If you know Miller Marketing, chances are you’ve met—or at least spoken to—Justin Miller. Though he’d rather be spending time talking about how to help improve your reedmaking, he sat down to answer a few questions about his life story and what led him to start Miller Marketing.
Enjoy!
How It All Started
Well, let’s start with the important stuff—like how I’m the only person I know of that got married not just while I was at Curtis, but actually at Curtis as our wedding venue.
I was working as a Manufacturer’s representative in the consumer electronics business selling audio equipment to HiFi dealers. Brands like Marantz, Sony, Dual—on behalf of a highly-respected firm based in the Philadelphia area. I was offered the opportunity to start my own business by one of the product lines our firm represented, and I took that opportunity to build a very large business with sales staff and a warehouse for distribution throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.
My teacher at Curtis, Sol Schoenbach, called me and said one of his students was working in Germany with a sound equipment manufacturer that was looking to distribute a unique microphone system designed for string instruments. I contacted them and set up a business relationship that took me into a different tier of customers—places like the Hollywood Bowl and the Barbara Streisand Orchestra. It was fun working with actual artists rather than business people focused on “how many boxes of this do you need today.”
Meeting His 1 of 1
While I was in school, I met a young lady (Barbara) who happened to be the roommate of the Curtis registrar. I asked her for directions and we walked together for some time. It turned out we lived in the same building! She invited me to a “spaghetti party”—which is exactly what it sounds like.
Apparently during the course of this encounter, Barbara asked her roommate, “Does Justin have a brother? He’s kinda cute.”
Our relationship bloomed from there—resulting in our being the only couple we know of to ever get married at Curtis. We had a minister, but the local church wouldn’t let us use him so we asked our friends at Curtis and they said yes. It helps to be the registrar’s roommate!
We had a 32 piece orchestra that included some incredible musicians who play around the world today. We’ve been married now for 52, going on 53 years. We went back for our 50th wedding anniversary and gave Curtis some photos for their records. We’ve always been proud to be a little-known piece of Curtis history. It all started with a walk, and we’ve been building a life together ever since.
A Chance Meeting
I went to the NAMM Show in Anaheim to work with my customer (Sennheiser) during the show. While walking around the show I saw a bassoon in the Leblanc booth. As a bassoonist, I naturally went to go take a look.
A very nice German man asked if I wanted to play his instrument, but I said I didn’t have any reeds. It was a beautiful French-polish instrument, and we chatted for a few minutes and I took his business card, then went on with my microphone business.
That man was Bernd Moosmann.
On the plane flight home to Pennsylvania, I couldn’t stop thinking about the encounter with Mr. Moosmann, or asking myself the question—why not sell bassoons? I really liked the musician-to-musician contact. When I arrived back home I thought about it further and decided to contact Moosmann to see if he could help me. This was early in 1993, and he said “let’s talk.”
I got on a plane to Germany and had a 3-day visit. After that, I returned to the US to sell Moosmann Bassoons—at that time, a virtually unknown bassoon brand.
I sold my microphone business to a key employee and launched Miller Marketing.
Building For the Future
I had lots of sales and marketing experience—but I knew nothing about selling bassoons! Bernd Moosmann saw the potential in having a bassoon player with sales experience as his key representative in the United States, and today we’ve been great friends and business partners for more than 30 years.
It hasn’t always been easy—building a new brand never is—but all of this was divinely inspired; none of it happened by chance. Today we run a father and son operation and we’re both trained to do everything involved in running the company, including ordering product, answering emails/phone calls, filling orders, packing orders, checking inventory, making tools, taking photos of product, servicing bassoons, going to shows, developing plans, doing accounting… It’s a full-time job!
Rapid-Fire AMA
What is your favorite thing about your job?
Explaining products to customers in person—I love meeting people at trade shows!
Who is your favorite composer—both overall and for double reeds?
Favorite Composers: Beethoven and Mahler
For Double Reeds: Mozart
What is your musical background?
All-State State Orchestra & Band – Bassoon, North Carolina
1967-1969 Governor’s School
1967-1969 2nd Bassoon Duke University Band & Orchestra
1969-1973 Curtis Institute of Music (Bachelor’s Degree)
What is your favorite bassoon excerpt?
Bolero
Who/what is your favorite non-classical artist?
Elvis Presley
What is your favorite KJI reed?
Caribbean Green — it’s the same reed I used at Curtis.
What’s something most people don’t know about you?
I was accepted at Duke University to study advanced physics.
What instrument do you play, personally?
I own an 11000 Series Heckel bassoon, but I primarily play the Moosmann prototype of the Model 150E.
How long have you and your wife been married?
Barbara and I were married on May 15, 1973, at the Curtis Institute of Music, with a 32-piece Curtis Orchestra, and Sol Schoenbach as best man. We’ve been together for over 50 years!
