Take Me Home
Friday, May 8, 2026
“Take Me Home” ends our season in celebratory fashion as we look at the many ways we can define “home.”
We open with Antonio Estévez’s Melodia en el Llano, a work chosen through our “players’ choice” program, where musicians of the WSO select a piece for performance that is special to their musical story. Our principal second violin, Juan Jaramillo, offered this piece as a tribute to his homeland of Venezuela.
Our second piece on the program is a WSO-commissioned work from composer/violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR), featuring yet another innovative artist: Tracy Silverman. One of the world’s foremost electric violin soloists, some of the world’s great composers have written concertos for Tracy—and we are honored to bring together these two innovative icons for this premiere.
In the second half of the concert, we return to a different sort of new American work, with the iconic “New World Symphony,” by Antonín Dvořák. Throughout this masterpiece, Dvořák uses influences that he encountered after he moved to New York—most notably, the spiritual—to help shape the sound of a new type of American classical music.
Single tickets go on sale June 27 at 10 am. Subscriptions go on sale May 15.
For more information, contact the Wheeling Symphony Box Office at 304-232-6191 or boxoffice@wheelingsymphony.com.
Featuring
Tracy Silverman, violin
Tracy Silverman is one of the world’s foremost electric violin soloists, bringing concert hall legitimacy to this next-generation instrument. As part of Silverman’s vision for the “future of strings”, he has premiered and recorded several major new electric violin concertos written specifically for him by composers John Adams (The Dharma at Big Sur), Terry Riley (The Palmian Chord Ryddle), Nico Muhly (Seeing is Believing), Roberto Sierra (Ficciones), Kenji Bunch (Embrace), and 3 concertos of his own; appearing with the LA Philharmonic, BBC Symphony and many others at Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and stages all over the world. Formerly first violinist with the innovative Turtle Island String Quartet, Silverman made his professional debut at the age of 13 as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and was named one of 100 distinguished alumni by The Juilliard School. Silverman is notable not only for his development and use of the electric 6-string violin, but also for what he terms “progressive string playing”, an evolution of classical string playing that embraces contemporary popular idioms such as rock, jazz and hip hop. TV/internet and radio includes a solo Tiny Desk Concert on NPR, A Prairie Home Companion, Performance Today, St. Paul Sunday, and a profile on CBS News Sunday Morning. A longtime proponent of string education, Silverman is a leader in the progressive string community and the host of The Greater Groove: The Future of Strings podcast. His Strum Bowing method has been adopted by players and teachers all over the world. Silverman is the author of The Strum Bowing Method: How to Groove on Strings, and The Rhythm String Player: Strum Bowing in Action, as well as several etude books and online courses on his Strum Bowing Groove Academy. Silverman is on the faculty of Belmont University in Nashville, TN.
John Devlin, conductor
Conductor John Gennaro Devlin, is an ardent champion of American music, an innovator of concert design, and a thought leader in the field of classical music. In his seventh season as Music Director of the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, Devlin is only the ninth conductor in its 90-year history to hold that title. He was recently named a recipient of the 2023 Georg Solti Foundation Career Assistance Award. Devlin’s artistry and versatility make him a frequent guest conductor with major orchestras across the nation. His engagements include performances with the National Symphony Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, Columbus Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Elgin Symphony Orchestra, and the American Repertory Ballet. Of his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra and violin soloist Joshua Bell, Anne Midgette of The Washington Post wrote that Devlin “led the evening with flair … and was visibly in his element.” A strong advocate for American music, Devlin has made it a programmatic focus and has premiered over 40 new American works. Committed to serving the wider arts community beyond the podium, Devlin is part of the six-member Conductor Constituency Leadership Team of the League of American Orchestras, advocating for conductors nationally. Previously, he served on the Conductors Guild’s Board of Directors and was a featured speaker at the organization’s annual conference, discussing the future of orchestras with the Executive Directors of the National and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras. He also delivered the keynote TED talk on “Innovation in Crowded Marketplaces” at a TEDx symposium. Devlin completed his master’s and doctoral degrees in orchestral conducting under the tutelage of James Ross at the University of Maryland. His undergraduate degree is from Emory University, where he graduated summa cum laude with a double major in Clarinet Performance and Latin.
