I’m Richard Hamer, and my goal is to get your instrument performing to its full capability, and to help you find the instrument or mouthpiece you are searching for.
I have been working as an instrument repairer since 2006, after discovering how satisfying and rewarding it can be. My musical background however, is as a working musician and teacher. I graduated from Leeds College of Music in 1981, and gained a Post Graduate teaching qualification in 1984.
My performing career has covered a wide variety of genres, from working in bands on the holiday camp and Mecca ballroom circuit, (when they existed!), to working with a huge variety of cabaret and pop artists, to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, countless theatre productions, TV and Radio broadcasts. In jazz, I’ve been fortunate to play, teach and record with many great names in the UK and abroad.
As an educator, I have taught for several education authorities, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, founded a successful Youth Jazz Orchestra, directed several others, taught jazz courses as far apart as Cardiff and Shanghai, and had original compositions published, and included on a major exam syllabus.
Although instrument repair now takes up a lot of my time, I still manage to practice regularly, and run a jazz quartet, an 8 piece latin band, play with the Capital City jazz Orchestra, and whatever gigs come my way.
I look after woodwind instruments for several local education authorities, as well as a wide range of private clients from student to professionals
I’m very excited to have been asked to become from 2020, one of the woodwind repair instructors at the courses run at Llangunllo in mid Wales.