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Before Grant Kwiecinski was headlining festivals with his saxophone-centric electronic-music project, GRiZ, he was just a kid in the Detroit suburbs learning to play the instrument that would become his signature.
“I started playing sax in elementary school, because my school had funding from the state to provide us that education,” says Kwiecinski. “But not everyone gets that opportunity.”
Since 2014, Kwiecinski has helped raise over $400,000 to correct that, by providing more music education to Detroit kids with his annual 12 Days of GRiZMAS holiday event. The mini-festival — which ran Dec. 1-12 and raised $100,000 in 2021 — spans the city with musical performances, yoga, crafting, caroling, roller-skating and more, with profits from ticket and merchandise sales going to Seven Mile, a Detroit-based organization that provides music, art and coding lessons for kids in underserved local communities.
Since 2014, Kwiecinski has helped raise over $400,000 to correct that, by providing more music education to Detroit kids with his annual 12 Days of GRiZMAS holiday event. The mini-festival — which ran Dec. 1-12 and raised $100,000 in 2021 — spans the city with musical performances, yoga, crafting, caroling, roller-skating and more, with profits from ticket and merchandise sales going to Seven Mile, a Detroit-based organization that provides music, art and coding lessons for kids in underserved local communities.
“My big hope is that what we’re doing here motivates people to do it in their own way,” says Kwiecinski. “If you’re flying first class to play shows and grab bags but you’re not doing shit to help your community, you’ve got to get after it.”
