Speaker: <span data-teams="true">Maestro Peter Wilson and Dr. Niyati Dhokai

This event is open to the public. For more information about the Lifelong Learning Institute, Manassas, visit lli-manassas.org

In advance of the American Festival Pops Orchestra: Armed Forces Day Celebration performance, join Peter Wilson, conductor of the American Festival Pops Orchestra, and Niyati Dhokai, program director for the Veterans and the Arts Initiative at George Mason University, for a discussion about the impact that music has had on the military.

Peter Wilson is an engaging and multifaceted violinist, conductor, arranger, and composer, whose artistry has been noted as “first-class” by The Washington Post. He is the former senior enlisted music advisor to The White House, where he led countless ensembles and performed for 30 years as a Marine violinist in direct support of five presidents. Peter currently serves as music director of the Richmond Philharmonic and The American Prize-winning Waynesboro Symphony Orchestras in Virginia as well as artistic director and conductor of the American Festival Pops Orchestra in the National Capital Region. He began his career as concertmaster of the Walt Disney World Orchestra, has conducted the National Symphony and National Gallery of Art Orchestras, and holds degrees from Northwestern and Catholic University, where he earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree. A Cleveland native, he began studying violin at age two, later moving to Morgantown, West Virginia, where he became the first musician ever to receive the Governor’s Award for Exceptional Achievement in the Arts. 

Dr. Niyati Dhokai is a research associate professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at George Mason University, and she also serves as program director for the Veterans and the Arts Initiative at the Hylton Performing Arts Center. In recognition of her work, Dr. Dhokai is the 2018 recipient of the Change Maker of the Year award from the Virginia Department of Veterans Services and the 2018 recipient of George Mason University’s Jack Wood Award for Town Gown Relations in the faculty/staff category. Prior to joining the faculty at GMU, she worked with Veterans and Servicemembers recovering from injuries in post-acute neurorehabilitation in the Washington D.C. metro area by designing and facilitating music activities to support community integration. She has a bachelor’s degree in music from George Mason University, and she completed her master’s and doctorate in music (Ethnomusicology) from the University of Alberta (Canada), where her doctoral dissertation research was supported by a Fulbright grant to study in India.