Brannon Fells, Coordinator, Education and Community Partnerships
Brannon Fells recently joined the Omaha Symphony staff during the summer of 2013. Prior to joining the OSA staff and moving to Omaha, Brannon studied at the University of Northern Iowa where he received a bachelor of arts in music with an emphasis in performing arts management and marketing. While at UNI, Brannon also studied percussion and participated in numerous School of Music ensembles including the Northern Iowa Wind Symphony, Northern Iowa Symphony Orchestra, UNI Panther Marching Band, and Kaji-Daiko Taiko Ensemble.
Brannon has also been a percussion instructor for high school band programs and private lessons with students of all ages. Most recently, he worked as the frontline percussion instructor for the Wahawk Marching Band at Waterloo West High School in Waterloo, IA from fall 2010 to spring 2013.
By joining the education team at the Omaha Symphony, Brannon looks forward to being able to enrich the education of area students through the music of the Omaha Symphony.
T. Adam Goos, Vice President, Education and Community Partnerships
T. Adam Goos serves as the Vice President of Education and Community Partnerships with the Omaha Symphony. Goos is entering his eighth season as a member of the education staff. In his work at the symphony, he plays a primary role in the development of the symphony’s educational, community partnership and tour offerings. Goos’s duties include creating and writing the Omaha Symphony’s larger education projects, often appearing as a narrator and actor in these productions. Goos oversees the administration, implementation, planning, and evaluation of all Omaha Symphony educational and outreach activities.
Prior to his work at the Omaha Symphony, Goos worked in Chicago, IL as a non-profit arts administrator, educator and theatre artist. He has worked on the development and business administration staff of the Goodman Theatre, as a consultant with Creative Directions, Inc., which specializes in developing integrated arts curriculums, as well as with various theater companies in the Chicagoland area. Mr. Goos holds bachelor’s degrees in music and theatre from Wayne State College and a MFA in Theatre Performance from the Theatre Conservatory at the Chicago College of Performing Arts, Roosevelt University.
Meet the Omaha Symphony Education Team & Conductors!
Thomas Wilkins, Music Director
Thomas Wilkins is the music director of the Omaha Symphony, a position he has held since 2005. Additionally, he is principal guest conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and was recently appointed the youth and family concerts conductor for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.Past positions have included resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony, as well as the Florida Orchestra (Tampa Bay), and associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony (Virginia). He served on the music faculties of North Park University (Chicago), the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
Committed to promoting a life-long enthusiasm for music, Thomas brings energy and commitment to audiences of all ages. For his significant contribution to the children of Tampa Bay, the Pinellas County Music Educators Association named him 1998 Friend of the Arts and the Hillsborough County Elementary Music Educators recognized him as 1998 Music Educator of the Year.
A native of Norfolk, Va., Thomas earned his bachelor of music education degree from the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music in 1978. In 1982, he was awarded the master of music degree in orchestral conducting from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Thomas and his wife, Sheri-Lee, reside in Omaha with their twin daughters, Erica and Nicole.
Ernest Richardson, Resident Conductor
Resident Conductor Ernest Richardson enters his 19th year with the Omaha Symphony in the 2011/12 season. In addition to conducting the successful Symphony Pops series, he is the chief architect of the Omaha Symphony’s outreach and education programs.
Richardson is also music director of the Steamboat Springs Orchestra in Steamboat Springs, CO. His summers are spent in Steamboat Springs, where he is artistic director and CEO of the innovative Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory.
Richardson works with young musicians and has been guest conductor and clinician for regional and all-state orchestras in Arizona and Nebraska, the Phoenix Symphony Guild Youth Orchestra, Omaha Area Youth Orchestra, as well as festivals in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the University of Georgia. He has also guest conducted with the Nashville Symphony, Opera Omaha, Fort Collins (Colo.) Symphony, Battle Creek (Mich.) Symphony, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the Jacksonville Symphony and the Cheyenne Symphony.
Ernest began studying the violin at the age of three with his father, Dr. Vernal Richardson. He continued his string education at Indiana University with Tadeusz Wronski, later concentrating on the viola at the University of Michigan with Donald McInnes. Richardson studied conducting with Samuel Krachmalnick and Gustav Meier. While attending the University of Michigan, Richardson also studied composition with William Albright.
