2026 Concert Season

The Grove Music Festival presents The Bayberry String Quartet on Friday, October 16, 2026 beginning at 7:30 p.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 405 N. Saginaw Road. The evening's program will consist of music by Mozart, Beethoven, and Prokofiev.

The Bayberry String Quartet combines performing and education to encourage people from all walks of life to enjoy and play music together. Through their individual and collaborative work, the four musicians have impacted the lives of thousands of musicians. 

• Violinist Nurit Pacht was a top prize winner in international competitions including the Irving Klein International Music Competition in California and the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition in Switzerland. She has toured as soloist with orchestras around the world including the Houston Symphony, the Pacific Symphony, the Rhode Island Philharmonic and the Israel Chamber Orchestra. As a baroque violinist, she has a master’s degree from Juilliard’s Historical Performance program.

• Violinist Steffani Kitayama splits her time performing, teaching, and dancing with a small ballet company in Michigan. She holds performance degrees from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory Music and Northwestern University. She currently maintains a private studio with her husband, Gabe Bolkosky, in Ann Arbor, Michigan and teaches at institutes across the States and abroad.

• Violist Gabe Bolkosky has performed and taught across the United States and abroad. Gabe has released seven CDs that show his breadth as a musician focused in the areas of contemporary music, jazz and tango as well as traditional classical music. He has taught as Guest Artist at the University of Michigan and is the Executive Director of The Phoenix Ensemble, a nonprofit chamber music organization. 

• Cellist Laura Usiskin has performed throughout North America and Europe. She has worked as a Baroque cellist through the Yale Baroque Ensemble and has also premiered dozens of works as well as commissioned works in her name. Usiskin resides in Birmingham, AL, where she is on faculty at the University of Alabama-Birmingham and Birmingham-Southern College. She graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience and Behavior from Columbia University, Master of Music from The Juilliard School, and Doctor of Musical Arts from the Yale School of Music, where she was awarded the Aldo Parisot Prize.

More information about The Bayberry String Quartet can be found at bayberrystringquartet.com.

The Grove Music Festival presents Chamber Soloists of Detroit on Saturday, March 20, 2026 beginning at 7:30 p.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 405 N. Saginaw Road. 

Chamber Soloists of Detroit features artistic director, pianist Pauline Martin, takes the stage with DSO fan favorites – flutist Sharon Sparrow, cellist Jeremy Crosmer, oboist Alexander Kinmonth, and violist Will Haapaniemi.

You can read more about the featured artists by reading their bios:

• Pauline Martin

• Jeremy Crosmer

• Alexander Kinmonth

• Will Haapaniemi

• Sharon Sparrow

Program:

Reinecke: Sonata “Undine” for Flute and Piano

Martinu Trio: Flute, Cello & Piano

Loeffler: 2 Rhapsodies for Oboe, Viola & Piano

John Corigliano:  The Food of Love for Oboe & Cello

Rebecca Clarke: Two Pieces for Viola and Cello

Astor Piazzola: La Calle 92 (arr. Desyatnikov) for Viola and Cello

Join us for a delightful program showcasing the lyricism and beauty of each of their instruments.

The Grove Music Festival presents Bethany Robinson and the Purdue Jazz Collective on Saturday, January 17, 2025 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 405 N. Saginaw Road. The concert will start with a performance of the local High School All star band.

The Purdue Jazz Collective players:

Bethany Robinson – bass

Olivia Helmuth – vocals

Dan Gui – trumpet

Elliot Woo – alto sax

Seth DeWhitt – tenor sax

MacGuyver Cottrell – trombone                                                                         

Michael Wall – piano

TJ Kay – guitar

Carl Nielsen – drumset

Bethany Robinson is a Yamaha Performing Artist, GRAMMY Music Educator Award Finalist, NAfME Jazz Council Chair, Past-President of the Indiana Jazz Educators Association, and serves on the Jazz Education Network Board. She joined the faculty of Purdue University as the Director of Jazz and Purdue Jazz Fest director in 2024 after building the jazz program at Noblesville Schools from 1 to 6 jazz ensembles, where the top jazz ensemble was a 2-time Jazz at Lincoln Center Essentially Ellington Finalist and Indiana ISSMA Jazz State Honor Band in 2023. 

Robinson was the 2014 Indiana Jazz Educator of the Year, 2015 Noblesville Teacher of the Year, 2016 Indiana Teacher of the Year Semi-Finalist, named a 2022 Jazz Hero by the Jazz Journalists Association, and the 2023 Indiana Outstanding High School Music Educator of the Year. She is a 2-time Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellow, receiving grants to study jazz and culture in both the US (2011) and Brazil (2019). Bethany has co-led Indiana Jazz Girls Day since 2018, hosting workshops and side-by-side concerts for students around the state of Indiana to elevate student leaders through jazz.

Bethany has been a keynote speaker and presenter around the globe, including the Australia National Band and Orchestra Conference (2021), International Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic (2022), and Indiana, Oklahoma, Iowa and New York State Music Educator Conferences. Bethany was the guest conductor for the 2024 New York and 2025 Iowa and North Carolina All-State Jazz Ensembles, and the chief adjudicator and guest artist for the 2024 Victorian Schools’ Jazz Festival in Melbourne, Australia. She is a clinician and adjudicator independently and for Jazz at Lincoln Center, YAMAHA, Music For All, and an avid performer on upright bass, electric bass, and vocals.

The Grove All Star Band Players:

Alto 1: Kylee Davis - Midland 

Alto 2: Sydney Freeman - Midland 

Tenor 1: Austin Whitmore - Midland 

Bari Sax: Ford Kingry - Meridian 

Trumpet 1: Clare Reinhardt - Midland

Trumpet 2: Sam Grachek - Midland 

Trumpet 3: Sydney McCure - Bay City Central 

Trumpet 4: Cecil Place - Meridian

Trombone 1: Danny Farison -Midland 

Trombone 2: Tobin Welborn - Bay City Central

Trombone 3: Sandaira Richardson - Meridian 

Trombone 4: Michael Briggs - Bay City Central 

Guitar: Carson Emrick - Midland 

Piano: Jackson Gwizdala - Bay City Central 

Bass: Eve Rankin - Midland

Drums: Jameson Wolfs - Bay City Central