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Gary Mills |
Gary Mills is a time served Apprenticed Engineer & coppersmith who first started playing in military bands in 1976, at first he played then Clarinet then Saxophone. In 1980, whilst at sea on a submarine his flute broke & with no repair or instrument workshop to fix it, bravely decided to do it himself. He took it into John Packers on his return & was informed the repair was perfectly good and there was no problem with it. |
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He then decided to learn how to master the same standard every time & sought advice from Jon Dodd at Topwind. He was accepted into the Royal Marines School of Music workshop at HMS Nelson twice a week for two years learning from the highly skilled repairers: Steve Salmon, Pete Yetman, Brian Smith & Pete Hill all professional members of NAMIR. He then successfully completed every available course for instrument repair technicians at the Malden School of Musical Instrument Repair (Where he now teaches) With a passion for musical instrument repairs to high standards, he purchased & restored many Brass & Woodwind instruments, researching and developing new techniques with his own pieces, then refining & perfecting the procedure before offering the service to customers. Before leaving the Royal Navy he spent four weeks working at Dawkes instrument repair workshops where his skills were tested by the high standards set there. During this time he established his own workshop and passed the requirements to join the National Association of Musical Instrument Repairers (NAMIR) as a professional member. He is often found at Music Festivals & Atarah Ben-Tovim's courses as the "On Site" emergency instrument repairer. His distinguished list of clients includes: Atarah Ben-Tovim (Flute), Martin Gatt (Bassoon). Manfred Kleir (French Horn) & Mike Snelling (Jazz Sax), He still regularly plays Tenor Sax or Flute/Piccolo with the Royal Navy bands & enjoys playing for carnivals, local concerts as well as travelling to Europe to play in the Cologne Carnival with the German Domstader Band & November ceremonies in Eypes. |
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