NAPBIRT REGIONAL CLINIC – BEAUFORT, SOUTH CAROLINA

Oddball, Rare, and HM Repairs 
Melody Choplin-Hoover

Replacing pads. Straightening keys. Soldering braces.  These are the repairs that tech perform on a daily basis.  Imagine the hundreds of tenon corks one tech will install over the course of a year. These repetitive jobs are the ones that earn BIR techs a living.  However, there are other repairs that are unique and not as common.  Some are rare and only performed one or twice in a tech’s career.  Other repairs are oddball that require thinking outside the box.  Then there are the hail marys that are a last attempt at salvaging an instrument so messed up, it cannot be made worse.  This clinic is a visual aid and an open discussion on a number of rare, oddball, and hail mary repairs that techs see come across their benches from time to time.  The purpose is to provide a reference for when these projects appear on the incoming instrument shelves.  The techniques are by no means the only way of performing these repairs, but what this presentation brings is a starting point and guideline. 

Melody is a 1991 graduate of Red Wing Technical College and also holds a Bachelors and Masters Degree in Oboe.  She has worked in the past as a technician and shop foreman for Pearson Music Company and Duncan Music Company.  She is well known throughout North Carolina as a highly skilled technician in both woodwinds and brasses.  Melody was the first repair specialist and instructor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and held that position for over a decade.  While she was there, she developed a comprehensive repair curriculum for band and orchestra directors.  Her classes and clinics on instrument repair are designed to help music directors deal with day to day repair problems as well as maintenance, troubleshooting, and how to work with repair technicians.  She also worked with students as apprentices, and help launch their careers in the field of repair.  In 2013, she published a book on repair called “Stuff Band Directors Need to Know” which is used as a text book as well as a resource for music educators.  Melody has been a Regional Director, and served on the Executive Board as Secretary and President of NAPBIRT (National Association of Band Instrument Repair Technicians) of which she is a long time member and clinician.  Currently, Melody owns and operates her own repair shop, Carolina Wind and Brass Repair in Clemmons, NC.  She is an active performer in the community, playing with several groups and continues to study, improve, and add to her skill set of repair.  She lives with her husband and a rescue mutt or two.

Bass Clarinet Repairs and Lower 
Jaime Hamner

We will be approaching the ever treacherous bass clarinet play conditions and octave mechanisms. The class will be teaching repairs on range of bass clarinets from student to professional. We will cover single, double and maybe even triple octave mechanism adjustments. Correctly regulating the Low C extensions will definitely be in the table. If time is available, we will also be discussing the Contra bass clarinet do’s and don’ts. 

Jaime, a native of Lemoore, CA, joined the Marine Corps after high school. Upon graduation of boot camp, he attended the Armed Forces School of Music as a clarinetist. He was stationed in Okinawa, Japan and Camp Lejeune, NC. While at Camp Lejeune, Jaime was selected to become a Band Instrument Repairman and attended Red Wing Technical College in Minnesota. After graduation, he was stationed in Parris Island, SC. After retiring after 20 years in the Marine Corps, Jaime opened a small home based repair shop that quickly grew throughout the low country. This led to him opening a small repair shop in Beaufort that has grown into a full service music store offering Band Instrument/Luthiery repair, Band/string instrument and accessory sales and lessons. Jaime graduated from Red Wing Technical college (Minnesota State College SouthEast Technical) and has been repairing musical instruments for over 23 years. He has served on various positions within NAPBIRT and is an avid supporter of music education throughout Beaufort County and beyond. Jaime serves with numerous local non profit groups to help the continued growth of music in our up and coming generations.

Fleets of Flutes
Katy Jacobson 

This clinic will feature several methods that are being used to repair flutes typically found in school and rental fleets. We will discuss rolled tone holes, pads, head corks, shimming, tooling and so much more. This clinic will hopefully send you back to the bench with new techniques to improve the quality and efficiency of your work.

Katy Jacobson always thought she wanted to be a band director but after a few years of university she decided BIR was where her future was leading. In 2008 she graduated with a BA in fine Arts-Music from the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, IA. She then began BIR studies at MSC Southeastern in Red Wing, MN and graduated with honors in 2009. Her first repair job was at Palen Music Center in Liberty, MO, where she did woodwind, brasswind, string and percussion repair from 2009-2014.  Mark Schemedinghoff and Walker Carter were her mentors during this time. In 2014, she accepted a job with Gadsden Music Company, Gadsden, Alabama.  She began as a full time woodwind and brass technician and was promoted to Shop Manager. At the end of 2022 she left Gadsden Music and opened her own repair shop - Katix Music. Lately she has been focusing on improving her flute repair skills through classes, clinics, books, mentors and certifications. Her focus may be on flutes at the moment but she still repairs all the other brass and woodwind instruments. This summer she enjoyed working as a guest technician for KBI Music Shoppe in Fredericksburg, VA and Zeswitz Music in Reading, PA.

Katy lives in Pinson, AL.  Her hobbies include stunt kites, knitting, sewing and traveling. She participates in multiple community bands, judges Bible Drill competitions and is an active member of the Alabama Master Gardeners Association.