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American conductor Jeffrey Grogan continues as Education and Community Engagement Conductor for the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.  In addition to leading the NJSO in a variety of concerts each season, he is also a frequent host of the “Classical Conversations” and “Post-Concert Chats” series.

His humanistic leadership style, coupled with a strong command of skills as a musical communicator, has earned him an impressive reputation with audiences and music programs throughout the country. This coming season he will appear with the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra as a candidate for Music Director of that organization.

Prior to his appointment with the NJSO, Grogan was Director of Orchestras and Associate Professor at the Ithaca College School of Music (New York). In addition to leading Ithaca’s graduate orchestral conducting program, he took the orchestra to its Avery Fisher Hall debut in April of 2005 and led the ensemble in its most recent concert programs in the United Kingdom.

Considering his work with young musicians as one of the cornerstones of his career, Grogan currently continues this commitment with the Greater Newark Youth Orchestra. During his final season with the Ithaca College Orchestras, he collaborated with several colleagues to present the 2006 Gospel Music Festival. Over one hundred African-American students from the Washington D.C., New York City and Syracuse areas participated.

Grogan’s dedication to new music manifests itself through recent collaborations with Robert Beaser, Michael Colgrass, Michael Daugherty, Karel Husa, Roberto Sierra and Dana Wilson. In 2004, the Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra commissioned and gave the world premiere of Scott McAllister’s Music from the Redneck Songbook, a work inspired by life in the American south.

This season he will appear with the Reno Philharmonic, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the American Festival for the Arts Orchestra, the Texas All-State Orchestra, Indiana University, Lamar University, among other engagements nationwide.

Grogan was previously on faculty at the University of Michigan and at Baylor University. He has served as conductor and music director of the Waco Symphony Youth Orchestra, as well as assistant conductor and lecturer for the Waco Symphony Orchestra. Grogan is a graduate of Stephen F. Austin State University and the University of Michigan.