MARCH 7 • 2024 | 49

Broadway-style musical and that camp has
auditions and lasts two weeks.
”

A LOVE OF MUSIC
For Grekin, who is 52, opening a music
school came naturally, as playing instru-
ments, singing and writing songs have
always been a big part of his life. While in
elementary school in Ann Arbor, Grekin
began playing the trumpet and piano. “I
would play piano and write songs by age
11,
” he recalls. “My mom wanted me to
perform and would have me play in front of
family and friends, and she would sign me
up for open mic nights around town.
”
While a senior at Huron High School,
his mom, Linda Grekin, took one of his
recordings and entered it into a contest
called Quest for Excellence at WJR Radio
in Detroit. “It was a vocal competition —
a Detroit version of Star Search,
” recalls
Grekin. “My mom entered me without me
knowing! For the competition I played the
piano and sang songs I wrote. I made it into
the semifinals and finals that took place at
the Fisher Theatre, and I came in fourth
place.. I performed in front of a huge audi-
ence. It was a great experience.
”
After high school, Grekin attended
Berklee College of Music in Boston, where
he honed his skills, performed with bands,
and started his own rock band. To earn
money, he performed at weddings and bar
mitzvahs.
While still in college, Grekin had the
opportunity to play with Motown’s The
Temptations. “That was a blast” he says. “I
was able to play with them one other time
as well. The Temptations are one of those
bands who pick up a horn section while on
the road.
”
After graduating, Grekin remained in
Boston for five years and performed all
over the Northeast as a freelance musician.
Briefly, he played the trumpet on a Holland
American cruise ship, sailing around Alaska
and then the Caribbean.
To advance his career, Grekin made
his way to the Netherlands. “I moved
to Rotterdam because I had been in an
exchange program there when I was at
Berklee and knew a lot of people there,
”
he says. “I was able to tour around Europe
playing with different bands. I played with
Miko Weaver, who was Prince’s guitar play-
er. (Weaver had resided in Rotterdam for a
couple of years, playing at clubs and record-
ing songs.)

After Europe, Grekin, who was already
an established jazz musician, returned to
the United States and settled in New York
City. “I had gotten into hip-hop and rap,
and New York City was the hub for both of
those.
”
To further his education, Grekin went
on to earn a master’s degree in jazz perfor-
mance at the Manhattan School of Music.
As a freelance musician in New York, he
was able to play at events, hook up with
bands and perform at numerous venues. He
became a music producer, worked part time
in a recording studio, played the trumpet
and had an original band called Shine Like
the Sun. He also recorded music with Tony-
Award-winning composer Jason Robert
Brown (Parade and The Bridges of Madison
County) and Grammy Award-winning
composer J. Walter Hawks.
He worked at a theater company in the
Bronx and, when the World Trade Center
was attacked, Grekin was asked to write a
musical for the kids to perform at Ground
Zero. “We performed for the firefighters
and police who were working there after
9/11 — we were all in tears.
”

HOME TO ANN ARBOR
In 2000, Grekin had married Deleska, a
musician who had been a background sing-
er for MCA Records and studying to be a

psychologist. When she was accepted to a
doctoral program at Indiana University in
2003, they relocated to Bloomington. It was
there he opened his first school to teach
youngsters music. “I started to develop a
curriculum when I was in New York, and
turned it into a business in Indiana,
” he
says.
When they moved to Ann Arbor in 2011
— along with their two daughters Maya and
Zoey — Grekin’s goal was to open a music
school in Michigan. “While I was renting
space and devising an innovative and cre-
ative curriculum, I wanted to get a Ph.D.
in music education at Oakland University
before trying to grow the business,
” he says.
This month, he started the Grekin Music
Booking Agency in Ann Arbor. He will
be helping musicians get auditions, make
connections, record their music, and play
at concerts, clubs, weddings, bar mitzvahs
and events.
With a strong connection to Detroit,
Grekin wants to reach out to the metropol-
itan Detroit community. His parents, Roger
and Linda Grekin, both 1961 Mumford
High grads, were native Detroiters. Roger,
who passed away in 2015, was an endocri-
nologist at the University of Michigan hos-
pital. Linda (Zitomer) is a retired educator
who was a librarian at Hillel Day School
in Farmington Hills. Roger’s father, Jack
Grekin, was a renowned dermatologist in
Detroit, and his wife, Zivia, was a teacher.
Linda’s dad, Abe Zitomer, was an artist.
Grekin, who had a bar mitzvah at Temple
Beth Emeth, says Judaism is very important
to him. “
Although I am a cultural Jew and
my wife is Christian, the Jewish holidays
and teachings are meaningful to me in a
cultural and spiritual way,
” says Grekin,
whose daughter Maya had a bat mitzvah at
Temple Beth Emeth. “My wife grew up in
the largest African American domination
COGIC — Church of God in Christ — and
it has wonderful music. And I love Jewish
music. Our kids enjoy them both,
”
For now, Grekin wants to continue
expanding his music school and camps.
“The kids seem to love it,
” he says. “They
enjoy recitals and performing for friends
and family, they love learning how to play
multiple instruments and they love inter-
acting with others and composing their
own music. It is very rewarding seeing how
excited the kids are to learn all about music
and how to play instruments — it’s what I
had hoped for.
”

Josh Grekin

Grekin School of Music and Little
Bands Music
2145 Independence Blvd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Phone: (734) 627-7107
Email: Staff@littlebandsmusic.com
Website: www.littlebandsmusic.com