Grosse Pointe Symphony Orchestra to Hold Concert

From the Grosse Pointe Symphony Board: The Grosse Pointe Symphony Orchestra conducted by Joe Striplin will be presenting it's March concert Sunday March 12 at 3 p.m. at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church. (467 Fairford, Grosse Pointe Woods)

Charles Greenwell will give a pre-concert talk at 2 p.m.

The program is a Rachmaninov Spectacular. Nicolas Gable will perform the Rachmaninov third piano concerto. Nick performed the 2nd Rachmaninov with the orchestra 2 years ago and many of you will remember that spectacular performance.

Also on the program are the beloved Schubert "Unfinished" Symphony, and the dramatic Beethoven Coriolanus Overture. A special feature of this concert will be the appearance of the Nester Scholarship competition, Amelia Abouljoud playing the Stamitz viola concerto. This talented young lady is a Junior at Grosse Pointe High School. Amelia Abouljoud began her musical career at age twelve, starting with the violin. At fourteen she began to play the viola. Her love for music blossomed in 2014 when she was selected for the MSBOA All-State Orchestra. Since then, she has participated in the Civic Youth Ensembles, including the Detroit Symphony Youth Orchestra and the chamber music program. She has also been playing with the University of Michigan’s Michigan Youth Symphony Orchestra since 2015. In 2016, she was again selected to play in MSBOA’s All-State Orchestra. Abouljoud was also a finalist in the Dearborn Symphony Orchestra Concert Competition in 2016, and was nominated by MSBOA to compete in a concerto competition for the Michigan Youth Arts Festival that same year. She owes all of her success and gratitude to her teachers James Gross, Dr. Colette Mataij, and Hang Su (whom she currently studies with), as well as her parents.

Nicholas Gable was born and raised in Ann Arbor. In 2011, he graduated from the University of Michigan Honors Program with a degree in Ancient History. He received a full-ride scholarship to the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, from which he graduated after having spent a semester of his final year as an exchange student at the Université Panthéon-Assas in Paris. Aside from his interest in music and the piano, Gable has continued to pursue his interest in ancient languages, especially Greek and Latin, and he enjoys participating in amateur boxing. Gable has been studying the piano with Waleed Howrani for six years and this performance of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto with the Grosse Pointe Symphony Orchestra marks his second appearance with the Symphony. He is an attorney at Legal Services of South Central Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he litigates in state and federal court in the areas of poverty and civil rights law.

Tickets are available on line at gpsymphony.org or at the door.

Photos courtesy of the Grosse Pointe Symphony Board