Igor Gruppman

Conductor, Orchestra at Temple Square

gor Gruppman is one of those special artists whose career successfully spans a number of artistic fields. Critically acclaimed for a rich and beautiful tone, elegant phrasing, drive, passion and virtuosity, Igor Gruppman enjoys an exciting and multi-faceted career as conductor, violin soloist, orchestra leader and chamber musician.

As the concertmaster of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and a frequent guest leader of orchestras such as the London Symphony, London’s Royal Philharmonic, and St. Martin in the Fields, Mr. Gruppman has collaborated with and was influenced by some of the most esteemed conductors of his generation including Georg Solti, Valery Gergiev, Mstislav Rostropovich, Colin Davis, Simon Rattle, Bernard Haitink and Yannick Nézet Séguin.

Besides serving as the orchestra leader and soloist, Igor Gruppman has been conducting the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra ever since the 2006/07 season, when he made his conducting debut with the orchestra in a special Easter performance of The Last Seven Words by Haydn and Gubaidulina in the Rotterdam Cathedral. This program was repeated during the Easter Festival in Moscow where Mr. Gruppman shared the podium with Maestro Gergiev. He also appeared in a critically acclaimed all-Mozart program at De Doelen Great Hall in Rotterdam where in addition to conducting, Mr. Gruppman gave the Netherlands premiere of Mozart’s recently reconstructed Concerto for Violin and Piano (Op. 315F) with pianist Ronald Brautigam. From 2005 to 2009 Mr. Gruppman was the artistic director and leader of the Concerto Rotterdam Chamber Orchestra. He was asked by the Rotterdam Philharmonic to conduct the 2010/11 Proms concerts opening with two Mendelssohn programs including the Italian Symphony and the Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Mr. Gruppman made his conducting debut with the Mariinsky Orchestra during the 2008 Easter Festival in Moscow and now regularly appears with the orchestra. After several successful appearances with the newly formed Mariinsky Stradivari Orchestra, he was invited by Valery Gergiev in May 2009 to conduct the orchestra on a regular basis, appearing at the Mikkeli Festival in July 2010, and on tour in Asia. In January of 2010, Mr. Gruppman was honored as the Artist-of-the-Month by the Mariinsky Theater. In December 2011, he conducted the orchestra in a program of Bach, Shostakovich and Bartok in St. Petersburg, and returned for the White Nights Festival in June 2012.

In the United States Mr. Gruppman holds the post of principal conductor of the Orchestra at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. These concerts are now regularly broadcast on cable television in the U.S. and abroad. In recent seasons some of the world’s great artists have appeared with this orchestra, including Renee Fleming, Bryn Terfel and Ida Haendel.

In Asia Igor Gruppman has appeared several times as conductor and soloist with the Seoul Philharmonic and recently with the Tokyo Philharmonic.

As soloist, Mr. Gruppman received glowing reviews for his performances of the Double Concerto by Brahms under the baton of Valery Gergiev and the Second Violin Concerto by Prokofiev under the baton of Yannick Nézet Séguin, both with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Recently, he and his wife, violinist/violist Vesna Stefanovich-Gruppman, premiered with great success, Paul van Brugge’s Double Concerto for Violin and Viola and orchestra written for the Gruppmans and commissioned by the Dutch Performing Arts Foundation. In 2011 the Gruppman Duo performed a featured recital at the Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival and a second van Brugge work was especially commissioned for the duo for the 2012 Gergiev Festival. It is unique in that it asks both artists to improvise, as well as using Vesna’s voice.

Igor Gruppman's violin solo recordings have met with enthusiastic reception by the international press: Berlioz' Reverie and Caprice (Naxos); Respighi’s Poema Autunnale (Koch); Miklos Rosza’s Sinfonia Concertante and the Violin Concerto (Koch), which marks the first release of the concerto since the recording by Heifetz for whom this piece was written. Arnold's Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra with the San Diego Chamber Orchestra won its producer Michael Fine a Grammy in 1994. The long-awaited reconstructed original string version of the Brahms’ F Minor Quintet recorded with the members of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields was released in 2008. More recently Video Artist International released the first in the series of DVDs featuring Mr. Gruppman as conductor, violin soloist and chamber musician in partnership with a variety of artists including Vesna.

Mr. Gruppman is a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory where he studied with Leonid Kogan and Mstislav Rostropovich, followed by studies with Jascha Heifetz in Los Angeles, and now is on the faculty of the Rotterdam Conservatory. Igor and Vesna Gruppman co-founded the Gruppman International Violin Institute in 2002 to select, train and develop the careers of exceptionally gifted violinists around the world, using the latest videoconferencing technology.

Mr. Gruppman plays the 1731 “Julles Garcin” Stradivarius violin generously provided by the Erasmus Foundation.