The Quad City Symphony Orchestra Association (QCSO) is pleased to announce 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,” says QCSO Executive Director, Brian Baxter. “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!”
Hisham currently lives in Minnesota 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 (CO), Assistant Conductor of the Arapahoe Philharmonic (CO), Assistant Conductor of the Lamont Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theatre (CO), and Conductor of the University of Iowa Chamber Orchestra (IA).
Hisham displays impressive versatility in his concerts, equally at ease with pops and educational programs as he is with masterworks. He has also conducted and assisted in numerous 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. In 2024, he conducted a program that integrated the music of Hildegard von Bingen, Steve Reich, and Charles Ives with Mozart’s Requiem.
Recently, Hisham 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.
Hisham 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 had the privilege to study with Leonid Grin, Kevin Noe, William LaRue Jones, and his principal mentor, Mark Russell Smith.
Mr. Groover will begin his role as QCSYE Music Director and QCSO Assistant Conductor in July 2024. Dr. Benjamin Firer will remain as Interim Youth Symphony Orchestra and Youth Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor through the end of the 2023-2024 season.
About the Quad City Symphony Youth Ensembles
The Quad City Symphony Youth Ensembles (QCSYE) program consists of four youth orchestras for students in grades two through twelve. 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.