Conductor to Debut With Santa Monica Symphony Tonight

When Allen Gross takes center stage tonight, he will be making his debut as conductor of the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra.

Gross, who oversees nearly 80 musicians, is eager to get the 1991-92 concert season started and hopes to introduce great music to more people.

“The Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra is a special organization,” he said. “The aim is to bring high-quality orchestral music-making to the Westside on a professional level with exceptional soloists.”

Tonight’s concert will begin at 7:30 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. The program will include New England Triptych by William Schuman, an orchestral piece that highlights different sections of the orchestra, the Horn Concerto No. 1 by soloist Richard Todd and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.

Gross has found getting in rehearsal time the most difficult part of putting together the concert. The symphony is made up of unpaid musicians who have many other commitments.

Despite time constraints, the conductor is already preparing for future concerts. He hopes to broaden the symphony’s repertoire to include 20th-Century music.

When Gross isn’t rehearsing with the orchestra, he teaches music at Occidental College and conducts the Occidental College/Cal Tech University Symphony Orchestra.

Several Westside residents have been appointed to the Loyola Marymount University Board of Regents.

The new regents are: John Adams, Hollywood Hills; Vince Durocher, Los Angeles; Carmel Hill, Beverly Hills, Grover McKean, Los Angeles; George Smart, Playa del Rey; Msgr. Royale Badakin, Los Angeles, and Merlin Whitte, Los Angeles.

The board of regents is an advisory board to the university’s governing board of trustees, the president and administration.

The Beverly Hills Theatre Guild recently presented its 1991 “Spotlight Award” to Larry Gelbart, creator of the television programs “M.A.S.H.” and “The Danny Kaye Show.”

Gelbart, a writer, director and producer in the entertainment industry for almost 50 years, was honored at a dinner Oct. 6 at the Friars Club in Beverly Hills.

Rabbi Joel Rembaum has been named chairman of the Commission on the Middle East of the Jewish Community Relations Committee by the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles.

Rembaum, who will serve a one-year term as chairman of the commission, is senior rabbi at Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles. He is also president of the Western States Region of the Rabbinical Assembly and vice president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California.

Elliot Rosman, a certified public accountant with R & R Consulting in Century City, has been named to the City of Hope “Gallery of Achievement.”

In addition to serving as a member of the board for 21 years, he has been chairman of the audit committee.

Rosman, a longtime supporter of the organization, was honored at that City of Hope National Biennial Convention in Beverly Hills.

Rosman lives in Los Angeles.