Glenn Block

Research Interests & Areas

Errata information for Orchestra Repertoire

Dr. Glenn Block has served as the Director of Orchestras and Professor of Conducting at Illinois State University since 1990. From 1983 - 2007, he led the Kansas City Youth Symphony program to being one of the largest and most recognized youth symphony programs in the country. Prior to coming to Illinois in the fall of 1990, Dr. Block served for 15 years as Director of Orchestras and Professor of Conducting at the Conservatory of Music of the University of Missouri - Kansas City and Music Director of the Kansas City Civic Orchestra. From 1972 - 1974, he was Music Director of the San Diego Chamber Orchestra and from 1968 - 1974; he served as Principal Double Bass of the San Diego Symphony and Opera Orchestras. Born in Brooklyn, Dr. Block was educated at the Eastman School of Music. He also received his Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego. A frequent guest conductor, he has appeared in 42 states with all-state and professional orchestras in the United States, Europe, Asia and South America.

Dr. Block has served on the faculty of the National Music Camp at Interlochen as Resident Conductor of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra, and at the Interlochen Arts Academy as Visiting Conductor. In addition, he has served as Music Director of the Summer Festival Orchestra at the Rocky Ridge Music Center in Estes Park, Colorado. Dr. Block has been widely recognized as a teacher of conducting, performing master classes throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia and South America. An active researcher, he has been the recipient of numerous Illinois State University, University of Missouri and National Endowment of the Humanities grants that have resulted in critical editions of the orchestral music of Igor Stravinsky, Charles Ives and George Gershwin. In 1985, he was appointed Research Consultant to the Orchestra Library Information Service (OLIS) of the American Symphony Orchestra League, where responsibilities included the organization of critical sources and errata information for the orchestral repertoire housed in a national database in Washington, D.C. He has served as a member of the national Board of Directors of the Conductors Guild of America, representing over 1,000 professional conductors, and the Board of Directors of the American Symphony Orchestra League.

Foreign guest-conducting have included residencies at the Fountainebleau Conservatoire in France, and in Spain, Canada, Colombia, Estonia, Russia, Italy and South America in 2013 (Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.) Dr. Block led the Youth Symphony of Kansas City on four international tours to Spain (1992), Canada (1996) Italy (2000), Budapest/Vienna/Prague (2004) and three national tours to Chicago, St. Louis and New York’s Carnegie Hall. The Youth Symphony of Kansas City was invited by MENC to be the broadcast orchestra for the 1995 World’s Largest Concert and to perform at the 1996 MENC annual convention.

Beginning in 2012, he has annually toured extensively throughout South America with concerts in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. In the summer of 2014, he returned to South America, and also guest-conducted in Italy, with concerts in Pescara, and in the mountains of Abruzzo. In the fall of 2015, he returned to Buenos Aires to make his conducting debut at the Teatro Colón, and a second trip to Argentina to conduct in Mar del Plata in November of 2015.

In January, 2016, Dr. Block was on sabbatical for the entire second semester from Illinois State University, living and conducting in South America, researching El Sistema orchestra programs in South America, Italy and Vietnam. He conducted additional concerts throughout South America, guest-conducting and teaching conducting in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Italy, and Vietnam. During the month of July, 2016, Dr. Block conducted four orchestras in Asunción, Paraguay: the Orquesta de los Reciclados Instrumentos de Cateura (Recycled Instruments Orchestra), Orquesta de la Policia Naciónal, Camerata Miranda and OCMA, made up of the principal players of the OSCA (Orquesta Sinfónica de la Ciudad de Asunción).

He was invited to serve as Principal Guest Conductor with the National Symphony of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City for the 2017 -2018 season. In June of 2017, Dr. Block returned to Argentina to guest-conduct the Orquesta Sinfónica de Salta, the National Youth Orchestra of Argentina on tour to Buenos Aires, the Filharmónica de Chascomus, and was invited to lead the V. Internacional Seminario in Dirección Orquestal (Seminar in Orchestral Conducting) at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He returned to the Teatro Colón in November, 2017 to again lead the Academia Orquesta.

He regularly guest-conducts and leads conducting seminars throughout South America and Italy, in addition to his concerts in the United States. During the 2022-2023 season he will be conducting the orchestras of Posadas, San Juan, Mendoza in Argentina and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, orchestras in Colombia, Paraguay, and Italy.