Whirlwind weekend for retiring maestro
PHOTO PROVIDED BY LARRY BAUMGARTNER
Retiring Charlotte Symphony Orchestra music director T. Francis Wada holds a commemorative violin he signed. The violin will be auctioned at a tribute dinner for the maestro March 25 at the Isles Yacht Club in Punta Gorda.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY LARRY BAUMGARTNER
Liz Hutchinson-Sperry, artist and owner of Red Hat Studios in Punta Gorda, who painted the commemorative violin, shares celebratory champagne with retiring maestro T. Francis Wada and orchestra board member Jim Dunn.
PHOTO PROVIDED
The violin painted by Liz Hutchinson-Sperry, to be auctioned.
In March 2009, a relatively unknown maestro — from Japan, by way of Massachusetts, who had never been south of Tampa before — served as guest conductor for the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra.
In the middle of the concert, he produced a harmonica and played along with the orchestra.
