I began playing piano at the age of 3 and moved on to the theater organ by age 10. I was giving organ lessons by the age of 16 and eventually earned a scholarship to Julliard, but passed on this opportunity to take some courses locally at St. Louis Institute of Music and joined the Navy instead - seemed like the thing to do at the time. I still play regularly on the weekends and my musical career has taken me from studio recording to touring - and I've enjoyed every minute of it!
As a child, my father owned a counter top company so I grew up around manufacturing and eventually worked my way through various companies until I became Chief Engineer/Designer for Koken Manufacturing. They've been around for well over 100 years and are best known for producing the old barber chairs that have become quite collectible through the years.
During a 5 year hiatus from playing music I began to collect organette's as a hobby and soon had a collection of over 30. The only problem was, most of them didn't work! So I began collecting information from other collector's and eventually acquired the cumulative work of the late Carl Semon and began learning all I could on restoring these forgotten mechanical music machines. Carl was an engineer also, and his meticulous notes and passion for organette's has been a wealth of information. Sadly, I never got the chance to meet him but I'm fortunate to have the opportunity to carry on the tradition.
Restoring has now become a full time job and when I think I've seen them all, something new (or should I say old?) shows up to surprise me yet again. It's always much easier to restore an untouched machine, but well meaning amateur repairs over the years can sometimes be a real nightmare to undue.Someorganettes need only simple repairs and some require major re-building to bring them back to life, but either way it's always good to hear a voice that's been silent for so long. After the introduction of the phonograph most organette's became mouse nest's in someone's attic or barn or simply thrown away, so few exist in excellent condition today. But thanks to the Internet more and more are surfacing and a voice from the past is being heard again.
So that's it in a nut shell - I've officially become a forensic restorer*, bringing life back into a forgotten piece of our musical history as best I can. Feel free to contact me any time - I'll be happy to answer any questions I can!
