Campaign Update

Campaign Goal:

$12 Million

Raised to Date:

$12 Million

Thank you! We reached our goal!

View Our Case For Support

View Our Latest Campaign Update

The Virginia Symphony Orchestra proudly announces its largest fundraising campaign in its history…

Vision Forward Campaign

Celebrating 100 years of community service and creativity, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra has launched its “Vision Forward” campaign. This unique initiative will preserve the orchestra as a strong community asset for generations to come by significantly increasing the size of its endowment and providing the stimulus for future innovative programming both on and off the stage.

“The future of the VSO is bright and Vision Forward has created new momentum for the organization, we continue to evolve into an even stronger community partner serving all of Hampton Roads as its only full-time, professional symphony orchestra.”

– Mike McClellan
Chair, VSO Board of Directors

“As we look forward together to celebrating the VSO’s 100th anniversary in the upcoming season, the organization has much to celebrate – not only a venerable history of extraordinary musical performances and deep community engagement, but a strong financial foundation on which to build for the future.”

– Karen M. Philion
VSO President and CEO

Beyond The Stage

Since 2016, the VSO has significantly expanded its strategic vision by deepening its education and community service beyond presenting concerts. The VSO has created new and unique programming throughout the region including music therapy-based health and wellness programs with non-traditional partners including hospitals and nursing homes. Additionally, the VSO’s collaboration with Old Dominion University is one of the only programs of its type in the country that enhances music education for students by providing hands on instruction with the VSO’s professional musicians. And, just this past year, the VSO performed its first-ever sensory-friendly concert to expand access to people on the autism spectrum.

To learn more about Vision Forward, please call
Lauren DiPeppe, Director of Development, at 757-213-1417.

Special thanks to our Vision Forward donors

Abbitt Family Foundation

Mrs. Carolyn Abbitt

Captain Richard and Holly Aleks

Anonymous (8)

Anonymous Foundation

Arnold B. McKinnon Family Symphony Fund

Baldwin Advisory LLC

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Banks, III

Clay H. Barr

Mr. and Mrs. Frank Batten, Jr.

David and Claire Benjack

Mr. William D. Benson

Birdsong Peanuts

Sarah and Bruce Bishop

Mr. and Mrs. Manfred Bloch

Jim and Judith Bowers

Lilly and Bruce Bradley

Mrs. Joan Brock

John and Kathleen Broderick

Robert and Laney Brown

Dan and Janet Burdette

Capt. and Mrs. James G. Burritt

Caterpillar Foundation

Drs. Sarah B. Clarkson and John M. Herre

Leroy and Cora Collins

Susan and Norman Colpitts

Mr. and Mrs. Charles N. Cooper

Dr. and Mrs. William A. Coulter

Parker Councill and Robin Everett

Page and Virginia Cranford

Mrs. Nancy A. Creech

Debra Wendells Cross and Robert W. Cross

Mr. and Mrs. Stacy Cummings

Curtis Group Consultants

Ms. Christina L. Goode and Ms. Martha M. Goode

Dr. and Mrs. Robert T. Davis

Ms. Ernestine I. Dole

Ms. Cheryl A. Dronzek

Mr. William Drury

F. Ludwig Diehn Fund of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation

The Fannie, Milton, and Leslie Friedman Family Foundation

Kelly and Tim Faulkner

Barry and Anita Fletcher

Stan and Janet Glasofer

Susan and David Goode

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Greene

Dr. and Mrs. Adolphus Hailstork

Mr. and Mrs. Conrad Hall

Jim and Helene Haluska

Hampton Roads Community Foundation

Jo Ann and Buzzy Hofheimer

Mr. and Mrs. Stan Howard

Mr. and Mrs. James L. Howe III

Dr. and Mrs. T.W. Hubbard

Mr. and Mrs. Jim Hughes

Connie Jacobson

Norma and Alan Jaffe

Dr. Larry Kagan and Diana Erye

Mr. Jake A. Keller

Mr. and Mrs. Howard Kern

Teresa M. Kraus and Walter T. Camp

Ms. Maria Latona

Aubrey and Peggy Layne

Drs. Donald R. and Elyse B. Lehman

Fred & Cindy Levy

Lamuel and Sandra Lewis

Dr. and Mrs. Edward Lilly

David J. Littley, Jr.

Elizabeth L. Young

Dr. Jean Major

Bill Martin and Pamela Russell

Mr. and Mrs. Michael R. McClellan

James and Emily McDaniel

Mr. and Mrs. Patrick B. McDermott

Mr. Robert McLean

Ms. Betty Jean Meyer

Dr. Jonathan Miller and Ms. Barbara Miller Chapman

Robert and Kathleen Morris

Mr. James Muir

Newport News Shipbuilding

Mr. and Mrs. Richard J. O’Hanlon

Dennis and JoAnn Olson

Deb Butler

Grace & Fred Parkinson

Mrs. Jane Pellegrino

Mr. and Mrs. James D. Penny

The Patricia and Douglas Perry Foundation

Diane and Bob Petterson

Karen and Tom Philion

Bradley and Carolyn Pittman

PNC Bank

Bill and Robin Poulter

Dr. and Mrs. Mallory Read, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Van Reading

Mrs. Sandra Armstrong and Mr. Tom Richmond

Pamela Rinsland

Mr. and Mrs. John E. Roberts, Jr.

Louis F. and Prudence H. Ryan

John Saunders

Dr. Paul Sayegh

Betty & Jack Shannon Charitable Fund

Betsy B. Shelton

Mr. Asa Shield, Jr. and Helene Uhlfelder, Ph. D

Jane and Win Short

Charla Smith-Worley

Mark Sorin, DDS and Linda Ferro

Joan and Jim Spore

Ira and Jean Steingold

Mr. Lawrence L. Steingold

Vanessa Sutherland and Elliot Wolf

James and Carole Taylor

Mr. and Mrs. James E. Taylor

The Pruden Foundation

Mr. and Mrs. Rony Thomas

TowneBank

TowneBank Foundation

Priscilla and Sam Roady

United Jewish Community of the Virginia Peninsula

Mr. and Mrs. William R. Van Buren, lll

Donna and Jeffrey Van Keuren

Virginia Chamber Players

The WatsonWalsh Family Fund

Neil and Pat Walsh

Eleanor and Henry Watts

Ashlin and Wayne Wilbanks

Mr. and Mrs. Arba Williamson, III

F. Blair and Jane S. Wimbush

Mr. and Mrs. Donald G. Winchester

Steve and Lynne Winter

John and Deborah Wyld

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 newly-named Music Director of the Virginia Symphony, becoming the 12th music director in the orchestra’s 100-year history, and will assume that post on July 1.

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. As conductor, Jacobsen has led the “consistently inventive, infectiously engaged indie ensemble” (New York Times) at Central Park’s Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival, (Le) Poisson Rouge, the 92nd Street Y, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center; at major summer festivals such as Tanglewood, Ravinia, and Ojai; and on tour nationally and internationally, including at the Cologne Philharmonie, Düsseldorf Tonhalle, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Salzburg Großes Festspielhaus, Vienna Musikverein, National Gallery of Dublin, and the Dresden Musikfestspiele. Recent collaborators include violinists Itzhak Perlman and Gil Shaham, singers Dawn Upshaw, Susan Graham, and Nicholas Phan, and pianists Emanuel Ax and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Also in demand as a guest conductor, Jacobsen has led the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Detroit, the New World, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Deutsche Philharmonie Merck and the Tonkunstler Orchestra, with whom Jacobsen appeared at Vienna’s legendary Musikverein.

In the coming season, Eric Jacobsen returns to the Detroit Symphony for the world premiere of James Lee III’s “Amer’ican,” a contemporary response to Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony which also features on the program. He also makes his La Jolla Summerfest debut, conducting three concerts featuring Summerfest Artistic Director Inon Barnaton and other artists. He appears twice with the Virginia Symphony, with guest artist Branford Marsalis and also performing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and travels to Bilkent, Turkey, to appear with the orchestra there. With The Knights, he returns to the Tanglewood and Caramoor Festivals and to Central Park’s Naumburg Bandshell, and appears at Wolf Trap in a new piece by Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Aoife O’Donovan. In the spring, Jacobsen and The Knights close their season with a multi-city US tour featuring pianist Aaron Diehl.

The 21-22 Orlando Philharmonic season sees the return of the “Resonate” festival, a unique blend of old and new orchestral and chamber works, performed in standard and more intimate concert formats. This season’s edition features Artist-in-Residence Stewart Goodyear performing the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven as well as orchestral repertoire. The Orlando season will close with a semi-staged production of Orff’s “Carmina burana,” with staging by Alison Moritz and choreography by John Heginbotham.

In recent seasons, Eric Jacobsen and The Knights performed a fully-staged centennial production of Bernstein’s Candide directed by Alison Moritz at the Ravinia Festival, and toured Florida with Gil Shaham. With mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital, Jacobsen and The Knights undertook a 15-concert European tour, including performances at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and Vienna’s Musikverein. In New York, Jacobsen and The Knights performed at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall; with groundbreaking countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo at National Sawdust in music of Handel and Philip Glass; and at the Park Avenue Armory, where they helped create the music for William Kentridge’s The Head and the Load. With the Bridgeport Symphony, Jacobsen performed with his brother Colin, with whom he recorded a video of Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending that was featured on London’s Classic FM and The Violin Channel.

At the close of a successful sixth season with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, Jacobsen has continued to pioneer the orchestra’s programming and community engagement in new and exciting directions. During the 20-21 season, the Orlando Philharmonic was one of the few orchestras internationally that was able to perform live concerts, including with renowned pianist Yuja Wang, and they closed their season with “America, Come,” an Orlando Philharmonic commission from Aoife O’Donovan honoring the centennial of the 19th Amendment. Previous seasons included Inside the Score, in which Jacobsen led the audience on a guided exploration of Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique; appearances by multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón as composer-in-residence; and guest appearances by Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Rhiannon Giddens and internationally acclaimed cello virtuoso Jan Vogler.

Under Jacobsen’s baton, The Knights have developed an extensive recording collection, which includes the critically acclaimed albums Azul, with longtime collaborator Yo-Yo Ma, as well as the Prokofiev Concerto in the Grammy-nominated Gil Shaham album 1930s Violin Concertos. Their most recent release, featuring Gil Shaham in performances of the Beethoven and Brahms Violin Concertos, was met with critical acclaim upon its release in Spring 2020. The Knights issued three albums for Sony Classical including Jan Vogler and The Knights Experience: Live from New York; New Worlds, and an all-Beethoven album, as well as the “smartly programmed” (National Public Radio) A Second in Silence on the Ancalagon label. Jacobsen’s first release on Warner Classics was the ground beneath our feet. We Are The Knights, a documentary film produced by Thirteen/WNET, premiered in September 2011.

In December 2012, Jacobsen and his brother Colin were selected from among the nation’s top visual, performing, media, and literary artists to receive a prestigious United States Artists Fellowship. Eric splits his time between New York and Orlando with his wife, singer-songwriter Aoife O’Donovan, and their daughter.

VSO Guest Artist: Andrew von Oeyen

Hailed worldwide for his elegant and insightful interpretations, balanced artistry and brilliant technique, Andrew von Oeyen has established himself as one of the most captivating pianists of his generation.

Since his debut at age 16 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mr. von Oeyen has extended his interpretive voice to a broad spectrum of repertoire as both a soloist and recitalist. He has collaborated with such ensembles as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Mariinsky Orchestra, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony, Grant Park Orchestra, Ravinia Festival Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, Utah Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Marseille, Geneva Chamber Orchestra, Spoleto USA Orchestra, Slovenian Philharmonic and Slovak Philharmonic. As both soloist and conductor he has led concerti and orchestral works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Ravel and Kurt Weill. On July 4, 2009, he performed at the U.S. Capitol with the National Symphony in “A Capitol Fourth,” reaching millions worldwide in the multi-award winning PBS live telecast.

‍Mr. von Oeyen has appeared in recital at Wigmore Hall and Barbican Hall in London, Lincoln Center in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Boston’s Symphony Hall, Zürich’s Tonhalle, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall, St. Petersburg’s Philharmonia, Dublin’s National Concert Hall, Royce Hall in Los Angeles, Herbst Theater in San Francisco, Spivey Hall in Atlanta, Sala São Paulo, Teatro Olimpico in Rome, in Mexico City, Hanoi, Macau, and in every major concert hall of Japan and South Korea. Festival appearances include Aspen, Ravinia, Grant Park, Mainly Mozart, Saratoga, Schubertiade, Spoleto, Brevard, Grand Teton, Chautauqua and the Mariinsky’s “Stars of the White Nights.”

Mr. von Oeyen has recorded for Warner Classics since 2017. His albums under that label, including works for piano and orchestra by Saint-Saëns, Ravel and Gershwin and a disc including Debussy’s Fantaisie pour Piano et Orchestre, have been met with critical acclaim. Mr. von Oeyen has also recorded award-winning recital albums of Liszt, Debussy, and Stravinsky under the Delos label.

Mr. von Oeyen, of German and Dutch origin, was born in the U.S. He began his piano studies at age 5 and made his solo orchestral debut at age 10. An alumnus of Columbia University and graduate of The Juilliard School, where his principal teachers were Herbert Stessin and Jerome Lowenthal, he also worked with Alfred Brendel and Leon Fleisher. He won the prestigious Gilmore Young Artist Award in 1999 and also took First Prize in the Léni Fé Bland Foundation National Piano Competition in 2001. Mr. von Oeyen lives in Paris and Los Angeles.

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About the VSO

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Campaign Update

Thank you! We reached our goal!

The Virginia Symphony Orchestra proudly announces its largest fundraising campaign in its history…

Vision Forward Campaign

“The future of the VSO is bright and Vision Forward has created new momentum for the organization, we continue to evolve into an even stronger community partner serving all of Hampton Roads as its only full-time, professional symphony orchestra.”

Beyond The Stage

To learn more about Vision Forward, please call
Lauren DiPeppe, Director of Development, at 757-213-1417.

Special thanks to our Vision Forward donors

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Get Tickets

Plan Your Visit

Venues

Upcoming Events

Totally 80s | 10/5-10/6

Education

In the Community

African American Fellowship Program

What About the Music?

Give Now

Other Ways to Give

About the VSO

About the Music

Campaign Update

Thank you! We reached our goal!

​The Virginia Symphony Orchestra proudly announces its largest fundraising campaign in its history…

Vision Forward Campaign

“The future of the VSO is bright and Vision Forward has created new momentum for the organization, we continue to evolve into an even stronger community partner serving all of Hampton Roads as its only full-time, professional symphony orchestra.”

Beyond The Stage

To learn more about Vision Forward, please callLauren DiPeppe, Director of Development, at 757-213-1417.

Special thanks to our Vision Forward donors

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Eric Jacobsen

STAR OF BROADWAY MUSICALS THE GERSHWINS’ PORGY AND BESS, THE COLOR PURPLE, THE LION KING, and RAGTIME

STAR OF BROADWAY MUSICALS SHOW BOAT, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, and THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE

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STAR OF BROADWAY MUSICALS THE GERSHWINS’ PORGY AND BESS, THE COLOR PURPLE, THE LION KING, and RAGTIME

STAR OF BROADWAY MUSICALS THE GERSHWINS’ PORGY AND BESS, THE COLOR PURPLE, THE LION KING, and RAGTIME

VSO Guest Artist: Andrew von Oeyen

The Virginia Symphony Orchestra proudly announces its largest fundraising campaign in its history…

To learn more about Vision Forward, please call
Lauren DiPeppe, Director of Development, at 757-213-1417.