About Us
Russ Thomas is owner and "CEO" of Thomas Music.
He was educated at SUNY Fredonia and holds a Master's degree in Music
Education. Russ learned the art of instrument repair in 1967
under the watchful eye of Dominic Puccio. He opened his own shop in
1968. Additional training took place at the former Allied School
in Wisconsin in the early 1970's. He attended numerous Allied
sponsored workshops and seminars prior to the formation of NAPBIRT
(National Association of Professional Band Instrument Repair
Technicians). Russ was involved with NAPBIRT from the beginning -
becoming a charter member in 1976. He has attended many NAPBIRT
conferences around the country.
Russ is extremely active in the community. He has been the conductor of
the Irondequoit Concert Band for 12 years, is President of the Irondequoit
Arts Council, has been a volunteer fireman with Point Pleasant for 40+ years
and is currently the Treasurer of the fire department.
Jennifer (Thomas) Nicoletti, Russ' daughter, was also educated at SUNY Fredonia where she graduated with a bachelor's degree. She worked in the field of Human Resources for ten years before changing careers to work with her father as a
band instrument repair technician in 2000.
Jennifer is currently the President of NAPBIRT. She regularly attends national and regional conferences to continue her repair training
and education and has taken two courses at the national training
facility to advance her skills in saxophone and flute repair.
Jennifer is active in the community playing French horn in the Irondequoit
Concert Band. She attends Irondequoit Presbyterian Church where
she sings in the choir, is a member of the bell choir and participates
on various committees.
Byron Ford
grew
up in Richmond, VA and started playing the clarinet at the age of 11.
He attended Ithaca College and graduated in 2003 with a bachelor's
degree in music performance and education. Inspired by several
instrument repair courses at Ithaca, he decided to pursue the field
professionally and enrolled in the Band Instrument Repair Technology
program at Renton Technical College near Seattle, WA. After
graduating from the program in 2007, he returned to the east coast to
begin his career as a band instrument repair technician. Byron is
a member of NAPBIRT and regularly attends regional and national
conferences to further develop his repair skills. He lives in
Rochester with his wife Jen.
Jeremy Stringer
is a graduate of Nazareth College of Rochester where he received a Bachelors of Music degree and became certified to teach music Kindergarten-12th grade. Having a life long desire to become a musician, Jeremy was first taught to play the trumpet by Mr. Thomas in third grade. Along with learning how to play the trumpet from Mr. "T", Jeremy has also had the privilege of learning the instrument repair trade from him
during his summers off. In the summer of 2003, Jeremy worked at Badger State Instrument Repair in Elkhorn, WI in the
Dent and Soldering Departments.
A native of the Rochester area, Jeremy attended Eastridge High School in Irondequoit and participated in the Eastridge Lancer Marching Band for six years.
Jeremy now holds a position as High School Band Director in Williamson, NY
where he teaches his students to become life long learners and participants in
music. Jeremy is also a proud member of the Music Educators National Conference
(MENC).
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