{"id":5262,"date":"2026-07-19T10:39:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T10:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=5262"},"modified":"2026-07-19T10:39:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T10:39:06","slug":"father-and-daughter-to-unite-on-the-tanglewood-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=5262","title":{"rendered":"Father and daughter to unite on the Tanglewood stage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Keila Wakao made her first Symphony Hall appearance at a younger age than most. Wearing a ruffled powder-blue dress with a matching headband, 5-year-old Keila toddled on stage in 2011 to hand a bouquet of flowers to her father, oboist Keisuke Wakao, after he premiered John Williams\u2019s Concerto for Oboe with the Boston Pops. \u201cTo be honest, I don\u2019t remember the concert, but I remember going up to the stage,\u201d she said. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Just over a decade later, it was her turn in the same spotlight. As the winner of the Boston Symphony Orchestra\u2019s annual concerto competition in 2023, she performed a movement from Prokofiev\u2019s Violin Concerto No. 2 at a family concert. Then she was invited to perform at the orchestra\u2019s opening gala. Now, she\u2019s preparing for her biggest BSO audience yet. She makes her Tanglewood debut this Friday as soloist in Barber\u2019s Violin Concerto, under the baton of BSO music director Andris Nelsons. Her father, who is retiring from the orchestra at the end of the current Tanglewood season, will be proudly supporting her from his usual seat in the woodwinds section. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Keila\u2019s interest in music sparked in her preschool days, when she saw some other children performing at a house party thrown by one of her father\u2019s BSO colleagues, and she wanted in. \u201cI told my parents \u2026 \u2018I want to do that, too.\u2019 Immediately \u2014 literally the week after \u2014 I had a violin and a violin teacher,\u201d Keila said in a joint Zoom interview with her father from the family\u2019s home in the Berkshires, as the family\u2019s chatty cat Momo (a frequent guest in Keila\u2019s Instagram videos) romped in the background.<\/span><\/p>\n

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