(Rebecca Gilmore, Assistant Principal Cello, Virginia Symphony Orchestra)
By Jeff Maisey
On June 22, out of the blue, Rebecca Gilmore experienced a seizure and passed out on her bathroom floor.
The Assistant Principal Cellist of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra is an avid practitioner of yoga, fit, trim, and pliable. She’s long considered herself a healthy person.
The family dog — a mutt named Jack, as she described him, and a hero — started barking, and alerted her son something was wrong.
Rushed to a hospital emergency room, Gilmore underwent an immediate CT scan, which revealed a large black mass attached to the left side of her brain.
A followup MRI showed she had a meningioma tumor (non cancerous) pressing on her brain.
“I had an awful two-day surgery, and thanks to the Neurosurgeon, Dr. Joseph Koen, I am alive and have regained everything,” said Gilmore. The surgery was done at Chesapeake Regional Medical Center. “He’s like a rock star surgeon.”
Thinking back, Rebecca Gilmore said there were early warning signs that she dismissed as nothing.
“I was having trouble speaking, basically a tip-of-tongue word that I wanted to say but I couldn’t say it,” she shared. “There were symptoms but I didn’t know it was brain related at all.”
Gilmore thought she was perhaps having a midlife crisis so she worked through the occasional impediments.
Following the two-day medical procedure it was discussed Rebecca’s recovery process should begin as quickly as possible. She reached first for her cello, and persistently worked on playing scales.
“That’s a very organized method of string playing,” she said. “Being home and breathing, which is very yoga related, I feel very good about what I did; some of it was very intuitive.”
Gilmore was also instructed to walk, practice going up and down stairs, and undergo physical therapy to rebuild strength.
Driven, in part, by a desire to return to her role as cellist for the Virginia Symphony’s 2026-27 season, Dr. Koen cautioned her to listen to her body and decide based upon how she felt.
“The opening night was Mahler and Mahler has 20 instructions per location, and in German,” Gilmore explained. “I could certainly do it, I think, but at the same time I didn’t know how my brain would take it and what my response would be.
“You really don’t know how coming off the summer (surgery) and being around all the loud sounds of the orchestra will feel.
“Rather than putting my colleagues through that — and me — I decided not to go back too soon. “I was going to work on speech, meaning recalling words, expressive language, and all that.”
Rebecca Gilmore will make her triumphant return for the Virginia Symphony Orchestra’s “John Williams & Steven Spielberg: Iconic Film Scores” concerts scheduled October 23 at CNU’s Ferguson Center and October 25 at the Sandler Center.
The Symphony describes the program as a way to “celebrate one of cinema’s most revered collaborations between composer and filmmaker as the VSO brings music from films like ‘E.T.,’ ‘Jaws,’ ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind,’ ‘Indiana Jones,’ and more to life. Hear why this partnership has inspired audiences for over 50 years.”
Perhaps not necessarily the “Jaws” theme, but many in the audience and the seated orchestra will feel exuberant chills watching Gilmore perform the uplifting, iconic score to “Indiana Jones.”
“For me it’s going to be really exciting,” Gilmore said. “For the other musicians, now that they been through Mahler and Philip Glass, maybe it would be the same effect. But for me it’s going to be incredible — shew, sensory overload.”
Following her return to live performance, Rebecca Gilmore plans to record a new album with her side project, the Ambrosia Quartet, while also teaching music as an adjunct professor at Old Dominion University and Christopher Newport University. Now, more than ever, the self-described “go-getter” wants the most out of life.
“Maybe I feel like I’m on borrowed time. You’ don’t know. That’s what I learned from that experience. You thought you were so healthy and then you got knocked down. I’m going to do whatever I want to do now. I feel very positive and I continue to carry the torch for teachers I’ve had.”