Greenville Symphony to present concert

Staff report

GREENVILLE, Pa.

The Greenville Symphony Orchestra will present a concert at 3 p.m. Saturday featuring virtuoso violinist Hristo Popov, the Shenango Valley Chorale, and Rising Stars contest winner Dan Hogan of Greenville.

The 70-piece orchestra is conducted by Michael Gelfand.

The concert will include the GSO’s annual raffle basket and gift drawing in the lobby, which raises money for the orchestra’s scholarship fund.

Tickets are $15 ($12 for senior citizens; free for children and students) at the door. For information, go to thegreenvillesymphony.org.

Popov made his orchestra debut at age 9 with Plovdiv State Philharmonic Orchestra, and has since performed at venues as recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist in the United States and Europe.

He serves as artistic director of the Chagrin Valley Chamber Music Concert Series, and as concertmaster of Opera Circle in Cleveland, Warren Philharmonic and Opera Western Reserve. He is a member of the New Amici Trio in Residence at Youngstown State University with Cicilia Yudha on piano and GSO’s Michael Gelfand on cello.

The orchestra and Shenango Valley Chorale will perform “The Halleluiah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah, Wilhousky’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.”

Hogan teaches music at St. Michael School in Greenville, where he directs the school choir and is the founding band director. He is also the choir director at First United Methodist Church in Greenville, and directs the city’s annual community choir performance of Handel’s “Messiah.”

His public singing had been limited to church settings until he decided to try the Greenville Symphony’s Rising Stars competition in 2012. He won in 2013.

Hogan will sing “New York, New York,” and will later be joined by Christine McConnell of Mercer for “All I Ask of You.”