The Robert C. Byrd Center Presents NPR's Mountain Stage Artists

Larry and Sandra Groce & Bob Thompson

for a lawn concert and pig roast

at the home of Karen and Bill Rice

with limited outdoor capacity

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm on Saturday, July 31, 2021

to benefit the civics education initiatives of
the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education

Tickets are $150.00 per person
Each ticket covers dinner, admission for the musical performance, and a donation to the civics education initiatives of the Byrd Center (Learn more here>>). Attendees are invited to bring a blanket or lawn chairs to enjoy the meal and performance. Vegetarian meal options will be available.

The event will take place rain or shine, no tickets will be refunded. The gathering area will be covered by tents. This fundraiser is being planned in accordance with state and federal COVID-19 gathering restrictions and safety precautions.

Our Featured Artists:

Larry Groce

Larry Groce is a singer, songwriter and one of the founders of West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Mountain Stage, distributed nationally by NPR to over 275 stations. He has hosted and been Producer/Artistic Director of the show since its inception.

Larry has recorded twenty-four albums spanning styles from Americana to hymns to children’s recordings.  The most recent, “Live Forever”, released in 2016, featured a guest vocal by Larry’s old friend, Ray Wylie Hubbard. Larry’s top ten hit novelty single “Junk Food Junkie” was Dr. Demento’s Song of the Year in 1976. Several of his Walt Disney Records albums have sold gold and platinum and his Disney book/record, “Winnie the Pooh for President”, was nominated for a “Children’s Record of the Year” Grammy. In all, he performed on nine albums and 30 other recordings for Disney, and 36 of his songs are recorded on Disney albums, singles and EPs.
Read More
He has performed on The Tonight Show, The Merv Griffin Show, American Bandstand, The Midnight Special, The Rich Little Show, Nashville Now, The Disney Channel, Doctor Demento and A Prairie Home Companion and has been the subject of features in The New York Times and People.
 
Larry was born in Dallas, Texas and lived in Illinois, New York City and Los Angeles before moving to West Virginia in 1972 as part of a National Endowment for the Arts Musician-in-Residence program. He’s lived in The Mountain State ever since. Between 1972 and 1986, Larry sometimes worked as artist-in-residence in communities and schools in twenty-two states from Washington to Florida. This work included teaching songwriting and music performance to school children and adults.
 
Over the years, along with his music and arts production work, Larry owned the Morgantown School of Ballet, co-owned the WV alternative news and humor magazine, Graffiti and helped to found and was Executive Director of FestivALL Charleston from its inception in 2005 until 2015. FestivALL is a ten-day multi-arts event which attracts over 50,000 attendees to Charleston each year.
 
In 2017, Theatre West Virginia commissioned Larry and Daniel Boyd to write a musical adaptation of Boyd’s feature film, “Paradise Park”. Boyd wrote the book and Larry wrote ten new songs, co-wrote three others and adapted two of his own previously written songs for the play. “Paradise Park – The Musical” was premiered by Theatre West Virginia in 2018 produced again in 2019. It is scheduled to be produced by The Charleston (WV) Light Opera Guild in 2022.
 
Larry’s most recent completed theater project is a children’s musical called “Miss Dirt Turtle’s Garden Club” also co-written with Daniel Boyd, from an original Boyd story. Larry wrote 12 songs for the play. It will be produced by the Albans Art Center in September of 2021. He’s now working with WV singer/songwriter Todd Burge on yet another musical play about the settling of Marietta, Ohio and the Northwest Territory.
 
 
Awards and Honors
 
  • Honorary Doctorates from West Virginia Wesleyan College and The University of Charleston
  • 2008 Awarded the West Virginia Governor’s Award for Leadership in the Arts
  • 2010 Inducted into the West Virginia Broadcasters Hall of Fame  
  • 2017 Named a “Southerner of the Year” by Southern Living magazine
  • 2018 Featured in James and Deborah Fallows’ best-selling book, “Our Towns”
  • 2019 Named “West Virginian of the Year” by the Charleston Gazette-Mail
  • 2020 Inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame
  • 2021 Included in the HBO documentary based on “Our Towns”

Sandra Groce

​Sandra Groce was the principal violist for the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra and its Montclaire String Quartet from 1996 until 2010. She previously was a member of the New World Symphony in Miami, the Spoleto Orchestra (South Carolina and Italy) and the Central City (Colorado) Opera Orchestra. She studied at Yale University, The Eastman School of Music and The University of Oregon.
 
Sandra is the conductor of the Cadets (youngest members) of the West Virginia Youth Symphony and runs a very active studio for students of viola, violin and piano in Charleston along with raising two daughters, a dog and four cats. She is also a skilled woodworker and house renovator.
 
She and her husband joined forces for the album “Live Forever” in 2016.

Bob Thompson

Since 1991 Bob Thompson has been pianist, and regularly featured artist on West Virginia’s NPR syndicated radio show, Mountain Stage. For the past twenty-eight years he has also been co-producer and host of Joy to the World, a Holiday jazz show featuring Bob’s band and a special guest vocalist. The show is broadcast on public radio stations nationwide, and heard internationally on the Voice of America.

Bob was born in Jamaica, New York. He migrated to West Virginia to study instrumental music at West Virginia State University, with trumpet as his major instrument. While in college he began playing jazz piano. After winning awards at the Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival, and subsequent State Department tours abroad, he decided to pursue a career in jazz.
Read More
Bob has enjoyed a long and active career as a performer, composer, arranger, and teacher. For decades he has played in West Virginia, and at festivals and venues around the country,
including the Blue Note in New York, Blues Alley in Washington D.C. and the Newport Jazz Festival in Saratoga, NY. He has also taken his music to Europe, Africa, and South America.

Bob Thompson’s resume includes guest appearances on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz, on National Public Radio, and BET on Jazz with Ramsey Lewis. His recordings on Intima Records, and Ichiban International, received high recognition on the national jazz charts, with several reaching the top-ten. Bob Thompson “Live” on Mountain Stage, and Smile, with the Bob Thompson Unit, are on his own label, Colortones.com. The latest recording by the Bob Thompson Band, “Look Beyond the Rain”, is on Blue Canoe Records.

In October 2015, Bob Thompson was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.

Our Setting:

Karen and Bill Rice have graciously offered their beautiful home as the setting for our fundraiser. We will enjoy the performances of our NPR's Mountain Stage artists and the pig roast in view of the historic Patterson's Mill, a three-story stone mill along Tuscarora Creek, built in 1765. 

Ample parking is available close to the fundraiser location.

Address and directions will be provided to ticket holders.

Our Sponsors:

The Byrd Center greatly appreciates the generous support of the following sponsors:
$1,500.00 Level

Lisa and Paul Welch

Joe Stewart

Thank You to the Staff of Hospice of the Panhandle

$1,000.00 Level

Ray and Mary Alvarez

In Memory of Martha E. Young by Jack Young

Dionne Davies

Patrick and Abbey Griffin

$500.00 Level

Shepherd University Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities

Bill and Karen Rice

Tara Lowe

David Owens

Mary O'Hara

​Become a Sponsor of our Event:

We invite community organizations, individuals, businesses, and anyone interested in supporting our fundraiser for civics education to make a gift of sponsorship. Click here for more information >>