This Thursday, April
10th
, the Louisville
Philharmonia
welcomes pianist Nada
Loutfi
for its Spring Concert at Harvey Brown Presbyterian Church.
Dubbed “The Musicians’ Orchestra”, the Louisville Philharmonia held its inaugural concert in the spring of 2012 and has since grown into a superlative community ensemble that delivers highly professional performances. Led by Daniel Spurlock, a graduate of Juilliard and a former Assistant Conductor of the Louisville Orchestra, the Philharmonia was founded “by a group of serious amateur and semi-professional orchestral players in order to fill a need in the Louisville area for a community ensemble that plays orchestral music to a high standard. Independent of any other institution, the Louisville Philharmonia is a completely musician-run orchestra with a board of directors made up of playing members.” That the ensemble is so dedicated to musicianship absent the politics of larger organizations is a testament to the quality and, hopefully, indelibility of its performances.
This week’s Spring Concert features pianist Nada Loutfi in a performance of Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor. A graduate of Indiana University and the Paris Conservatory (where she was the first Middle Eastern woman to win First Prize in Piano), Loutfi has been a figure on the international stage for many years. Her American orchestral debut with the Louisville Orchestra in a performance of Beethoven prompted the late conductor, Lawrence Leighton Smith to declare that “s
he is a major talent [and] will be
most deserving of every success that will undoubtedly come her way.” An active local musician,
Loutfi
is also the founder of Purely Piano Inc., a nonprofit organization in Louisville that sponsors piano recitals within the community. More about Nada can be found on her website
.
Thursday’s performance will also include Fauré’s haunting Pavane and Dvořák’s first four Slavonic Dances. The concert is free and will begin at 7:30 pm. More information can be found here.
(Photo courtesy of Nada Loutfi via
www.nadaloutfi.com/CMS/.
)
Follow Michael on Twitter: @rackoflambert.
