“The viola section of the Cleveland Orchestra will not go leaderless, even for a short while,” writes Zachary Lewis in Monday’s (6/27) Plain Dealer (Cleveland). “Wesley Collins, a violist in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, has been hired as principal violist and will replace outgoing principal violist Robert Vernon immediately upon his retirement. Vernon, a well-known and respected figure, will end his 40-year orchestra career—the longest of any string principal in Cleveland Orchestra history—this summer, after the group’s European Tour. Collins is slated to begin in September, at the start of the 2016-17 Severance Hall season…. The man he’s replacing was his teacher. Like many current members of the Cleveland Orchestra and other major groups, including the Boston Symphony, Collins studied with Vernon at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He earned a degree there in 2007…. He also served as assistant principal violist of the Akron Symphony Orchestra and played in the Canton Symphony, CityMusic Cleveland and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony…. Collins [is] a former member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and son of Philip Collins, former principal trumpet of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.”
Posted June 28, 2016
