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GSO Video Overview 2019-20 Season
Founded in 1979, the Galveston Symphony Orchestra performs quality classical music with a strong commitment to artistic excellence and community involvement. An average of 60 highly skilled amateur and professional musicians bring unforgettable live concert experiences to Galveston Island. With a repertoire of compositions ranging from the baroque to the contemporary, most concerts include internationally-famous soloists.
The Orchestra rehearses every Sunday evening from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the College of the Mainland in Texas City, Texas and invites interested musicians to join its ranks. For more information please call Michael Hughes (409-763-2481) or Sparky Koerner skoerner@com.edu (409-933-8347).
Trond Saeverud
GSO Music Director / Conductor
Professional and community orchestra conductor Trond Saeverud joined the Galveston Symphony Orchestra in 2013 after conducting in Denmark, Norway, and the United States.
As a concert violinist, Trond has been a soloist with major orchestras in Europe and in the United States, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at the Lincoln Center, New York. He has produced CDs as a soloist with orchestras in Norway and Denmark and regularly premieres new works that are written for him. Trond’s solo CD “Ghosts” received the Norwegian equivalent of a Grammy Award (1997). His recital CD “Hika” was editor’s choice, Strad Magazine (2002).
Trond studied conducting with Brian Priestman at the University of Kansas (DMA, 2002) while serving as frequent guest conductor for the “Kansas City Camerata” and producing, as doctoral thesis, a new critical edition of the Second Symphony of his grandfather, Harald Saeverud.
In 2008-2010, Trond conducted the Bangor Symphony Orchestra in several subscriptions and Pops concerts, including a very successful stage production of West Side Story.
Trond is the founder and artistic director of the Passamaquoddy Bay Symphony Orchestra in Maine. He serves as concertmaster of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, leader of the NorEaster String Quartet, and conductor for the University of Maine, and Music Director of the Bay Area Youth Symphony in Houston.
Joanie Gill (Elwell)
GSO Executive Director
With more than 30 years of nonprofit administrative, marketing, and fundraising experience, Joanie Gill is honored to be the GSO’s first Executive Director as of May 1, 2019. A fifth-generation native Texan, her experience includes work with a number of diverse nonprofits and arts organizations in Minnesota and California, including the Minnesota Sinfonia Orchestra, Ashland Productions, Parenting With Purpose, Lakeshore Players Theatre, Ethnic Dance Theatre, the Upper Midwest Branch of the International Dyslexia Association, and the Living History Centre, among others. National work has included special communications projects for the National Folk Organization and the USDA Forest Service. She is excited to now be an “IBC” (Islander By Choice) and part of the team bringing exciting arts and cultural experiences to Galveston Island.
The Galveston Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors
Elizabeth Anderson
Ulli Budelmann
Andy Grant
Lynette Haaga
Cheryl Henry
Sparky Koerner
June Pulliam
Alice O’Quin
Dave Schuler
Jack Sheaffer
Trond Saeverud, ex-officio
Joan Gill Elwell, ex-officio