International Youth Symphony Concert: Twilight in the Park

The International Youth Symphony is a unique partnership program of the San Diego Youth Symphony and Rotary District 5340’s MusiCamp, a Rotary Youth Exchange program.

Since its founding in 2005, the International Youth Symphony and MusiCamp have brought together talented young musicians from around the world for an intensive 2-3-week program full of music education, performances, cultural exchange, and fun.

This year’s IYS orchestra is comprised of students from Poland, France, Germany, and Mexico, along with SDYS students from our pre-professional Ovation orchestras.

We hope you enjoy tonight’s program!

Recently he was invited by the LA Philharmonic to conduct alongside Gustavo Dudamel at Disney Hall, as part of the Youth Orchestras of Los Angeles National Festival. Grogan was scheduled to appear at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival and the Beethoven2020 Festival in Vienna prior to the pandemic. Recent appearances include conducting at the Sydney Opera House, Harpa Concert Hall in Iceland, and in Bangkok and Singapore.

Grogan serves as a Master Educator for the Yamaha Corporation of America and on the Advisory Committees of the Midwest Clinic and Music for All. Following his passion for performing and helping to create new music for orchestras, he has collaborated with composers such as Lowell Liebermann, Michael Colgrass, Eric Whitacre, Steven Stucky, and Scott McAllister – as well as soloists Richard Stolzman, Stefan Hoskuldsson, Julian Schwarz, and the Canadian Brass. Grogan worked on several projects with violinist and composer Mark O’Connor. Grogan recorded O’Connor’s March of the Gypsy Fiddler with the Ahn Trio and New Jersey Youth Symphony on OMAC Records, which is played on classical music radio throughout the country.

He previously served eleven seasons as Education and Community Engagement Conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and as Conductor and Artistic Director of the NJSO Youth Orchestras, the InterSchool Orchestras of New York and the New Jersey Youth Symphony. He was founding Artistic Director of two El Sistema inspired programs in New Jersey, CHAMPS and the Paterson Music Project. Grogan also taught for over a decade at the University of Michigan, Ithaca College, and Baylor University.

The Rotary District 5340 International MusiCamp™ program, produced in partnership with San Diego Youth Symphony, allows both international and local SDYS students to experience new cultures and make new friends, planting the seeds for greater international understanding.

The Rotary District 5340 MusiCamp International Youth Exchange is unique in three respects:

• It was the first music-based summer camp exchange program in Rotary;
• It is the only youth exchange program conducted in partnership with a non-Rotary organization (San Diego Youth Symphony); and
• It is the only camp where students must demonstrate a high skill level to participate.

Over the past fifteen years, MusiCamp has brought highly talented musicians from Canada, Czech Republic, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Germany, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom to San Diego where they joined with San Diego Youth Symphony members for two weeks of intense rehearsals, performance at symphony and chamber music events and a week touring Southern California theme parks, local beaches and other points of interest.

For over 75 years, San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory (SDYS) has served as a catalyst for investing in the future of thousands of young San Diegans through the study and performance of music.

Through SDYS’ flagship youth orchestra program in historic Balboa Park, its neighborhood engagement collaborations across San Diego County, and its early childhood music curriculum, SDYS is San Diego’s most comprehensive provider of cradle-to-college music education programming and is a national leader in innovative community outreach, serving thousands of young musicians and their families every year.

Learn more about our programs, becoming a donor, and more at sdys.org

2728 Sixth Ave, San Diego, CA 92103