50 | DECEMBER 12 • 2024
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ARTS&LIFE
MUSIC

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effrey Grossman combines
fascination with music and
instruments of the past with
attention to emerging technology
developments toward the future. He
plays the harpsichord and uses new
equipment modes in planning pro-
grams.
His approach, as part of the
four-member group the Sebastians,
enters into the lively Dec. 15 con-
cert for Chamber Music Detroit.
The program also will be available
through digital viewing opportuni-
ties.
Grossman’s instrument, the harp-
sichord, will take the stage with
modern instruments played by the
rest of the Sebastians for a “Holiday
Baroque Matinee.” Also featured
will be the violins of Daniel Lee and
Nicholas DiEugenio as well as the

cello of Ezra Seltzer.
The four specialize in Baroque
(1600-1750) music that has been
popular in Western Europe without
any reference to a specific holiday.
“When we were designing this
program, we were trying to come
up with something that would have
the spirit of the holidays but not
written for this specific time of the
year,” said Grossman, who grew up
in Michigan and had his bar mitz-
vah at Temple Shir Shalom in West
Bloomfield.
“It’s happy music from a time
when you can imagine people getting
together and listening in community
while enjoying themselves. There’s
no actual Christmas or Chanukah
holiday spin. There are pieces in
minor keys, but the overall emotion
is energy. It’s a program designed to

leave you smiling at the end.”
There will be one modern piece
in the program written by Karl
Hinze, Grossman’s husband, who
does administrative work for the
Sebastians. The Baroque works
include compositions by Johann
Sebastian Bach (source of the group’s
name), George Frideric Handel,
Arcangelo Corelli, Jean-Pierre
Guignon, Élisabeth Jacquet de La
Guerre, Francois Couperin, Joseph-
Nicolas-Pancrace Royer and Antonio
Vivaldi.
Grossman, who started musi-
cianship as a pianist studying at the
University of Michigan while he
was also a student at the now-dis-
continued Harrison High School in
Farmington Hills, became entranced
with the harpsichord as an advanced
student.
“It was in college that I became
fascinated by the harpsichord,” said
the instrumentalist, who has three
harpsichords in his New York living
room and moves them around the
room as he rotates practice on each.

“It’s all so different. When I was
in graduate school for conducting
at Carnegie Mellon University in
Pittsburgh, I started sneaking away
to take harpsichord lessons. It just
seemed like fun.”
Playing the harpsichord went
beyond fun as Grossman opened up
to the characteristics of the instru-
ment. The ones he has come from
France, Germany and Italy, and it
becomes quite a production to move
them around for performances.
“I love the way the harpsichord
speaks,” he said. “The harpsichord
has a kind of directness to it that I
think is really special. It can be very
beautiful, but also it can chatter in a
way that the piano really doesn’t. It
can create a rhythmic vitality. It’s fun
to listen to and can spice up music
in a way.”
The Sebastians were last in
Michigan in 2018, when they played
two concerts for the Academy of
Early Music. Grossman gets back
to Michigan in summers to visit his
mom and stepdad, Beth and Jeff

Chamber Music Detroit’s Dec. 15 concert
features Jeffrey Grossman on harpsichord.

’A Holiday
Baroque Matinee‘

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Sebastians:
Jeffrey Grossman
on harpsichord;
Daniel Lee
and Nicholas
DiEugenio on
violins; and Ezra
Seltzer on cello.