Monroe pianist performs to benefit mission

Monroe - Award-winning pianist Julienne Abad, 15, of Monroe, will perform at Music for Missions, a classical piano concert to benefit medical missions. The concert will be held on Sunday, Aug. 5, at 3 p.m. at the Rockland Conservatory of Music in Spring Valley. Julienne’s repertoire will include masterpieces by Reinhold, Chopin, Beethoven, Debussy, Glinka, Schumann, and Liszt, with Chopin’s Ballade No. 1 in g, Op. 23, and Scherzo No. 2 in b-flat, Op. 31, as finale numbers. Music for Missions is open to the public. There is no admission fee, but donations are welcome. All proceeds will go to Lord Jesus Christ International Medical Missions (LJCIMM), a team of missionary doctors and nurses headed by Dr. Othello Caturan who travel annually to rural and inner-city areas in the Philippines to perform free surgeries on indigent people. Julienne, who aspires to become a missionary doctor herself, volunteered to perform pro Deo at Music for Missions to help LJCIMM raise funds for its next missionary trip. “I am touched by Dr. Caturan’s dedication to his mission and his compassion for the poor,” she said when interviewed. Julienne began studying piano at age 6. For the first four years, she was mentored by her father, an award-winning musician himself. Since then, Julienne has been studying under Russian-trained music professors. Her teachers have commended her virtuosity as well as her artistic, dramatic, and deeply communicative style. For more information about Music for Missions, call 783-7427.