Marvin Gruenbaum

Marvin at Courtland, KS

Marvin Gruenbaum was born in St. Louis, but hails from Burlingame, California, where he lived from ages 4 to 15, and began violin lessons at the age of 9.

He was concertmaster of his high school orchestra in 1970 and 1971 at Riverview Gardens High School in St. Louis. His first professional violin experience was as a strolling minstrel for a King Henry VIII type dinner theatre in St. Louis called the “Royal Dumpe” After he dropped out of Washington University (where he was an anthropology student), he came to Kansas City to study music. At the University of Missouri in Kansas City, he received a B.A. in violin in 1978, and a Master of Music in Viola performance in 1981.

Following his graduate studies, he played for about a year and a half with country/western bands, including Red Dirt Revival (K.C.), Showdown (Omaha), Red Bandana (K.C.), and the WDAF 61 Country Jamboree Band (K.C.).

Marvin and Mark O'Connor

He was hired by the Kansas City Symphony as a viola player in the fall of 1982, where he is still employed today. His major accomplishments in the orchestra setting include a dozen or so solo performances of his own arrangement of Orange Blossom Special, several jazz solos, and an unaccompanied duet with Mark O'Connor on Limerock during the Symphony Pops concert.