PaliHi’s Sabrina Giglio Ends Her Yearlong Reign as Miss Palisades

The vibrant Sabrina Giglio, with her gorgeous red curls and infectious smile, has ended her reign as Miss Palisades.   Last night at Pierson Playhouse, a new Mr. and Miss Palisades were named at the annual Teen Contest sponsored by the Palisades Chamber of Commerce. The contest was held after press time, so the winners will be announced in next week’s newspaper.   ’It has been so much fun,’ the 16-year-old Giglio said of the past year. ‘I enjoyed the Chamber’s monthly mixers [where business professionals mingle at a local venue] and riding in the Fourth of July parade.’   A junior at Palisades Charter High School, Giglio won the Miss Palisades title last spring by wowing the judges with her flawless performance of ‘Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major’ by Johann Sebastian Bach.   Giglio, whose parents are Keith and Juliet, first discovered her passion for playing classical music as a seventh grader, when her mother signed her up for a beginning strings class at Paul Revere. Wanting to play a different instrument than her uncle and grandfather (who play the viola and violin, respectively), Giglio chose the cello.   It didn’t take her long to fall in love with the sound and tone of the instrument. She began private lessons two months after joining the strings class, and her mother’s parents started taking her to classical music concerts.   ’My grandparents exposed me to all of this,’ Giglio said. ‘While my [middle school] friends were listening to Top 40s, I was listening to classical music. While Top 40s has a place, classical music is so wonderful.’   Giglio has studied under four different teachers and is currently taking lessons once a week from Elizabeth Wright in the Palms neighborhood. She is a member of the PaliHi orchestra and used to play with the Junior Philharmonic of California and the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra.   Since she started playing her instrument later than other classical musicians her age, ‘I really practiced hard to make up for a lot of time,’ Giglio said.   She thinks one advantage to starting late is that ‘I have a real love for the instrument.’ Some of her peers play well technically, she said, but do not share the same passion for the music.   The famous British cellist Jacqueline du Pre (1945-1987), who was forced to quit performing at age 28 because of multiple sclerosis, and multiple Grammy-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma serve as Giglio’s inspiration. Her favorite composers are Antonin Dvorak, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Edward Elgar.   The best concert she ever attended was in 2007, when she saw the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela at the Walt Disney Concert Hall downtown.   ’It was so fun to see the kids’ energy and passion for their instruments,’ Giglio said, adding that she became a fan of Gustavo Dudamel, the orchestra’s artistic director. At 29, Dudamel is also the music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.   Giglio has plans to attend a liberal arts school on the East Coast and double major in music and her second love, history. She enjoys studying 17th- and 19th-century world history.   ’I feel if we learn about the past more, we can use that knowledge to better serve the present and future,’ said Giglio, who is taking Advanced Placement U.S. history and European history in addition to English at PaliHi.   In her free time, Giglio enjoys swimming breaststroke and is a member of PaliHi’s varsity swim team and Team Santa Monica, a competitive swim club that competes throughout Southern California.   For the past four summers, she has hosted a summer theater camp in her backyard for the neighborhood kids in Marquez. The camp lasts for two weeks, and the children put on a musical. They have performed ‘Cinderella,’ ‘The Wiz’ and ‘Alice in Wonderland.’   Giglio, who has always liked acting, has appeared in numerous shows at the Adderley School in Pacific Palisades and in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ at the Morgan-Wixson Theatre in Santa Monica. She originally started the camp for her sister, Ava, now a seventh grader at Paul Revere and a tap dancer.   She comes from an artistic family ‘ her parents are screenwriters and screenwriting instructors at UCLA Extension. Some of their credits include ABC Family’s ‘Pizza My Heart,’ Disney Channel’s ‘Return to Halloweentown’ and Disney’s ‘Tarzan.’ Keith was also executive producer of the movie ‘A Cinderella Story,’ starring Hilary Duff.   Having relinquished the Miss Palisades title last night, Giglio now hopes her sister can reclaim it someday.    ‘Ava really wants to be Miss Palisades,’ Giglio said. ‘I think she will win because she is so talented. I won, and she’s a better version of me.’