Join us at the Ogle Center for an exciting afternoon of orchestral music as the IU Jacobs School of Music Philharmonic Orchestra performs Ravel’s Fanfare for the ballet L’éventail de Jeann and Prokofiev’s beloved Peter and the Wolf — a timeless favorite for audiences of all ages.

The orchestra will be led by acclaimed conductor Thomas Wilkins, known internationally for his dynamic musicianship and commitment to music education. Peter and the Wolf will be brought vividly to life by narrator and IU Faculty Fellow and Distinguished Rudy Professor of Music Marietta Simpson, whose storytelling adds warmth, clarity, and excitement to this classic work.

As the premier orchestra of the Jacobs School of Music, the Philharmonic Orchestra has performed at the Carnegie Hall in New York and at the opening of the Bastille Opera House in Paris.

Thomas Wilkins is Henry A. Upper Chair of Orchestral Conducting and professor of music in orchestral conducting at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

He is also music director of the Omaha Symphony through the 2020-21 season, a position he has held since 2005. In addition, he is principal conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and holds the Germeshausen Family and Youth Concert Conductor chair with the Boston Symphony. Past positions include resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony and the Florida Orchestra (Tampa Bay), and associate conductor of the Richmond (Virginia) Symphony. He also has served on the music faculties of North Park University (Chicago), the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

Devoted to promoting a life-long enthusiasm for music, Wilkins is hailed as a master at communicating and connecting with audiences of all ages. Following his highly successful first season with the Boston Symphony, The Boston Globe named him among the “Best People and Ideas of 2011.” He received the prestigious Outstanding Artist award at the 2014 Nebraska Governor’s Arts Awards for his significant contribution to music in the state.

During his conducting career, he has led orchestras throughout the United States, including The Philadelphia Orchestra and The Cleveland Orchestra—both of which he returned to guest conduct in the 2016-17 season. He has conducted the New York Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Utah Symphony, National Symphony in Washington, D.C., and at the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago, among other engagements.

His commitment to community has been demonstrated by his participation on several boards of directors, including the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, Charles Drew Health Center in Omaha and Center Against Spouse Abuse in Tampa Bay, as well as the Museum of Fine Arts and the Academy Preparatory Center, both in St. Petersburg, Florida. He currently serves as chairman of the board for the Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund and as national ambassador for the non-profit World Pediatric Project, headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, which provides children throughout Central America and the Caribbean with critical surgical and diagnostic care.

A native of Norfolk, Virginia, 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, live in Omaha and are the proud parents of twin daughters, Erica and Nicole.

Marietta Simpson is Distinguished Rudy Professor of Music in Voice at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she has served on faculty since August 2005.

Known for her deeply expressive, richly beautiful voice, Simpson has sung with every major orchestra in the United States, under many of the world’s greatest conductors. Among them are the late Kurt Masur and André Previn, Simon Rattle, Neville Mariner, Robert Page, James Conlon, Helmut Rilling, Nicholas McGegan, Daniel Barenboim, Raymond Leppard, Lorin Maazel, and the late Robert Shaw, with whom she made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1988 as soloist in Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

Simpson has also sung with many of the major European orchestras, including the philharmonic orchestras of London, Prague, Berlin, and Vienna. She has performed on some of the great operatic stages of the world, including La Fenice, La Scala, Glyndebourne, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and Bregenz abroad, and Houston Grand Opera, LA Opera, New York City Opera, Glimmerglass, Washington National Opera, Augusta Opera, Opera Birmingham, Mobile Opera, and Opera Company of Philadelphia in the United States.

Simpson has an extensive discography and has performed on several Grammy-nominated recordings. She received Grammy recognition in 2006 for her solo role on the Grammy Award-winning recording of William Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence and Experience (Naxos), with Leonard Slatkin conducting. Her many television appearances include the Emmy Award-winning Strange Fruit, with guitarist Tyron Cooper, and the Emmy-nominated Musical Threads: A Musical Journey, with Cooper and produced by WFYI Television. Among her many awards is the Temple University Certificate of Honor for Distinguished Alumni and the Leontyne Price Award.