Lyric Theatre In Downtown Stuart

A high-profile surgeon who’s also an acclaimed Dixieland Jazz pianist? Who woulda thought? Yet that’s the c.v. of Ronald S. Grober, one of the Treasure Coast’s top orthopedic surgeons and the Florida team doctor for the New York Mets. As Doc Grober, he’s the fleet-fingered ivory tickler for a swingin’ group called the Mudcats. “I’m not very good myself, but the guys I play with are good,” Doc Grober says with his trademark humility. “And people say that it’s presented with a feeling of warmth, which is nice to hear. To me, it means they sense a certain amount of sincerity and musical integrity. That’s what I hope it means.” The Pennsylvania-born Grober’s musical chops are legendary. Before he even went to medical school, more than 35 years ago, he led a band called Ron Grober’s Quaker City Rhythm Kings, which played regularly in Philadelphia, New York and even Paris. The current Mudcats band includes young and retired professional musicians, recruited from all over Florida. The group has a huge local following — the doctor has a lot of patients, and his patients have a lot of friends — and tickets to their shows usually sell out quickly. You’d never guess that for 15 years — during medical school, internships and residencies — Doc Grober didn’t play a note. “Once I started medical school it was forgotten,” he says. “And it only started again quite accidentally. Many years ago, Pelican Yacht Club was trying to put together a Dixieland jazz band, and they were asking everybody, ‘Do you know anybody?’ And I said I didn’t know any bands, but I could put one together. Without even thinking — the words just came out of my mouth. “That’s sort of how the Mudcats were born. I got some musicians, we played, and on a busy office day they said, ‘What’s the name of your band?’ I didn’t have a name, so the club manager made up the name Mudcats.”