Concerts, tasting festival fill weekend with music, food

Sometimes the fresh perspective of a newcomer inspires renewed appreciation for something that might otherwise be taken for granted.

Enter Christina Wirth, who moved here eight years ago from the Berkshires, Mass., where she was active in supporting music, and now is the current president of the Northwest Florida Symphony Guild.

“I’m quite elderly,” Wirth said last week, “but when I saw what was happening here, it prompted me to do some more work (for the arts).”

This is a huge weekend for the guild and the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, which the guild supports. It includes the annual concert for schoolchildren, the Stars of Tomorrow concert and the guild’s biggest fundraiser of the year, its International Food and Wine Tasting Festival.

It’s also the 25th anniversary of the annual Concerto Competition, the winners of which are the stars of tomorrow. The guild has sponsored the competition for 23 years.

“It was originally started by John Leatherwood. He was founding (NFSO) conductor at the time,” Wirth said. “It has grown over the years.”

Of 370 applications that were sent out to schools and individuals in North Florida and South Alabama, about 90 were entered, Wirth said.

“Out of that, they were winnowed down to 14 who came here to play for the judges, and now we have our three winners.”

Those winners are Julian Toha, a senior at Florida State University, Collegiate Division; Samantha Horn, a senior at the Collegiate High School at Northwest Florida State College, Senior Division; and Kelly Wu, a fifth-grader at A.K. Suter Elementary School in Pensacola, Junior Division.

On Friday, 1,500 fifth-graders from Okaloosa and Walton counties will come to the Mattie Kelly Arts Center at NWFSC to hear a free concert by the symphony. The guild hosts the concert.

“Everyone will be there,” Wirth said. “Just like the concert that night.”

The evening performance for the public is at 7:30 in the Mattie Kelly Arts Center.

The concert will feature special guest artist solo tubist Chester Schmitz performing George Kleinsinger’s “Tubby the Tuba,” a work for tuba, narrator and orchestra. Schmitz is former principal tuba player for 35 years with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Leatherwood will be the narrator.

Jeffrey Rink, NFSO music conductor and director, said the concert is “a varied program of choral, solo and instrumental music.

“The entire family will enjoy hearing this evening of great music as well as celebrate and honor the musical accomplishments of Northwest Florida’s young people.”

The concert also features Rossini’s famous William Tell Overture and a selection by the Northwest Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra under the direction of Liz Aylor.

The Niceville Singers of Niceville High School will join the orchestra for the Coronation Anthem, “Let Thy Hand be Strengthened,” by George Fredric Handel.

The second half of the concert features Wu playing the first movement of Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D major and Horn playing the first movement of Harp Concerto in A major by Ditter von Dittersdorf.

“Kelly is 9 years old,” Rink said Monday. “She competed with other students, up to eighth-graders, which is pretty amazing.”

Because of a previous commitment, Toha will perform with the NFSO next season. Rink said the date will be Feb. 25, 2011, which is that year’s Stars of Tomorrow concert.

“We’ll have two senior division winners performing at that concert,” Rink said. “Julian, who will be last year’s winner at that point, and whoever wins that year.”

Tickets for the Friday evening concert are $22.50 each for adults and $16 each for youths ages 18 and under. Active-duty military members receive a discounted rate of $16 for tickets purchased at the door with I.D. There is a four-ticket limit for the military discount.

Tickets are available in person at the box, by phone at 729-6000 or online at mattiekellyartscenter.org or the orchestra Web site at nfsymphony.org.

Tickets are available the night of the concert at the box office starting at 6 p.m. Current NFSC students may receive one free ticket per valid student I.D.

The grand finale to the musical weekend arrives 1-4 p.m. Sunday with the 19th annual International Food & Wine Tasting Festival at the Emerald Coast Conference Center on Okaloosa Island in Fort Walton Beach.

“The concerts and the tasting festival aren’t usually on the same weekend,” Wirth said. “It just all sort of came together that way this year.

“It will be a wonderful way to show people on Friday how we spend the money and then on Sunday show them how we raise the money.”

Twenty-six area restaurants and catering services are slated to serve samplings of their cuisine at the festival.

More than 1,000 guests are expected to enjoy the food and wine samples from around the world. NFSO members and guest artists will provide music.

Also part of the evening, is a silent auction with a large selection of items, including paintings by local artists, golf and tennis packages, gourmet dinners prepared in your home, gift baskets, dining certificates and more.

Tickets for the festival are $40 in advance available at: Chan’s Wine World, Destin; Bayou Books, Niceville; Coach and Four Gift Shop, Magnolia Grill and Vandegriff Jewelers, Fort Walton Beach; Kitchenique, the Market Shops at Sandestin.

Advanced group purchase of 10 or more tickets are $35 each. Tickets will be $50 at the door.

Proceeds from the event are used to support the NFSO, the NWFS Youth Orchestra, the NWFS Junior Orchestra, a host of other children’s music programs, scholarship competitions, and other ongoing events to develop and promote interest in the fine arts.

The guild is a member of the American Symphony Orchestra League, was established in 1988 and incorporated in 1990 as a not-for-profit, tax-exempt corporation. Membership is open to anyone who would like to support the symphony and art education in Okaloosa and Walton counties.

For membership information, call Gloria DeBerry at 244-2940. For more about the festival, contact David Crawford at 621-7377 or Christina Wirth 897-3317.