I grew up in northwestern NJ and graduated from Hackettstown High School. I attended Fredonia as a music education major for a couple of years before leaving college to attend the Eastern School of Musical Instrument Repair in Union, NJ.

Upon graduating from Eastern, I was hired as a woodwind technician at a musical instrument rental and sales company. 25 years later, I'm still there - as the supervisor of the woodwind shop.

My speciality is small woodwinds (clarinets, flutes, piccolos and oboes). Not that I don't like saxophones, I just don't work on them at my day job as there is a dedicated saxophone shop (as well as a brass shop and a string shop). I own E.Y. Thorley Enterprises, a woodwinds only repair shop that I run out of our home.

I still play regularly with the Montclair Community Band in Montclair, NJ. My favorite instrument to play is the Eb soprano clarinet, which happens to be what I play in the Montclair band.

My other passion is woodworking, Victorian Fretwork to be exact, but that's a different story...