Meet SCSO's new Artistic Director and Principal Conductor:
Hisham Bravo Groover

We are Proud to Welcome The SCSO's newly appointed Artistic Director, Hisham Groover! Maestro Groover is also Music Director and Conductor of the Buffalo Community Orchestra (Minnesota) and served as Assistant Conductor of the University of Minnesota Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theatre from 2019-2022. He is completing his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Minnesota where he studies under Mark Russell Smith. Prior to moving to Minneapolis, Groover lived in Denver, CO, where he held positions as Associate Conductor of the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra, Assistant Conductor of the Arapahoe Philharmonic, and Assistant Conductor of the Lamont Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theatre. Before Colorado, he lived in Iowa where he served as co-conductor for the University of Iowa Chamber Orchestra, the All-University String Orchestra, as well as the Center for New Music.

Aside from conducting, Groover is also a violinist and has studied with several pedagogues, including Mark Rush, Michel Boris Zaitzeff, and Ching-Yi Lin. Additional violin studies have taken him to the New Zealand School of Music and to the summer orchestra festivals at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.

Groover's principal conducting mentors are Mark Russell Smith, Leonid Grin, and William LaRue Jones.

"I am thrilled to join the St Cloud Symphony Orchestra as its new Artistic Director/Principal Conductor, and I am excited to work with the talented musicians and staff. As we begin our new chapter, we will continue to fulfill the orchestra's history of community involvement and musical excellence, while striving to bring new and exciting musical performances to our community." - Hisham Bravo Groover