Sometimes you are so busy running the day to day details of a small business that you don’t always see the big picture - or an anniversary!
The studio opened its doors on October 1, 2018 and is still going strong! Many thanks to the students and families who support this studio and I am very much looking forward to the next 7 years at least!!
As our high school percussion students move on to their college and university ensembles, we continue to add new instructional staff to prepare those students. Yesterday we welcomed a new guest teacher, Samantha Short, to come in and work with some of our students on marching cymbal technique.
Those students are going to join their new marching drumlines at University of Delaware and Syracuse University.
Samantha marched cymbals in DCA with the Bushwackers (2022-24) and also marched in WGI with United Percussion in 2023 & 2024. She will be teaching United Percussion 2 in the 2026 season.
Stay tuned for new program offerings!
This year on 3rd Thursdays in Kennett, the studio is producing a series of performances which we are calling Rock the Ramp! While there is a community building aspect to this, the Ramp Concerts are also a vehicle to provide our students with a performance opportunities.
This month, our guest performers were The Sin Brothers, our friends Erik and Mark Hetzel. They perform extensively throughout the region - the definition of what I would call local professionals. Where grooveKSq differs from other studios is that grooveKSq pairs students up with working professionals in front of a live audience. This is what musicians do, they play live. It is the best way to hone your skills.
Below is an excerpt from Carolina’s performance. She totally poised and under control, and the moment is absolutely not too big for her. Awesome performance by Carolina here.
August 21st: Resting Funk Face - BT, James McLaughlin (organ), Robert Mastroppolitto (guitar) play some 1960s and 1970s soul and jazz.
September 18: The Dukes of Bavaria: BT leads a German-style brass band which meets British and American hard rock and metal.
October 16: the grooveKSq All Stars - a showcase for some of our intermediate and advanced students
There is no better test for a musician than performance in front of a live audience. The stars of yesterday’s performance were the students. They all prepared thoroughly, and let their playing do the talking! Thank you to all of the parents and families who provide a support system for these young performers.
Thank you to Jim Coarse at Moonloop Photography for some outstanding work capturing the event and the performers yesterday. Also special thanks to Guenevere and Calabrese Arts, it was a perfect venue for us.
This week we started up our monthly djembe group class, led by Paco Samb. Every month, we have new people coming in for this experience and we did have a good turnout, so thank you to all who attended! This class will continue on the third Thursday of each month going forward until the summer. Our next session will be March 20th at 7pm. Below are some picture and a quick video from class. Enjoy!
Beginning in January, our video series grooveLIVE will return to our YouTube channel. This is a live performance short program that will provide an opportunity for local artists to reach a new audience, and also the production of this show will provide a few students with audio engineering and editing experience.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified when new episodes are released!
