FORRESTS MUSIC
Specialty store dedicated to wind and double-reed instruments, accessories, and music.
Forrests Music is one of the oldest wind instrument sales and repair shops in the Bay Area, situated in Berkeley, California, within walking distance of the University. The store has been a Berkeley institution since the late 1940's and is probably the best known supplier for double-reed instruments. The team is comprised of co-owners Cynthia Behnke Hanson and Audrey Jackson; store manager Celia Bryan; consultant, double reed technician, product development and IT associate John Goebel; woodwind and brass technician and product supplier Marilyn Day; part time sales and order fulfillment associate Phil Freihofner.
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Cynthia is a bassoonist with a BM in Bassoon Performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder and one year of graduate study at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She is an active bassoonist/contra-bassoonist in the SF Bay Area, performing frequently with local symphonies, opera and ballet companies, pit orchestras, municipal bands and chamber ensembles.
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Audrey has an MM in Clarinet Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a BS from Brooklyn College. An accomplished instrumentalist playing flute, clarinet and saxophone, Audrey developed a passion for double reeds over her tenure at Forrests, learning bassoon in 1993 and recently starting to learn oboe. Audrey can be found in orchestra pits throughout the Bay Area, and occasionally beyond.
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Celia has a BM in Oboe Performance from Stanford and an MM from San Francisco State University.
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John is a highly regarded woodwind technician from Madison Wisconsin.
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Marilyn has been the woodwind and brass technician for Forrests since 1981. She studied with Bill Sheik and John Goebel.
John and Marilyn were owners of Forrests Music for nearly twenty years.
Phil has a BA in Music from UC Berkeley, and is an oboist, composer, software developer, with a keen interest in the physics of music. His compositions, double reed arrangements, and his co-invention with John, the Blend Guide Mandrel, is available at Forrests.