TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Couple To Provide 'Sounds Of Christmas'

ADVERTISEMENT

By JESSICA BAIR, The Suncoast News

Published: November 22, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY - The Wilsons have lifted their voices in song many times around the Suncoast - at concert halls, in parks, at community centers and in churches.

So they're used to having hundreds of eyes upon them, even when they're at their jobs.

John Wilson is a longtime news anchor for WTVT, Fox 13 in Tampa. Mary K. Wilson is a musician for the St. Peter's Episcopal Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

Sunday at 2:30 p.m., the couple will bring the "Sounds of Christmas" to the Living Word Church, 5151 Rowan Road. Tickets are $5 and proceeds will benefit the Thursday Musicale scholarship fund, which helps Pasco high school students further their music education.

Thursday Musicale is a 50-woman choir that performs at the church and other local venues.

The Wilsons have sung with the Florida Orchestra, the Mostly Pops Orchestra, the Richey Community Orchestra, the Tampa Bay Symphony Orchestra and the Florida West Coast Symphony and at many benefit concerts.

"The last 30 some years have been incredible for me," John Wilson said.

"I have a wonderful wife who I get to sing with in front of symphony orchestras from time to time."

The duo is especially popular with schoolchildren and teachers, having presented holiday concerts in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties for 17 years.

The shows are sponsored by George Steinbrenner and family and the New York Yankees.

The Wilsons met in Richmond while attending Virginia Commonwealth University. They have three sons and five grandchildren.

John, who anchors weeknight newscasts at 6 and 10, also has covered world events in Washington, D.C., the Middle East, France and Haiti in the past 40 years.

"The Army put me on TV for the first time anchoring the news during the Vietnam War," Wilson said of his career, "which sent me to the anchor chair at stations in Richmond, Norfolk, Charlotte and St. Louis."

To hear more of Wilson's story, go online to www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox. Click on the "People" button under "Inside Fox" in the big, red bar atop the page.

Click on his small photograph just beneath "The People At Fox"; then press the first button on the left in his audio/visual clip.

Mary K. Wilson, who holds a bachelor's in music education and a master's degree, has been with St. Peter's for 19 years and has performed church music for more than 40 years.

A lyric soprano, she has directed four choirs, as well as the music resource center for the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida. For more on the cathedral, visit www.spcathedral.net.

IF YOU GO

For information on the John and Mary K. Wilson concert, or to reserve a seat, contact Maryanne Freeman of the Thursday Musicale at (727) 841-7631. They will perform "Sounds of Christmas" at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Living Word Church, 5151 Rowan Road, New Port Richey.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT