From Katherine Spencer Roxlo

From the Desk of Katherine Spencer Roxlo

Dear Charlotte Symphony Orchestra,

Congratulations for 90 years of community-inspired cultural excellence. When the CSO started, Charlotte was small and citizens were motivated by the idea of starting their own symphony orchestra. Everyone helped by playing an instrument, working in publicity, or ushering in the auditorium. The Charlotte Symphony not only survived but thrived, through a depression, world war, economic downturns, and now even a pandemic.

I am grateful to so many. I am so proud and thankful for my grandfather, Guillermo de Roxlo. He was musically brilliant and passionate about his profession. He traveled with a young family from Barcelona, to Colombia, to Cuba, to Charlotte. He taught lessons, played the piano and violin, wrote music, and anything else to make a living. In Charlotte there was no money for music scores, so he hand-wrote the music sheets for each musician in the orchestra.

I am thankful to my grandmother, Katherine (Kitty), who nurtured her husband’s career enthusiastically. Her enthusiasm for music and her charisma were as instrumental in the Roxlos’ arrival to North Carolina as Guillermo’s talent. J. Spencer Bell, my step-grandfather, was also instrumental to the symphony’s success. He was the symphony’s first manager and played flute in the orchestra from the start. Later when my grandparents divorced, he professed his love for Kitty and she became Mrs. J. Spencer Bell.

I am so thankful for the Clark Walter family who invited my family to Charlotte. I believe Clark Walter worked for AT&T in Cuba, met my family, and sponsored them to Charlotte and the United States. At first, my family lived in the basement of his house and Guillermo gave music lessons to his two sons.

I am thankful to each and every Charlotte Symphony Orchestra sponsor. That includes those who play an instrument, work backstage or in the box office, buy tickets, attend, and those who provide donations. Without all those sponsors and the enthusiasm and industrious spirit of Charlotte’s community, I literally would not be here — my American family would not exist. Like refugees today, we depended on the financial and moral support of those who came here before us.

Katherine Spencer Roxlo