Ali Groen
conductor since 2018
Ali Groen was born in Leeuwarden in 1957. At age 11 she started playing the oboe under the tutelage of Jan Harshagen. After high school she majored in orchestral performance at the Amsterdam Music Conservatory under Cees van der Kraan, where she earned her diploma in 1979. Then she went on to study oboe performance under Jan Spronk at the Royal Music Conservatory in The Hague, graduating in 1986.
focusing her efforts on teaching the oboe and conducting. From 1986 to 2017 Ali was professor oboe and ensembles at the Royal Music Conservatory in The Hague.
Currently Ali is the conductor of Artoni, plus Windkracht-10 (wind ensemble) and symphonic wind ensemble Nieuw Geluid in The Hague. Previously she was conductor of Flehite chamber orchestra (Amersfoort), and several wind ensembles, including Excelsior De Lier, TAVENU Loosduinen, the Valkenburg Wind Ensemble and the Amsterdam Tram Harmonie.
Ali's conducting activities have taken her to Belgium, England, Scotland, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Romania and the Czech Republic. In the Netherlands she has served as guest-conductor for the Riccotti Ensemble, Musica Ducis chamber orchestra in Brabant, the Symphony Orchestra of the Royal Music Conservatory and Bellitoni symphony orchestra in The Hague, the Amersfoort Youth Orchestra, the VU Chamber Orchestra, symphony orchestra de Philharmonie in Amsterdam and the Viotta Youth Orchestra in The Hague, among others. She was the conductor for "scratch days" in Leiden, conducting an orchestra and chorus comprising over 1000 performers in 2010 for a performance of Händel's Messiah, and in 2011 performing Mozart's Requiem. Ali has given master classes in oboe performance in the Netherlands, as well as in Portugal, Spain, the Czech Republic, China and Venezuela.
From 2001 to 2005 Ali coached the winds of the Dutch National Youth Orchestra, and she conducted various orchestras and ensembles during the International Dutch National Youth Orchestra Summer Academy. She has also served as wind-players coach for the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, the European Union Youth Orchestra, the World Youth Orchestra, JONDE (the Spanish National Youth Orchestra), Die Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, school orchestras NSO, NESKO, the VU orchestra, Krashna and many others.
Ali Groen is often asked to join the faculty at summer music courses, and she often serves on the jury at wind players' competitions in the Netherlands and abroad.
During and after her studies Ali Groen played the oboe in the Residentie Orkest, the Utrechts Symfonieorkest and the Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest. In 1991 Ali was unfortunately forced to stop playing the oboe professionally because of a chronic back problem. At that point Ali made a change in her carreer,