| Lee A. Stofer, Jr., is a native of Hopkinsville,
Kentucky, born in 1957. He started taking trumpet lessons at age
16, and started in his high school band as a junior, playing baritone.
From this late,
unlikely start, he was recommended for Kentucky All-State Band
the next year as a senior euphonium player. Having developed quite a
passion for music and playing, Lee entered Western Kentucky University
in the fall
of 1975 as a music major. His freshman year, he switched to tuba,
and one year later, changed his major to performance. After graduating
in
the spring of 1979 with a BM - Performance degree, he enlisted
in the US Army. For the next 22 years, Lee played tuba, euphonium, trombone
and bass in thousands
of performances throughout the US, Europe and the Middle East.
While on active duty, Lee also performed extensively off-duty with groups
ranging
from brass quintet and polka bands, to big bands, brass bands,
and symphony orchestras. Since retirement from the U.S. Army, Lee worked for 5
years in Atlanta, then moved the business and family to the family farm
in Eastern Iowa in the summer of 2006. Lee is now an active player in
the Quad Cities musical scene, a member of A.F.M. local 67 in Davenport,
Iowa, and the newest string bass player in the Clinton Symphony
Orchestra, Clinton, Iowa.
Meanwhile, there was a parallel
to this career. From the earliest days, playing a bell-front Conn
baritone in high school, Lee had
always been
involved with the mechanical aspect, repairs and maintenance of
instruments. When Lee got home with that first Conn baritone and
tried to play
his scales, the valves were sticking. So, he took it to his father's
shop
and hand-lapped the valves until they worked. In college, he became
increasingly interested in rotary valves, and how to eliminate
all that noise that they made.
By graduation time, Lee had been contracted for his first instrument
repair job, converting the linkage to ball-and socket on all of
the University's tubas. In Army Bands, instrument repair services
were
always in demand,
and he continued to learn and develop maintenance and basic repair
skills. During the last 12 years in the Army, Lee started apprenticing
with various
people. He owes a debt of gratitude to Dale Barton, Instrument
Repairman for the US Army Field Band, Clay Frazier, former Schilke
employee, Rich
Ita, owner of the Band Instrument Workshop in Atlanta, David Worster,
long-time Atlanta-area instrument repair technician, Ed Strege,
owner of Badger State Repair in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, Bob Frushour,
Director
of Repair Operations for Music & Arts, and Rudolf Meinl,
Sr. and Rudolf Meinl, Jr., world-renowned instrument makers. Each
of these people shared knowledge and skill in instrument making
or repairing,
a passion for music, and a desire for a high standard of excellence.
God made their paths cross with Lee's, and Lee will be eternally
grateful. Lee joined the National Association of Professional Band
Instrument
Repair Technicians (NAPBIRT) in 1995, and officially committed
to being a first-class
band instrument repair technician. During his last tour in the
Army, Lee set about building a world-class instrument repair facility
(in
his back yard) in Atlanta's Southern Crescent. The business officially opened
full-time on September 1st, 2001, and after 5 successful years of
serving local, national and international customers at the Atlanta
location, Lee and his family moved to Iowa's Gateway Region, near the
Quad Cities and Clinton, Iowa, on the Mississippi River. The adventure
continues today, as Lee continues to provide quality brass, woodwind and
percussion instrument repairs and restoration to Eastern Iowa, the
Midwest, and beyond.
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