About this Artist

CHRISTOPHER WILKINS was for ten seasons Music Director of the San

Antonio Symphony. In recent seasons he has served as Music Advisor, and is now

Music Director Emeritus. He was also Music Director of the Colorado Springs

Symphony from 1989-1986, and is now Artistic Advisor to the Opera Theatre of

the Rockies in Colorado Springs. He has recently served as Resident Conductor of the

Youth Orchestra of the Americas, and has led that orchestra on tours throughout the

Americas over the past two seasons.

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, and Indianapolis. Overseas, he has appeared with orchestras in New

Zealand, Russia, Germany, and Latin America, and, in recent years, has appeared with

many of the leading orchestras of Spain.

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, received support

for several commissions and residencies from Meet the Composer, and initiated a new

approach to interactive concert design with the support of Knight Foundation.

In 1992 Mr. Wilkins was winner of the Seaver/NEA Award, designed to identify

exceptionally talented American conductors in the early stages of major careers. He

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, as assistant to Music Director Christoph von Dohnányi. Before that, he

was conducting assistant with the Oregon Symphony, and a conducting fellow at the

Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood.

Born in Boston, Mr. Wilkins earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard College in 1978. As an oboist, he 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.