Clarinets
Phil Rovner was having some trouble with his intonation as a saxophone player, and decided to design a new approach to attaching the reed to his mouthpiece. As an engineer, he had the knowledge to create this new ligature, which has since been played by musicians around the world. Phil grew up in...
George Reeder and his wife, Lynn, are the owners of Rovner Products, which produces ligatures, mouthpieces and other accessories for musical instruments. The company was established in the 1970s when Phil Rovner, a mechanical engineer and musician, set out to redesign the ligature for his saxophone...
Lynn Reeder did not become actively involved in music until her mid-40’s after receiving a gift certificate for voice lessons from her husband George and son Alex, although an avid listener throughout her life! Those lessons resulted in 13 years of musical performance, singing in a women’s choral...
Dallas Smith began playing the clarinet at the age of eleven. By the time he was in high school he was in an all-star group and later focused on classical music throughout college. His love for jazz and new age music emerged over the years and Dallas found himself naturally adding classical...
Charles Owens has always believed in the importance of music education; after all, his own career began while attending the University of San Diego. As a result, Charles kept returning to education throughout his career even when he became a sought-after studio musician and touring jazz saxophonist...
Denny Coiro spent over 40 years of his career in the piano industry. As a salesman, Denny worked for several stores over the years and had some wonderful experiences bringing a new instrument into the lives of countless customers. He studied clarinet in school and earned a degree in music education...
Paul Baronnat started singing in choirs beginning at the age of eight. As a singer of the permanent choir of the Paris Philharmonic Orchestra, he was approached by RCA to work for its classical catalog. In 1985, after 15 years at RCA, Paul started to work for the woodwind instrument maker Buffet...
Thomas Schreiber, grandson of Wenzel Schreiber, today runs his own repair shop and takes care of the woodwind instruments of several music schools in the region of Frankfurt. After an apprenticeship at Buffet Crampon in France starting in 1977, Thomas joined his father’s company ESM in Austria for...
Cornelia Kinzelmann is CEO of ESM which produces mouthpieces for clarinets and saxophones. Cornelia remembers her grandfather, Wenzel Schreiber, from the time when she was a child. Wenzel Schreiber and his sons, Ernst and Hugo, made the company W. Schreiber a great success. After the company was...
Mark Kortschot is a Professor of Engineering at the University of Toronto who was approached by Guy Légère with an interesting idea in 1997. Guy wanted to make a synthetic reed for the clarinet from oriented polymers, but needed some help obtaining and working with these high-tech materials. Mark...