S.D. Symphony Violinist Is Named Concertmaster

Ending months of speculation, the San Diego Symphony on Monday announced the appointment of violinist Igor Gruppman as concertmaster. The position had been vacant since April, 1987, when Andres Cardenes resigned during the labor dispute that canceled the 1986-87 season.

With violinist Karen Moe Dirks, Gruppman served as acting concertmaster for the 1987-88 season. He has also been acting concertmaster for the current Summer Pops performances on Mission Bay.

According to symphony spokesman Les Smith, the appointment is essentially a one-year post.

“It is understood that Gruppman serves at the discretion of (music adviser) Lynn Harrell and (executive director) Wesley Brustad. A new music director could make his own appointment,” Smith said, adding that Brustad still intends to announce the appointment of a music director for the orchestra no later than next April.

Gruppman, a native of Kiev in the Soviet Union, studied in Moscow under the legendary Leonid Kogan. He won the Soviet Union’s National Violin Competition in 1975, and appeared as soloist with the Sviatislav Richter Chamber Orchestra and Kiev Philharmonic.

With his wife, Vesna, he immigrated to the United States four years later. He joined the San Diego Symphony’s violin section in 1982 and the next year was appointed concertmaster of the newly formed San Diego Chamber Orchestra.

According to Smith, the number of contenders for the vacant post was not large. Brustad met with Harrell last Thursday in Los Angeles to make the final decision.

Neither Harrell nor Brustad could be reached for comment on the appointment, but Smith indicated that both men had been working to fill the vacancy since Harrell’s appointment as music adviser last April.

“They did not hold auditions,” Smith explained, “but simply wrote invitations to a number of contenders. They were dealing with known quantities.”