John Ferrillo, Elizabeth Klein and Thomas Wilkins: Music’s Life-Altering Call
On this episode of Meeting Our Moment, Jeremy Begbie talks to musicians John Ferrillo, Elizabeth Klein and Thomas Wilkins about their experiences with the life-altering call of music.
Click below (or here) to hear Begbie, Ferrillo, Klein and Wilkins’ full, unedited conversation, including how each of them realized music would be their career, how to teach students to hunger for learning, and a more detailed discussion of the artistic version of the communion of saints.
John Ferrillo
John Ferrillo has been Principal Oboe of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for almost twenty years, and before that was for 15 years principal of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York. Something of legend in oboe circles, and revered as a teacher, he has played in virtually every concert venue in the United States, as well as worldwide.
Elizabeth Klein
Elizabeth Klein is Associate Principal Flute of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Principal Flute of its sister orchestra, the Boston Pops. She is in wide demand as a teacher, serving on the flute faculty of Boston University, and has taught master classes at MasterWorks and Gordon College. In 2017, she graduated with a master’s degree in spiritual formation from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. She serves on the advisory board of Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts.
Thomas Wilkins
Thomas Wilkins is the Germeshausen Youth and Family Concerts conductor at the Boston Symphony and is the orchestra’s Artistic Advisor in Education and Community Engagement. He is known as one of the most inspiring speakers and teachers in the business (especially among young people), receiving in 2018 the Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society. In addition to his duties at Boston, he is also principal conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Henry A. Upper Chair of Orchestral Conducting at Indiana University, and is in his final season as Music Director of the Omaha Symphony.
Extras
Here are some additional moments from Jeremy’s conversation with Ferrillo, Klein and Wilkins.
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Each of Jeremy’s guests share classical works that inspired their life-long love of music. Elizabeth Klein was captivated at a young age by the first made-for-TV opera, Gian Carlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, and playing Igor Stravinksy’s The Rite of Spring solidified Klein’s desire to play professionally. John Ferrillo mentions hearing his mother play Brahm’s Piano Concerto No. 2., and we briefly see Ferrillo playing the famous oboe solo from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C Minor. Maestro Wilkins describes “wearing the grooves out of the library’s albums” of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 and Gustav Holst’s The Planets (especially the Jupiter movement).
The Boston Symphony Orchestra graciously provided footage from the BSO Youth Concert performance of Sergei Prokofiev's March in B-flat, Op. 99 for this episode. The BSO’s Tanglewood Festival provided footage of Chôro sem tristeza, “lament without sadness” for solo flute, composed by James Lee III for Elizabeth Klein. Lee explains that the chôro is a popular form of Brazilian music; the piece is a lament (“chôro” means “I cry” in Portuguese)—but it also expresses a desire to rise up over adversity.
In 2020, Maestro Wilkins conducted the premiere of composer Nkeiru Okoye’s Black Bottom, a commission of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. This piece is discussed in the extended audio.
DITA was honored to have Elizabeth Klein and John Ferrillo perform on several occasions at Duke University. In 2019, Begbie, Ferrillo, and Klein performed the world premiere of Lu Pei’s Elegy, a remembrance of the Chinese martyr Lin Zhao. You can hear the full DITA10 New Caritas Orchestra concert performance on our website or view previous performances, such as the 2017 Home, Away, and Home Again concert on the DITA youtube channel.