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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

