UNCOVERING MUSICAL GEMS ENCINO RESIDENT SEES JEWISH SYMPHONY SHE CREATED BLOOM.

Byline: MARK KELLAM Valley News Writer

Noreen Green thought she knew a lot about Jewish music. Then she went to a concert featuring compositions by David Nowakowsky, an obscure early 20th-century composer from the Ukraine.

``Here was all this Jewish music I knew nothing about,'' said Green, an Encino resident. ``I had already been involved in Jewish music for 10 years, and I didn't know about it.''

That concert led her to learn more about Nowakowsky, whose scores had been buried in the Holocaust. She wrote her doctorate treatise about him. Her increased interest in Jewish music led her 12 years ago to create her own symphony, which specializes in performing works by Jewish and non-Jewish composers.

The Los Angeles Jewish Symphony now performs throughout the L.A. area. It's next concert will be at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Ford Amphitheatre. The concert title is ``Ahavah: From Israel With Love.''

Featured musicians will be Israeli percussionist Chen Zimbalista, Isreli French horn soloist Alon Reuven and three young violinists from Israel.

Green, who grew up in Sherman Oaks, has seen the symphony grow both in terms of audience and programming under her leadership. The symphony used to perform three concerts a year and was funded entirely by private donations. It now has received support from city and county agencies, as well as grants from the Righteous Persons Foundation, whose recipients are selected by director Steven Spielberg, and from the National Endowment for the Arts.

In the past 12 years, the symphony has performed in concert with artists including Billy Crystal, Tovah Feldshuh, Leonard Nimoy, Randy Newman, Theodore Bikel, Laraine Newman, Valerie Harper, Pat Boone, Lainie Kazan and Marvin Hamlisch.

Green holds a doctorate in choral music from the University of Southern California and a master's degree in choral conducting from California State University, Northridge. From 1981 to 1990, Green was the conductor of the American Jewish Choral Society. As West Coast music director of the David Nowakowsky Foundation from 1992 to 1998, Green presented an annual concert series of the Nowakowsky Chorale.

From 1986 to 1992, Green was an assistant professor at CSUN.

In the summer of 1993, Green worked with conductor Murry Sidlin at the Aspen Music School. With his support and encouragement, Green developed the concept for and then founded the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony.

Tickets for the upcoming con- cert are $36 and $25 for general admission and $12 for full-time students and children 12 and younger. The amphitheater is located at 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. in Hollywood. For ticket information, call [phone] or visit www.FordAmphitheatre.org.

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Noreen Green conducts the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony.