Meet The Team
Meet The Team
Michael Ibrahim
Founder/Music Director
Sherri Richards
Executive Director
David Schall
Sound Engineer/Production Manager
Christian Fumic
Content Marketing Strategist
Michael Ibrahim
The National Arab Orchestra’s founder and music director, Michael Ibrahim, is a dynamic conductor and a recognized innovator in the Arab music circuit. A Metro-Detroit native, he was born into a Syrian immigrant family of humble origins. He began his musical studies on the ‘Ud, and later studying the Bassoon and Nay as his musical training progressed. Ibrahim studied under renowned musicians Simon Shaheen, Johnny Sarweh, Nadeem Dlaikan, Douglas Bianchi, Anthony Iannacconne, Dr. David Pierce, Robert Williams, and Victoria King. He earned a bachelor degree in music from Eastern Michigan University, and a Master of Music degree in conducting from Wayne State University. Ibrahim’s background and unique approach to composition and improvisation—fusing Western and Arab music idioms— has led to performances in concert halls and venues the world over, features on a number of recordings and film scores, and opportunities to share the stage with some of the most influential figures in Western and Arab music. His role as an educator, providing instrumental and ensemble instruction, lectures and demonstrations on Arab music, privately and in the classroom, at university and grade school levels, ultimately brought him to founding the NAO, where he currently serves as Music Director. Ibrahim hopes that through his performances and educational efforts, he can instill a wider appreciation for Arab music and its heritage.
Sherri Richards
Sherri is a business consultant, university professor, speaker, and author with a rare combination of finance, marketing, distribution operations, and franchising experience both nationally and internationally. Her true gift is her love of creating and telling the whole story. The fun is taking an idea, developing the business plan with its pieces and parts, thenbringing it to life in a holistic, profitable and sustainable way. Sherri works with both for profit and non profit companies as she loves to bring the business skills of the for profit business to the non profit world, where many non profits are brilliant at the work they do, but need support with building the foundation and running the business of the organization. Her calling is to help people be their best selves through the work they do, and in the case of the students, the work they aspire to do. Sherri worked for Daimler Trucks of North America for many years, in both management and start up capacities. This world class experience plus her MBA, and teaching students to be entrepreneurs has given her a well rounded skill set, where she has worked with thousands of small companies to help them move to the next level. Sherri treasures being a wife, mother, bonus mother, and grandmother. She lives in Brighton Mi with her husband, dog and cat.
Christian Fumic
Christian is a sales and content strategist expert, and the Founder of Fresnel Evergreen, which uses a unique Venn Diagram Mapping strategy combined with an interview system to produce multiple high engagement content assets. He is on a mission to show business owners the untapped potential and repurposing power of the content that they already have. This multi content asset driven marketing strategy changes the way business owners market online and produces results based on content that builds trust, develops relationships and proves authority.
