NAPBIRT
Don Mozingo was a teacher in a small schoolhouse for over 20 years and among the topics he taught was music. His love and passion for music can be traced to his parents and, as a child, Don began teaching himself to play every musical instrument. While teaching, he began repairing instruments for...
Frank Kilgard worked for Streep Music in Florida before opening his own band instrument repair shop in Georgia. His strong interest in quality repair led to a life time of learning new tricks and methods for cleaning and repairing school band instruments. Frank was one of the first members of...
Wayne Tanabe is a pioneer in the band instrument repair field who has helped create and improve several methods for instrument cleaning using ultrasound and cryogenics. Looking towards ways of cleaning band instruments without harming the horn, Wayne began experimenting with deep freezing the...
Bill Mathews is the Executive Director of the National Association of Professional Band Instrument Repair Technicians (NAPBIRT). In that role Bill has expanded the organization’s meaningful education sessions offered during its annual conference, regional clinics, and unique hand-on training at...
Craig Anderson is the General Manager for Allied Supply in Elkhorn, WI. Allied is the largest supplier of parts, tools and cases to the band instrument repair business and has been a cornerstone for the National Association of Professional Band Instrument Repair Technicians (NAPBIRT), which was...
Chip Owen is the product specialist at Fox Bassoons who helped engineer a series of instruments for Fox over the years including the Fox Model 900 Contrabassoon, which was first introduced in 1971. Chip supervised the development of many of the Fox products since that time and has played a key role...
Russell Thomas was a band director for over 34 years. During his teaching years he often felt frustrated that simple repairs would take weeks and often delay concerts or rehearsals. A local music store provided him an opportunity to learn simple repairs, which led to a passion that resulted in...
Denny Lawson began learning and playing instrumental music while in college. He soon found he had a great interest in playing music and switched his major to music education. While he was a band director, a music store had an opening on its repair bench and Denny took the job to learn basic...
David Straubinger started a small business in 1969 to repair and rebuild woodwind instruments. He determined early on that one area of consistent concern was they way flute pads were replaced and the design of the pads. Over time he designed his own products, including the Straubinger Flute Pad and...
Dick Waldron came to music in a most unusual way. His father was a house painter who completed a job only to find out the house owner did not have enough money to pay so he offered a cornet, to which Dick took a liking. He played the horn during school and served in the US Navy at the tail end of...