James Grossman began his music education in grade school studying piano and trombone.  In high school he was principal trombone for the New York All City Orchestra. He studied with Davis Shuman of the Julliard School, Simon Karasik of the Mannes School, and with Alan Raph.

As an undergraduate he became interested in the Early Music movement, taught himself the cornetto and played renaissance trombone and cornetto with the Boston Museum Camerata collegium.  Under the guidance of recorder and flute maker Friederich Von Huene he learned to make cornetti, some of which have been in the collections of the Smithsonian and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and played by the New York Pro Musica.

Grossman became interested in brass instrument design and learned repair techniques first working for Sam Ash Music in Hempstead Long Island and then moving on to working for Robert Giardinelli in his midtown Manhattan shop.  It was with Giardinelli’s that he met many well known brass players and learned about mouthpiece design, modification, and production, as well as the finer points of brass repair and modification.

Grossman opened his own shop in lower Manhattan where he continued to serve the needs of professional brass players. After several years he relocated to the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn.

 

In 1976 he and his wife Andrea moved to Portland, Maine, and then to the Mid-Coast area where Jim set up shop in the second story of their barn. and raised 2 daughters, Kate and Dinah.

In 1998 Jim built a home in Stockton Springs with a dedicated climate-controlled workshop space where he continues to serve the needs of musicians, music teachers and their students.