Jacob Groob

Groob, Jacob

Jacob or 'Jack' Groob (b Grobdruk). Violinist, conductor, b Ostropol, near Kiev, 21 Jan 1920, d Toronto 25 Mar 1984. Brought to Canada as an infant, he studied 1935-8 with Maurice Solway at the TCM, then for a year with Mischa Mischakoff in New York. After service in Europe with The Army Show, he played 1946-9 and 1953-9 in the TSO and was second violin after 1947 in the Solway Quartet and a member of the CBC Symphony Orchestra and other radio and TV orchestras. He resumed his violin studies with Oscar Back in Amsterdam (summer 1956) and took courses in conducting in Salzburg (summer 1957) and with Jean Morel at the Juilliard School. The Jack Groob Trio (Donald Whitton or George Horvath, cello, and Earle Moss, piano) and the Jack Groob String Quartet (David Zafer, second violin, Walter Babiak or Ross Lechow, viola, and Whitton, cello) were formed in 1956 and 1957 respectively.

Groob moved in 1959 to Israel, where he became concertmaster of the Haifa SO and in 1960 formed the Jerusalem String Quartet. He founded the Toronto Chamber Orchestra (1962-9) and re-joined the TSO in 1964, remaining until ill health forced him to retire in 1982. He was conductor 1967-72 of the Oshawa Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Youth Orchestra, which he founded, leading the latter to a first prize in the 1969 International Symphony Festival in St Moritz, Switzerland. A proponent of Canadian music, Groob premiered Harry Somers'Sonata No. 2 (11 Jun 1955 with the composer at the piano) and Harry Freedman'sFantasia and Dance (1956, with the RCMT Orchestra).