The musical industry has been in my family for a long time. My grandfather, Austin Kiefer, had a long history at C.G. Conn before starting his own business around 1937, I think, making custom bells for companies all around the country. Then my uncle, Bob Kiefer took over the business and I was fortunate enough to get my start in the band instrument industry in early 80's. My father worked at Armst
rong's when it was near Island Park. He worked there many years making flutes and piccolos. He also did gold and silver soldering on the side. My stepfather, Charles Strintz worked at Conns also for a very long time and was president of the union there for like 36 years. When my uncle sold the business to the Getzen Company, I immediately started working for Blessings, Merle Johnson. We made bells for them at Kiefer as well as Dave Monette, Earl Williams Trombones and even made horns for the Navy, just to mention a few. I had worked at Blessings for a couple years when Vincent Bach contacted me and asked if I would work for them. Well, they offered me a deal to good to turn down, so I gave my notice and worked there for 15 years til they went on strike.... What a shame..... Corporate greed took over, along with the foreign imports,which is the main reason the strike occurred. Since then I went on my own repairing saxophones since this is what I really enjoying.
