WSO honours couple for lifetime contribution

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This article was published 17/03/2010 (5925 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — A husband-and-wife team are being honoured by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra for a lifetime’s contribution to the city’s musical life.

Irmgard and William Baerg will be given the WSO’s Golden Baton Award at the orchestra’s April 21 Spring Gala fundraiser, executive director Trudy Schroeder said.

It marks the first time the Golden Baton has been awarded since 1999.

"We’re no longer going to limit it to major donors," Schroeder said. "We’d like to honour people who’ve made significant contributions in any number of other ways."

Irmgard Baerg is a prominent pianist who has performed with the WSO in numerous capacities. William Baerg is one of the city’s best-known choral conductors.

The Baergs have been working together to prepare the Mennonite Festival Chorus for the WSO’s April 3 performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.

At the April 21 gala, the WSO will also pay tribute to two retiring musicians, cellist Tom Watrous and French horn player Ken Strahl, both of whom have played with the orchestra for 37 years.

The late lawyer Harold Buchwald was the first Golden Baton recipient in 1990. The last one went to Tom Stefanson, then chairman of Manitoba Telecom Services.

The prize fell by the wayside at the turn of the century because of the WSO financial and organizational troubles at the time.