Kathryn Gaubatz, the funny, kind and tireless force behind early music in Florida passed away on Friday 10th October and I have lost a friend. For 20 years she ran the Bach Society and from 2000 she set up, sourced funding and ran a small festival with internationally reputed performers. She loved to visit Europe - France in particular - to go to see performers whom she already knew or had been recommended and her Tropical Baroque Festival enjoyed a truly European flavour with the artists she chose.
As a person she was always generous with her time and ferociously knowledgeable and helpful with her advice. Just last year she was explaining to me the South American influence on Baroque music and when I was duly fascinated enough to want us to write on the subject, she recommended me people across France and South America with whom I should speak and who would be only too willing to share their knowledge. And when I called these renowned experts in Mexico and Bolivia she was absolutely right; her name opened doors to baroque right across the world.
Kathy was enormously enthusiastic and packed more into her schedule than many a person a fraction of her age. She never stopped being interested in technological change and understood what the web could offer promoters several years before larger organizations caught on. As a fitting tribute her family has requested those who knew her to give donations to the Miami Bach Society.
May she rest in peace with her beloved husband and son Dan who predeceased her.
