Jacksonville Symphony youth Orchestras Conductors

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Grant O'Brien

Music Director, Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestras

Winston Family Endowed Chair

Grant O'Brien is a conductor, composer, and producer of music and musical productions. During his studies at the Eastman School of Music, he worked extensively with conductors Dr. Oliver Hagen, Dr. Mark Scatterday, Professor Brad Lubman in addition to the Emmy Award winning Mark Watters. Currently, Grant is studying orchestral conducting with Neil Varon at the Eastman School of Music. Upcoming performances include engagements with JoAnn Falletta and Peter Bay at the Mostly Modern Festival in Saratoga Springs and work as a playback operator for Cineconcerts. As a classically trained artist with a devotion to popular AND contemporary music, Grant continues to display himself as a versatile musician and an inventive concert producer.

Grant has conducted many ensembles in the Rochester area including the Syracuse Society for New Music, New Horizons String and Full Orchestra, Upstate Brass Band, Eastman Tuba Mirum, MO Ensemble and Empire Film and Media Ensemble. He has also conducted in countless degree recitals at the Eastman School of Music in addition to several recording sessions with ensembles ranging from octet to a 50-piece orchestra. Most notably, Grant has conducted recording sessions for the award winning web-series, “Star Trek Continues” and film, “Aquarium” by Stephanie Maxwell.
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Helen Morin

Conductor, Premier Strings & Encore Strings

Helen Morin earned a Master of Music in Violin Performance with Lucia Lin at Boston University and holds a Bachelor of Music in Violin from Trinity College of Music, London, where she studied with John Crawford. Prior to her studies in the United States, Ms. Morin performed in Europe with the Britten Peers Orchestra, the Fine Arts Sinfonia of London, and as Concertmaster of the Trinity Sinfonia. Ms. Morin has been a guest artist at the Dartington International Music Festival, performed at the Brevard Music Festival, and toured Europe with the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra. She has performed at the London Festival Hall, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Queens House Greenwich, Old Royal Naval College Chapel, and St. Johns Square. She is a recipient of the Cavatina Trust Award and the Licentiate Trinity College London Teaching Diploma (qualifying her to teach at university level in the United Kingdom.)

While in Massachusetts, she led the Civic Symphony Orchestra, MetroWest Orchestra, and spent five seasons as a first violinist with the Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra. She was a featured artist in the Rimscha Concert Series and Director of the Hopkinton String Program.
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Rose Francis-Wisniewski

Conductor, Foundation Strings

Rose Francis-Wisniewski was born in Los Angeles, California and raised in Brevard County, Florida where she began her violin studies from a young age. She holds an undergraduate degree in Music Education from the University of North Florida, where she studied violin under Dr. Simon Shiao, and a Master of Music Performance in Conducting under the direction of Dr. Gordon Brock. Francis-Wisniewski participated in master classes with the Ying String Quartet (violin), in the UNF Conducting Symposium with Eugene Corporon, and was recently a conducting fellow with the Saratoga Orchestra for the Pacific North West Conducting Institute workshop with Diane Wittry and Dr. Anna Edwards.

Francis-Wisniewski has served as string orchestra director at Pine Forest Magnet School of the Arts since 2012, where she developed and cultivated a full time string program for the entire school population with instruction including violin, viola, cello and bass. Francis-Wisniewski has taught upper string techniques and pedagogy as an adjunct professor at University of North Florida since 2016. She has served as the Assistant Conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Jacksonville since its inaugural 2016 season. She develops educational outreach materials for multiple organizations throughout Jacksonville and advocates for string education as an emerging leader in the field.
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David Song

Conductor, Jump Start Strings

A native of Jeon-Ju, South Korea, violinist David Hwan-Min Song began studying the violin at the age of 10. He received his training at the Jeonju Fine Arts Middle School under Seung-Gu Baek before immigrating to the United States in 2002. Since then, he has performed extensively as an orchestral, chamber, and solo violinist. He served as Concertmaster of the Stetson University Symphony Orchestra, Baylor University Symphony Orchestra and the Florida All-State Orchestra for several years, as well as Concertmaster for the All-County Orchestra and the Southwest Florida Youth Orchestra.

In 2003, Mr. Song made his solo debut with the Southwest Florida Youth Orchestra under the baton of Dr. David Eccles, and has also appeared as soloist with the Southwest Symphony Orchestra under Paul Naddler, Ocala Symphony and Edison State College Orchestra under Dr. Daniel Hill. Additionally, Song was featured as soloist on NPR’s program From The Top performing a movement from Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No.2 with Christopher O’Reilly. In 2005, he was selected to perform with the London Symphony during the Florida International Festival in Daytona Beach, Florida.
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