Musician Gromko dies at 80

Wednesday, July 14, 2004 | 10:55 a.m.

From the Sands Copa Room to the halls of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to the Las Vegas Civic Symphony and many cultural stops in between, William Gromko made sweet music.

A graduate of the Julliard School of Music and Columbia University, Gromko in 1959 left behind a promising career on the East Coast with some of the great American orchestras with which he performed, including Tanglewood in the Berkshires and Radio City Music Hall, to inspire cultural music in Las Vegas.

In the process, he founded the Nevada Southern University String Chamber Orchestra and the Las Vegas Junior Symphony and was the first conductor of the local civic symphony. Nevada Southern University was the precursor to UNLV.

Gromko, a violinist who throughout his local career brought classical music to the common people with free concerts at places such as the Las Vegas City Hall courtyard and at the Reid Whipple Cultural Center, died Sunday. He was 80.

Services will be 2 p.m. Thursday at Palm Mortuary, 7600 S. Eastern Ave. Visitation will be one hour before services.

Upon founding the university chamber orchestra, which he conducted for 12 years, Gromko said it was important for young people to get involved in music.

"I wanted to show off the beauty and versatility of the strings with hopes of enticing student musicians to study the stringed instruments," Gromko told the Sun in 1966.

"I also wanted to add to the pleasure of the many people in our desert area who appreciate ... the satisfaction and magnificence that string choirs, quartets and ensembles can show them."

Born March 15, 1924, in New Haven, Conn., Gromko was a Navy veteran of World War II, who returned to his music career after the war and performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh Symphony.

In 1959, after nine years at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, he packed up his instruments and came to Las Vegas, where he joined Musicians Union Local 369 and got work as a violinist in the band at the Sands Copa Room.

In 1996 Gromko was honored by the Las Vegas Civic Symphony at the opening concert of its 20th anniversary season at the Reed Whipple Cultural Center. At the event Gromko was guest conductor for excerpts from the "Firebird Suite" by Stravinsky.

Gromko is survived by his wife Gloria, a former Radio City Music Hall Rockette and Las Vegas dancer, of Henderson; a daughter, Jozlyn Buyachek of Henderson; a son, Jerrold of Las Vegas; and three grandchildren.