During the Romantic period, which lasted from the late 18th to the early 19th century, composers sought to evoke deep feelings and to express personal experiences through their music. Brahms, whose music explores themes such as love, nature, the supernatural and the sublime, is the quintessential Romantic composer. His compositions are characterized by rich harmonies, memorable melodies, and powerful emotions.

In Johannes Brahms and the Romantic Spirit, the Vallejo Festival Orchestra, under the direction of Grammy award-winning conductor Thomas Conlin, will perform two of Brahms’s greatest and most-loved masterpieces: his gloriously joyful Violin Concerto and his tumultuous and tragic final symphony. Both works convey a wide range of emotions: tenderness, passion and melancholy, and both are monuments to the highest musical craftsmanship.

Our soloist is the brilliant violin virtuoso Nigel Armstrong, a finalist in the 14th Tchaikovsky International Competition and a prize-winner in the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin competition, the International Violin Competition in Buenos Aires, and the Corpus Christi International Competition. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, he has been soloist with orchestras in Europe, Asia, South America, and with the Boston Pops and numerous other orchestras in the United States.

Maestro Thomas Conlin studied under Leonard Bernstein, Erich Leinsdorf, Seiji Ozawa and Sir Adrian Boult. He assisted Karl Böhm and Herbert von Karajan at the Metropolitan Opera and has conducted opera, ballet and symphony orchestras on five continents. He won a Grammy award for his recording with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus of the orchestral works of American composer George Crumb. In 2020 he founded the Vallejo Festival Orchestra, resident ensemble of the Vallejo Center for the Arts.