QCSO names new youth ensembles director
The Quad City Symphony Orchestra Association (QCSO) on Wednesday announced the appointment of Hisham Bravo Groover as assistant conductor of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Quad City Symphony Youth Ensembles.
He has also recently been announced as a newly hired assistant professor of music and director of orchestral studies at Augustana College.
“We are thrilled to welcome Hisham to the Quad Cities,” QCSO executive director Brian Baxter said on the QCSO website. “His depth of leadership and experience will resonate and continue to build on the positive momentum and impact of the Quad City Symphony Youth Ensembles and the Quad City Symphony Orchestra.”
Like the QCSO music director and conductor, Mark Russell Smith, Groover currently lives in the Twin Cities where he serves as artistic director and principal conductor of the St. Cloud Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonic Conductor of the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies (GTCYS), music director and conductor of the Buffalo Community Orchestra, and assistant conductor of the University of Minnesota Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theatre.
Additional experiences include roles as associate conductor of the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra, assistant conductor of the Arapahoe Philharmonic, assistant conductor of the Lamont Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theatre (all in Colorado), and conductor of the University of Iowa Chamber Orchestra.
“Hisham displays impressive versatility in his concerts, equally at ease with pops and educational programs as he is with masterworks,” the QCSO release says.
He has also conducted and assisted in several opera productions, including Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and Strauss Jr.’s Die Fledermaus. “Thoughtful in his programming, Hisham aims to create concerts that resonate with modern audiences,” the QCSO release says.
In 2024, he conducted a program that integrated the music of Hildegard von Bingen, Steve Reich, and Charles Ives with Mozart’s Requiem.
Recently, Groover has competed in two international conducting competitions. In 2023, he was invited to the 1st International Ferenc Fricsay Conducting Competition in Szeged, Hungary. In 2022, he was a semi-finalist in the Princess Astrid International Music Competition in Trondheim, Norway.
Groover is also a violinist and has studied with several pedagogues, including Michel Boris Zaitzeff, Ching-Yi Lin, and Mark Rush. As a conductor, he has studied with Leonid Grin, Kevin Noe, William LaRue Jones, and his principal mentor, Mark Russell Smith.
Groover will begin his role as QCSYE music director and QCSO assistant conductor in July 2024. Benjamin Firer will remain as interim Youth Symphony Orchestra and Youth Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor through the end of the 2023-2024 season.
Firer was named interim conductor last July, after the departure of Ernesto Estagarribia, who joined the faculty of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. Estigarribia is professor of conducting and orchestra director at the Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music, and served the QCSO role four years.
The Quad City Symphony Youth Ensembles (QCSYE) program consists of four youth orchestras for students in grades 2-12. Under the direction of the outstanding QCSYE conducting staff, members have the opportunity to perform great orchestral repertoire with the most talented young musicians in the area and learn from the mentorship of professional musicians from throughout the region.
Ensemble members come from the greater Quad Cities, as well as other communities in southeast Iowa and northwest Illinois. For more information on the youth program, click HERE.
“It is so inspiring for me to see a student body that is so committed and genuinely passionate to fulfilling their education in a holistic way,” Groover said in a minute-long introductory video for Augustana Friends of Music members. He noted he was excited to see how much support music receives at the private Rock Island college.
“It’s exciting to me to have the opportunity to build and revitalize the orchestral program at Augustana, and to build something that’s fun, enjoyable and musically fulfilling for our students,” Groover added.
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