include every major American orchestra.
Devoted to promoting a life-long enthusiasm for music, Mr. Wilkins brings energy and commitment to audiences of all ages. He is hailed as a master at communicating and connecting with audiences. Following his highly successful first season with the Boston Symphony, the Boston Globe named him among the “Best People and Ideas of 2011.” In 2014, Mr. 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.
Mr. 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.
violin
Grace Park
Grace Park is a violinist celebrated for her artistry, passion, and virtuosity. Praised by the San Francisco Chronicle as “fresh, different and exhilarating” and by Strings Magazine for her “intensely wrought and burnished” sound, she captivates audiences worldwide. A winner of the Naumburg International Violin Competition, Ms. Park is recognized both as a dynamic soloist and a devoted chamber musician.
Ms. Park’s most recent solo debuts include the Colorado Music Festival, Bard Festival under the baton of Leon Botstein, Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall with the New York Youth Symphony, The Rudolfinum/ Dvorak Hall in Prague with Prague Philharmonia, and recital debuts at Krannert Center, Beethoven Minnesota Festival and Merkin Hall.
Future collaborations include her solo debuts at Seoul Arts Center with Les Musiciens du Louvre with Marc Minkowski, Sarasota Orchestra with Peter Oundjian, Orlando Philharmonic with Eric Jacobsen, along with chamber music debuts at the Savannah Music Festival and Camerata Pacifica.
Ms. Park recorded her debut solo album with the Prague Philharmonia and their music director, Emmanuel Villaume, which will include concertos and solo works of Mozart and Dvorak. It is set to be released in the spring of 2025.
A devoted and passionate educator, Ms. Park is an alumnus of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect and has taught masterclasses and coached at Conservatorio de Musica de Cartagena, Mannes School of Music, University of North Carolina, University of Mississippi, Washington and Lee University, North Dakota State University, Skidmore College, among others. She currently teaches as adjunct professor at the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University.
As a native to Los Angeles, California, Ms. Park began violin at the age of 5 where she trained at the Colburn School of Music. She continued her studies at Colburn Conservatory and New England Conservatory for her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. Principal teachers are Donald Weilerstein, Miriam Fried, Sylvia Rosenberg, and Robert Lipsett. She now resides in New York City.
She performs on a 1717 Giuseppe Filius Andrea Guarneri on loan from an anonymous sponsor.
The Creators
Johannes Brahms
Pronounced Bra-amz
Fast Facts:
- Johannes Brahms was born in 1833 into a musical atmosphere as his father played horn, double bass, and flute. Brahms started to compose at age 11, but as he got older, he became embarrassed of these early compositions and destroyed most of them.
- Brahms was a German composer and pianist who was one of the leading musicians of the Romanic period. He is known for his motivically driven style of composition, which Schoenberg called “developing variation.” This refers to the continuous development of short musical ideas, or motives, throughout a piece
- Brahms met Hungarian refugee and violinist, Eduard Remenyi, in 1850, which introduced Brahms to a range of folk and gypsy music that inspired many of his works. Remenyi also was the one to introduce Brahms to virtuoso violinist Joseph Joachim, who would become a lifelong collaborator and friend of the composer.
- Brahms was extremely good friends with fellow composer Robert Schumann. He was first introduced to Schumann by the great virtuoso violinist Joseph Joachim. It was through Schumann that Brahms rose to stardom.
Edward Elgar
Fast Facts:
- Edward Elgar was born in 1857 into a musical family with his father working as a professional violinist. By age 8, Elgar was taking piano and violin lessons. Yet, it was his mother who encouraged Elgar’s musical development as Elgar had inherited her passion for literature and the countryside — both major sources of inspiration for the composer.
- Prior to turning to composition full-time, Elgar worked as a professional musician for many years. He played violin in many orchestras across England, and bassoon in a wind quintet with his brother. He originally aspired to be a violin soloist but was discouraged after hearing the other virtuosos of his time.
- By the 1890s, Elgar had begun to build his reputation as a composer. He was earning attention for his smaller works such as his Serenade for Strings and Three Bavarian Dances. However, he still longed for recognition for larger works as he was “very sick at heart over music.” He finally earned this in 1899 with his incredible Enigma Variations.
- In 1904, Edward Elgar was knighted by King Edward VII and became Sir Edward Elgar. He was knighted because of his keen output of British music.
Samuel Barber
Fast Facts:
- Samuel Barber was born in Pennsylvania in 1910. He was born into a musical family as his mother was a pianist, his aunt a contralto of the Met Opera, and uncle a composer of American Art songs. It was his aunt who introduced Barber’s interest in vocal compositions.
- Barber began piano at age six and composing at age seven. By age nine, he wrote to his mother that he knew he was meant to be a composer, despite his family wanting him to be an athlete.
- By age 14, Samuel Barber attended the Curtis Institute of music where he studied voice, piano, and composition. Here, he met his librettist and future husband Gian Carlo Menotti. The two collaborated on his operas such as Vanessa and A Hand of Bridge.
- Despite having a tuneful and luscious style, Barber struggled to become more popular due to the iconic works of his American contemporaries such as Bernstein’s jazzy and musical theater style or Copland’s sounds of the American West.
- Barber once described his approach to composition as “I write what I feel. I believe this takes a certain courage.”
The Pieces
Brahms
Variations on a Theme by Haydn
Listen to Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Haydn from the Concertgebouworkest:
- Brahms composed his Variations on a Theme by Haydn in 1873 while on a summer retreat. The piece was originally composed as a piano duo but eventually arranged for orchestra.
- Known as a reactionary (those who are against the progressive trends of an art form) by his contemporaries, Brahms was always looking back at older styles and genres. Brahms studied many scores of Haydn’s including the setting of “St. Anthony Chorale,” which became the foundation for the work. However, it was later found that this theme was not written by Haydn but most likely by a student of his.
- The piece is a set of theme and eighth variations before a return to the original stately melody in a grandiose passacaglia-like finale (a Baroque musical form characterized by a series of variations built over a repeating bass-line). Brahms even cited that this work was a personal favorite.
- The piece starts with a courtly theme comprised of two five-measure phrases. Each following theme has its own unique character and development on the opening theme, making it difficult at times to find the connection between the variation and its original theme. At times Brahms will take fragments of the theme and construct full variations as seen in the second variation. Interwoven with this are also flashes of Brahms’s own piano style with glimpses of his ballades or intermezzos. Yet, the most striking moment is the finale — full of both traditional composition techniques and Brahms’s own contrapuntal style, with canons (when a melody is played in a staggered manner by different voices), double counterpoint (two melodies that can exist either above or below the other and still be harmonically agreeable), and more. The piece as whole is a testament to Brahms’s mastery of the technique of variation.
Barber
Violin Concerto
Listen to Barber’s Violin Concerto from WDR Symphony Orchestra and Augustin Hadelich:
- Barber was commissioned to write his violin concerto in 1939 by a wealthy industrialist. The commission was for the industrialist’s protége, violinist Iso Briselli.
- By mid-October of 1939, Barber had finished the first two movements of the concerto. However, after sending the movements to Briselli, he claimed that these movements were “not of virtuoso character — a bit too easy.” This inspired Barber to write a moto perpetuo (‘perpetual motion’) last movement. Thus, when Briselli saw the final movement, he was disappointed as he thought the movement was un-violinistic and too hard for him to learn for the January premiere. In the end, it was Albert Spalding who premiered the work.
- Barber was originally criticized for the structure and musicality of his concerto prior to its premiere. Briselli’s violin coach Albert Meiff described the concerto as not having “enough backbone — not strong, not majestic — does not contain enough dramatic moments, all of which make for a successful performance.” But this did not deter Barber as he believed and had “complete confidence” in the work — “out of artistic sincerity to [himself].”
- Barber wrote the following program notes for the premiere of the piece: “The first movement—allegro molto moderato—begins with a lyrical first subject announced at once by the solo violin, without any orchestral introduction. This movement has perhaps more the character of a sonata than concerto form. The second movement—andante sostenuto—is introduced by an extended oboe solo. The violin enters with a contrasting and rhapsodic theme, after which it repeats the oboe melody of the beginning. The last movement, a perpetuum mobile, exploits the more brilliant and virtuosic character of the violin.” The entire work is a whirlwind of passion, lyricism, and vivacity, making it one of the most popular violin concerti from the 20th century.
Elgar
Enigma Variation or Variations on an Original Theme
Listen to Elgar’s Enigma Variations from the Frankfurt Radio Symphony:
- Elgar’s Variations on an Original Theme was written in 1899, and is unlike any other set of variations before or after it. It earned the moniker “Enigma” as Elgar revealed that the original theme was combined with another theme whose identity he refused to reveal, and because each movement is tagged with initials to private nicknames of friends.
- Each variation not only represents one of Elgar’s close friends but also to represent various moods. Elgar described this approach as “each one to represent the mood of the ‘party’ — I’ve liked to imagine the ‘party’ (each dedicatee) writing the [variation] him (or her) self and have written what I think they [would] have written.”
- One of the most important parts of a theme and variations is the ability for the listener to trace the theme throughout each variation. However, in Elgar’s case, since his theme is intertwined with another mystery one, there is an open-ended quality to the theme that allows for innovative permutations while defying recognition but still maintaining cohesion.
- The most famous variation of the set is titled “Nimrod,” referring to Augustus Jaeger, a British music editor. This movement is often used in funerals, memorials and other ceremonial occasions, especially in British culture. It was even used at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.