I grew up in Toledo, Ohio, the son of a mechanical engineer.  After taking up the clarinet in the 4th grade, I transferred to the oboe in high school.  My first oboe teacher, Ed Bloedow, was a Cincinnati Conservatory graduate.  He encouraged me to learn some of my own repair, because of the difficulty of finding good repairmen.

My Bachelor’s degree in oboe is from Ohio University where I studied with Adrian Gnam and Jon Dloughy in the 1970’s.  My Master’s Degree is from the University of Iowa, where I was a teaching assistant, and repaired on weekends for West Music Company.  Further oboe studies were with John Mack, Bob Sorton, Don Baker, and Mark Ackerman.  I also studied clarinet with Larry Mentzer of the San Antonio Symphony. 

My wife and I spent 28 years in San Antonio, Texas, where I played principal oboe with the Corpus Christi and Mid-Texas Symphonies and the San Antonio Opera. I’ve also been a substitute with the San Antonio and Austin Symphonies. In Tennessee, I now play principal oboe with the Johnson City Symphony, 2nd oboe in the Symphony of the Mountains (Kingsport), and frequently sub with the Knoxville Symphony. My wife Cynthia plays bass in local orchestras, and teaches string instruments privately, after retiring from an orchestra teaching position for the San Antonio I.S.D.

I have repaired woodwinds for several music stores around San Antonio, and have owned my own oboe and clarinet shop for about 10 years now.  I have studied with oboe maker Paul Covey, and have been repairing woodwinds for over 30 years, with an emphasis on the oboe and clarinet. 

I am a member of, and clinician for, the National Association of Professional Band Instrument Repair Technicians (NAPBIRT).  In 2008 I won the Dick Rausch Memorial Award for my presentation “Oboe Repair Methods” at the national repair convention, and have taught an oboe repair course at the NAPBIRT training center in Normal, Il.