Aaron Collins is an Electric Conductor

“Don’t let the name fool you,” Aaron Collins, conductor and artistic director of the , says. “Vero Beach is just as much our home as Brevard is.” Indeed, the group, now in its 15th season, has been performing in Vero Beach since 2012, before an audience Collins describes as generous with their money, time, and affection. “The Vero Beach audience always shows up,” he adds. 

Collins founded the orchestra in 2009, undaunted as only a 27-year-old could be by the fact that the country was still in the midst of the worst financial downturn since the Great Depression. “One day we were just sitting in the restaurant and someone said, ‘We should start an orchestra.’ I said, ‘Yes, that would be awesome!’ And we did.”

The restaurant Collins refers to would be Café Margaux in Cocoa, where he was serving tables when the idea for the orchestra was born. To advertise the first concert, performed on September 12, 2009, Collins printed flyers at Office Depot and handed them to diners with their checks. 

Collins was conducting a handful of local groups at the time and building a network of friendships through those organizations. He is quick to credit the musicians who were with him at the beginning and stood by him during the challenges of the early years. “We lost a lot of money our first season and were behind for the first three seasons,” he explains. 

Those financial challenges stemmed in part from Collins’ pledge to be a “Symphony for Everyone,” charging just $10 per ticket in those early years. “Every year we learned new things,” he says, “and finally in year seven or eight we hit our stride.” 

The commitment to making concert attendance accessible to everyone hasn’t changed. Today, students under age 18 or with a college ID attend for free. People who can’t afford the $30 advance ticket price can access the Symphony for Everyone program and pay what they are able. 

Collins’ passion for bringing symphonic music to the masses goes beyond the financial aspect. A promo video on the SCSO website claims, “This isn’t your grandfather’s orchestra,” and programming for the 15th anniversary season backs it up. October’s “Bewitching Broadway” included selections from Young Frankenstein, The Addams Family, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Nightmare Before Christmas. November’s “Gatsby Party” transported the audience to the Roaring Twenties with the music of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. 

In January, country music fans can enjoy a concert that spans 75 years of that genre, from Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash to Dolly Parton and Taylor Swift. And if country’s not your thing, that show is followed by “Hollywood Loves Opera.” The remainder of the season includes performances of 20th-century standards as well as scores from classic espionage films and Disney movies. Masterworks, pops, opera, film scores—it really is a symphony for everyone. 

Beyond the accessible ticket prices and expansive programming shines Collins’ warm and welcoming presence at every concert. Regular patrons enjoy his heartfelt explanations of the pieces, his frequent jokes, and his trips into the audience to shake hands with as many people as possible. He has also been known to pass the baton to an enthusiastic young child or an unexpecting adult in the audience and bring them on stage to conduct. “It’s all about creating a familiar place for our musicians and our patrons to come together and celebrate something that we all love,” he says. 

That celebration includes a dedication to promoting young artists. Concerts often include world premier performances of works by emerging artists. “I love being an ambassador of living composers,” Collins says. The SCSO is also heavily involved in student outreach, and Collins has been handing the baton to “a lot of great young student conductors” at recent performances.

More than 1,000 concerts since that first performance (by a recent informal count), Collins still enjoys being involved in every aspect of the organization. In addition to conducting and serving as artistic director, he answers phones and emails and even designs and creates concert programs. He credits becoming an entrepreneur with giving him a lot of insight. “It’s important for any musician to take a business class, because that’s going to define you, even more than the music studies,” he says. “Musicians need to know about things like money, and contracts, and planning.” 

At some point in nearly every concert, just after the homey 50/50 raffle in which a lucky patron takes home half the pot, Collins tells the audience that the best way to support the symphony is to buy a ticket and attend a performance. With the exception of a few grants, donations, and ad sales, the orchestra relies on ticket sales to cover expenses. “That’s very hard,” he acknowledges. “Every concert can be scary. One or two big losses in a row can be detrimental.” 

Not surprisingly for a man who founded an orchestra in his 20s, at 41 Collins isn’t one to dwell on the hardships. In 2019 he suffered a severe stroke. At the time, he was traveling and conducting more than 250 concerts a year. He was under a lot of stress and had just lost his father, who had only recently become part of his life. “I wasn’t being healthy. I was always on the road, not sleeping, going out every night,” he explains. 

He downplays his fight back to health, acknowledging only that he lost 150 pounds in the process. “It’s been good for me,” he says of the stroke. “I’m enjoying things a lot more now. Everything is a little more upbeat, nonchalant. I’m a much happier person.” 

Collins reflects on his growth as a conductor. “When I was younger,” he says, “I could be stubborn, impatient, not so kind.” Today, memory loss and some “brain fog” from the stroke make conducting more difficult. He finds himself making more notes and working much harder to do things that used to be effortless. Now, generosity, compassion, and a feeling that the musicians are family define him as a conductor. “We’re all human,” he says. “We all make mistakes. As much as we want the perfect performance, it’s not going to happen all the time.” He adds, “Musicians are kind.”

Further describing his conducting style, Collins explains “I’m not the type of conductor to hold the musicians back. There’s conservative and going for it, and I’m always going for it. I always want to create that atmosphere of ‘don’t be afraid to play.’” Not surprisingly, he values the rawness of a flat-out engaged performance. “Not holding back really creates those moments,” he says. “You can look back and say, ‘Wow, that was something.’”

Collins believes we’re privileged to have so many opportunities to enjoy live music in our community and says, “Our goal as arts groups should be to collaborate to make the overall audience bigger.” He adds, “Just get them into the concert hall and you’ll win some of them over.” 

If you haven’t already had the pleasure of being in the concert hall for an SCSO performance, do yourself a favor and take a chance at being won over.