Woodwind & Reed

Some customers may remember the time when I only had room in my Felton Street workshop for just one family at a time. I provided umbrellas for waiting customers to use in wet weather! Cambridge in the 1980s was an influential place in the history of period performance. I was making period clarinets and basset clarinets, within a quarter-mile radius of Christopher Hogwood (conductor), Trevor Beckerleg (harpsichord maker), Mark Stephenson (harpsichord maker), Anna Brock (violin maker), Juliet Barker (violin maker) and Nick Shackleton (collector and promoter of period performance). In 2009, my second-in-command Timothy Taylor and I took part in Cranfield University's prestigious management development program, under the tutelage of Gerard Burke and Marihelen Esam. This prompted us to redesign the shop's layout in 2010, introducing extra services for customers. We now have four rooms set aside for customers to try instruments. They are designed to provide an acoustic barrier to the rest of the shop, without losing contact with our helpful and attentive staff. In 2011, I took part in the BBC 4 programme Scrapheap Orchestra. The nine participants had to make instruments that sounded like modern orchestral instruments, out of scrap materials......... The culmination, a concert in the Royal Albert Hall, was an event not to be missed. We are now one of a handful of specialist shops in the country that offer expert retail and repair service to the woodwind and brass player. Our customer seem to appriciate the personal expertise we can offer and we hope this will enable us to continue for more decades to come.Yours sincerely, Daniel Bangham.