DR. GLENN BLOCK
Music Director and Conductor, Symphony Orchestra
Glenn Block is
celebrating his 20th anniversary season as Music Director
of the Youth Symphony of Kansas City’s Symphony Orchestra. In
addition, he is the Director of Orchestras and Opera and Professor
of Conducting at Illinois State University. Since 1983, he has led
the Kansas City Youth Symphony program to being one of the largest
and most recognized youth symphony programs in the country. Prior to
going to Illinois in the fall of 1990, Dr. Block served for 15 years
as Director of Orchestras and Professor of Conducting at the
Conservatory of Music of the University of Missouri - Kansas City
and Music Director of the Kansas City Civic Orchestra. From 1972 -
1974, he was Music Director of the San Diego Chamber Orchestra and
from 1968 - 1974; he served as Principal Double Bass of the San
Diego Symphony and Opera Orchestras. Born in Brooklyn, Dr. Block was
educated at the Eastman School of Music. He also received his Ph.D.
from the University of California at San Diego.
A frequent guest
conductor, he has appeared in over 42 states with all-state and
professional orchestras. This season, he will be conducting the
all-state orchestras of Wisconsin (for the second time), Virginia,
Maine, and Washington State (for the third time.) Foreign
guest-conducting have included residencies at the Fountainebleau
Conservatoire in France, and in Spain, Canada, Colombia, Estonia,
Russia, and Italy. Since 1983, Dr. Block has led the Youth Symphony
of Kansas City on three international tours to Spain (1992), Canada
(1996) and Italy (2000) and three national tours to Chicago, St.
Louis and New York’s Carnegie Hall. The Youth Symphony of Kansas
City was also invited by MENC to be the broadcast orchestra for the
1995 World’s Largest Concert and to perform at the 1996 MENC annual
convention. In the summer of 2000, Dr. Block and the Youth Symphony
of Kansas City were invited to appear as Festival Orchestra at the
Western Slopes Music Festival in Crested Butte, Colorado. Also, in
the summer of 2000, Dr. Block and the Youth Symphony of Kansas City
toured Italy, and in the summer of 2001, he returned to Italy for
six weeks of teaching and conducting at a series of festivals in
Florence and Lucca. A last-minute substitute conductor with the
Sofia, Bulgaria National Philharmonic Orchestra, on tour in Italy
has led to invitations to return to Sofia and to Italy. Dr. Block
has served on the faculty of the National Music Camp at Interlochen
as Resident Conductor of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra, and at
the Interlochen Arts Academy as Visiting Conductor. In addition, he
has served as Music Director of the Summer Festival Orchestra at the
Rocky Ridge Music Center in Estes Park, Colorado. Dr. Block has been
widely recognized as a teacher of conducting, performing master
classes throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and South
America. In the summer of 1995, he was on the faculty of the
National String Workshop at the University of Wisconsin - Madison as
principal conducting teacher. Since 1995, Dr. Block has served as
Conference Director of the nationally recognized summer conducting
workshop, The Conductors Studio at Illinois State. An active
researcher, he has been the recipient of numerous Illinois State
University, University of Missouri and National Endowment of the
Humanities grants that have resulted in critical editions of the
orchestral music of Igor Stravinsky, Charles Ives and George
Gershwin and study in France and Italy. He is a member of the
national Board of Directors of the Conductors Guild of America,
representing over 1,000 professional conductors, and the Board of
Directors of the American Symphony Orchestra League.
