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Dear Friends,
I hope you have enjoyed our fantastic season of top-notch speakers at our sold-out Showcase Luncheons this year! We value your participation and encourage you to share our great programs with your friends and invite them next season.
We were delighted to welcome guest speaker, Barry Wordsworth, Principal Guest Conductor of The Royal Ballet, to our last Showcase Luncheon for the season. Mr. Wordsworth will be the Narrator for A Wedding Bouquet in Program Seven – Movements of Genius, at the Sarasota Opera House on April 25 & 26.
Once again, Jean Volpe was a delightful moderator for the afternoon as Barry shared highlights from his early years to the present day. Early on, he loved the harpsichord and began his piano studies at Trinity College of Music. His conducting debut came when a professor became ill, and he conducted a performance of Handel’s Messiah. Mr. Wordsworth was appointed Assistant Conductor of the touring orchestra of The Royal Ballet in 1972 and a year later became Principal Conductor of Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet. When asked about the difference between dance in the US and UK, he commented that the main difference had to do with specific companies such as the New York City Ballet and their association with George Balanchine.
Fun Fact: Barry Wordsworth won a Grammy Award for a recording with Bryn Terfel and the London Symphony Orchestra – “Bryn Terfel: Rhapsody of the Soul” (2007).
As one Luncheon patron texted me soon after: “I loved the program today. Necklace, chocolates, and Barry Wordsworth. It was great to see everyone. You have enlivened the Friends!”
Congratulations to Carolou Marquet for winning the long-awaited Chance Drawing at the April 7 Luncheon! They look absolutely lovely on her. Many thanks to all who purchased tickets at each Luncheon; we raised $700 to be designated to Dance – The Next Generation, The Sarasota Ballet’s Community Engagement Program offering tuition-free dance training to Sarasota and Manatee County 3rd through 12th graders eligible for free and reduced lunch.
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