Bayberry String Quartet
October 16, 2026
St. John’s Episcopal Church
405 N Saginaw Rd. Midland, Michigan 48640
The program to begin at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets available exclusively at the door.
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.
Mr. Bolkosky and Ms. Kitayama will conduct a masterclass for Midland Public School string students on Friday morning, October 16.
Chamber Soloists of Detroit Presents:
Strings & Piano & Winds…Oh, My!
March 20, 2026
St. John’s Episcopal Church
405 N Saginaw Rd. Midland, Michigan 48640
The program to begin at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets available exclusively at the door.
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.
In the tradition of the great cultural centers of the world, Chamber Soloists of Detroit is proud to present the area’s finest virtuosi in collaboration with emerging and renowned touring artists while advancing the global image of the city once known as the “Paris of the West”. Launched in 2012 by pianist Pauline Martin, Chamber Soloists of Detroit rose in international prominence following its outstanding debut concert in 2022 at the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, which was recorded for broadcast on National Dutch Radio.
Citing a range of emotions from “breathtaking” and “spiritual” to “joyful”, participating artists, presenters and audience members alike extol the festive atmosphere of CSD presentations, which embody the essence of the deeply personal art of chamber music, and typically feature its trademark artist talkback – aptly named “Just Between Us!”
CSD’s thoughtful and engaging programs have featured current and former principal players of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Philharmonie Sudwestfalen and Orchester de Saarländisches Staatstheaters (Germany), as well as the Boston, Dallas, Pittsburgh and Ann Arbor Symphonies. CSD’s stellar ensembles have been comprised of such award- winning soloists as violinists James Ehnes, Amy Schwartz Moretti, Kerson Leong, Sibbi Bernhardsson and Itamar Zorman, violist Richard O’Neill, cellists Edward Arron and Robert deMaine, pianists Menahem Pressler and Ralph Votapek, and the internationally renowned Ehnes Quartet.
Program:
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Reinecke: Sonata “Undine” for Flute and Piano
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Martinu Trio: Flute, Cello & Piano
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Loeffler: 2 Rhapsodies for Oboe, Viola & Piano
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John Corigliano: The Food of Love for Oboe & Cello
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Rebecca Clarke: Two Pieces for Viola and Cello
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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.
Bethany Robinson and the Purdue Jazz Collective
January 17, 2026 Ed Carney Memorial Jazz Concert
St. John’s Episcopal Church
405 N Saginaw Rd. Midland, Michigan 48640
The program to begin at 7:00 p.m.
Tickets available exclusively at the door.
The Grove Music Festival presents Bethany Robinson and the Purdue Jazz Collective on Saturday, January 17, 2026 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