VSO - Bravo, Maestro! 20 years of Music

Maestro!Bravo,

Twenty years ago this year, Maestro Peter Dabrowski arrived in the Rio Grande Valley as a new professor at the University of Texas–Pan American. “He had the orchestra play a bit of Carmen,” said Suzi McDonald, longtime Valley Symphony Orchestra (VSO) board member. “They responded to him right away. It was a dynamic fit right from the start.” Dabrowski became the VSO’s newest conductor shortly thereafter, following the retirement of the late Dr. Carl Seale. Under Dabrowski’s leadership, the Symphony has expanded to a full-sized professional orchestra that annually performs five full concerts and serves close to 10,000 students through educational concerts, a program that he established.

Dabroski has also been an inventive and agile leader in the time of Covid-19. Where many arts organizations have had to pause their programming or charge premium prices, Dabrowski and the VSO leadership have taken a different approach. “Music is a universal language, one we need now more than ever,” said Dabrowski. “It can heal and transform us in even the most unimaginable circumstances.” He led the Orchestra through an inventive and socially distant year, programming chamber works and providing them online and on television.

A native of Warsaw, Poland, Dabrowski studied conducting and piano at the Warsaw Music Conservatory in Poland and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he received master’s and doctoral degrees. He also participated in prestigious conducting courses at the Tanglewood Music Center, the Aspen Music Festival, and in Budapest and Miskolc, Hungary. Among conducting mentors, Dabrowski credits Maestro Yuri Simonov of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra for having the most profound influence on his craft. Dabrowski’s extensive career has taken him across Europe and the United States, and the rich tapestry of those endeavors is the experience that he brings to the Valley to this day.

The Valley Symphony Orchestra is enormously proud to be celebrating twenty years of his leadership as Music Director and Conductor and is grateful for all that he has done for the arts and music in the Rio Grande Valley. Bravo, Maestro!