Liza Grossman

Music Director, Conductor, Educator

Bam!

It’s one of Liza’s favorite words. And totally representative of the impact she makes on her orchestras and her audiences. Her energy is radiant and infectious and she gives it freely to every student in her orchestras. She is the founding Music Director of the Contemporary Youth Orchestra, conducting faculty at Interlochen Center for the Arts and co-founder of the Interlochen Arts Camp Junior Advanced String Institute. She is director of Orchestras at Kent State University. She also serves as guest conductor for youth orchestras across the country.

Boots

Liza often wears fabulous rocker boots when she’s on the podium conducting her musicians, especially during her Rock the Orchestra series with rock stars like of Styx, Jefferson Starship, Ray Manzarek, Donnie Iris, Graham Nash, Jon Anderson and Pat Benatar. And she has worked some pretty big stages.

Stages

Blossom Music Center. Severance Hall. Nautica Stage. Interlochen. Liza has conducted major artists performing major works on these stages and more, including 20 world-premiere concertos performed by members of the Cleveland Orchestra, nationally recognized musicians and prominent jazz artists. She has conducted more than 100 orchestral world premieres, all with the composers present, including Bernard Rands, Robert Ward and Joan Tower. She is the touring conductor for Styx when they perform with orchestras around the country.

Producer

Liza is the co-executive producer of State of Independence: Jon Anderson and the Contemporary Youth Orchestra and Jefferson Starship and the Contemporary Youth Orchestra.

Reviews/Awards/Media

STRAD magazine called Liza “a master of tutelage...” That’s an understatement. Her student musicians are the real beneficiaries of her skill with the stick and the score. They don’t just get excited to perform. They learn; they grow; they flourish. 

Liza and CYO are the recipients of awards including the Sunshine Award from Young Audiences of Northeast Ohio, the Northern Ohio Live Award of Achievement and the  ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming

She has been featured numerous times on Cleveland Public Radio WCPN Idea Stream, Cleveland’s Plain Dealer, Scene Magazine, Cool Cleveland, Cleveland Institute of Music Radio ‘Off Beat’, Cleveland Classical Radio WCLV and Cleveland Classical.com. 

Liza Grossman and CYO can be heard on the self released CD, ‘IV: Four World Premiere Concertos’ (iTunes), New Door Records, ‘One With Everything; Styx and the Contemporary Youth Orchestra’ (iTunes), seen on HDNet and PBS internationally with Styx and Jon Anderson. HDNet featured a LIVE broadcast of CYO with Jefferson Starship in 2011 and broadcast a special ‘An evening with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra’ in January 2012, featuring three CYO concerts. CYO is featured on PBS, VH1 Classic and HDNet.

She holds degrees in music performance and music education from Cleveland State University. Her conducting teachers include David Holland, Alexander Schneider, Marvin Rabin and Gerard Schwarz.